The Chōshū Five leave Japan secretly to…
1863 CE
Members of the Chōshū han of western Japan who travel to England in 1863 to study at University College London, the five students are the first of many successive groups of Japanese students who will travel overseas in the late Bakumatsu and early Meiji eras.
All five students will later rise to prominent positions in Japanese political and civil life.
The Chōshū han, based what is now known as Yamaguchi Prefecture, is eager to acquire better knowledge of the western nations and gain access to military technology in order to strengthen the domain in its struggle to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.
The decision by Chōshū han elders to sponsor five promising students to study overseas comes in the middle of growing domestic political tensions and in the wake of reports from the First Japanese Embassy to Europe that had returned in January 1863.
At the time of the students departure it us still illegal to leave Japan and travel overseas due to the shogunate's maritime seclusion policy (sakoku or, as it is known at this time, kaikin).
This policy will finally be abolished in 1866.
Images
Clockwise from top left: Endō Kinsuke, Nomura Yakichi, Itō Shunsuke, Yamao Yōzō, and Inoue Monta, photographed in 1863
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