Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T03:07:53.418Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A fin de siècle Japanese romantic in Istanbul: the life of Yamada Torajirō and his Toruko gakan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Selçuk Esenbel
Selçuk Esenbel
Affiliation:
Boğazici University, Istanbul
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The modern Japanese tourist visiting the Topkapi Sarai may well be struck by a display of sixteenth-century samurai armour and helmet held there. It was presented, along with a sword, to the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II in 1892 by Yamada Torajirō (1866–1957), an important pioneer in the history of Turkish-Japanese relations and the subject of this paper. Yamada, who was to remain in the imperial capital for almost twenty years, was witness to the history of the Hamidian era of conservative modernism under the despotic regime of the so-called ‘Red Sultan’, and the subsequent dramatic transition to constitutionalism that came with the Young Turk revolution of 1908. He was one of only two Japanese resident in the city (possibly in the whole empire) in this period. The other was Nakamura Ejirō, owner of the first Japanese shop in Istanbul, and Yamada's friend and partner.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , June 1996 , pp. 237 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 I am grateful to Selim Deringil, Daniel Goffman, Caroline Finkel, and Edhem Eldem for their contributions during the preparation of this article. As a historian of modern Japanese history, I found their comments as Ottoman historians invaluable.

Sources drawn on for the section on Japanese-Turkish relations in this paper include: Fujio, Komura, Nihon isuramu shi (Tokyo: Nihon isuramu yūkō renmei, 1988) 138, 150 on giftsGoogle Scholar; Hironao, Matsutani, Nihon to toruko: nihon toruko kankei shi (Tokyo: Chūō chōsakai, 1986) for the Yamada biography, 43–46Google Scholar; Matsutani, Hironao, Japonya'nin Diş Politikasi ve Türkiye (Istanbul: Bağlam, 1995) for a recent Turkish version by the same authorGoogle Scholar. The work has a convenient summary of Turkish-Japanese relations from the Meiji period to the present from a Japanese diplomat's perspective; Ank, Ümit, A century of Turkish-Japanese relations: towards a special partnership (Istanbul: Turkish-Japanese Business Council, 1989) 28–29 (to be used with caution)Google Scholar; see the Japanese translation of Arik's work which has correct citations of Japanese sources, transl. by Masumi, Muramatsu and Hironao, Matsutani, Toruko to nihon (Tokyo: Simul Press, Inc. [Seimuru shuppankai], 1989) 14–25Google Scholar; Tadahisa, Takahashi, ‘Türk Japon münasebetlerine kisa bir bakiş’, Türk Dünyasi Araştirmalari Vakfi Dergisi, 18 Cilt (June) 1982Google Scholar; The most valuable source on Turko-Japanese relations is the prewar study of Chishū, Naitō, Nitto kōshō shi (Tokyo: Izumi shōin ban, 1931)Google Scholar. The author who was an important Japanese diplomat in Turkey during the early Republican years during the 1920s, was a pioneer of Turkish studies in Japan. See also his article, ‘Toruko shisetsu Osman pashya raichō no shimei’, Shigaku, 9/4, 1930, 575–586Google Scholar; Torajirō, Yamada, Toruko gakan: suioku roku (Tokyo: Hakubunkan, 1911)Google Scholar. The latter is the main work by Yamada discussed in this paper. The title Toruko gakan means a pictorial look at Turkey. The book has an appendix entitled ‘suioku roku’ (‘record of thoughts’) which includes an account of the beginnings of Turko-Japanese relations. The main text and the appendix will be cited separately as the pages are also numbered independently.

2 Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 138, 150Google Scholar; Matsutani, , Nihon to toruko, 45–46Google Scholar.

3 Gökyay, Orhan Saik, Katip Celebi, Hayati, Kişiliği ve Eserlerinden Seçmeler (Ankara: Türkiye Iş Bankasi Kültür Yayinlan, n.d., 182–183Google Scholar; Morishima Chūryō, ‘Bankoku shinwa’, in Tadashige, Ono, Komozatsuwa (Tokyo: Sōrinsha, 1943) 205–208Google Scholar.

4 The present paper's main concern is not an analysis of the Westernization experiences of Japan and Turkey. However, it should be noted that Westernization policies were a continuous influence on the cultural outlook of both societies during the nineteenth century. There were, of course, similarities and differences in their assimilation of the Western cultural forms, but the overall process of incorporating Western cultural perspectives seems also to have contributed to their perception of each other during the modern era. The role of Western culture as a conduit in the formation of mutual impressions or images within the non-Western world is not usually stressed in multicultural studies.

For more detail on Westernization in Japan and Turkey see, Ward, Robert E., and Rustow, Dankwart A., Political modernization in Japan and Turkey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964), 461CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zürcher, Erik, Turkey: a modern history (London: I. B. Tauris and Co. Ltd., 1993); 58–69Google Scholar; Gluck, Carol, Japan's modern myths: ideology in the late Meiji period (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985) 20–21, 42–44, 70, 113, 119Google Scholar; Shivery, Donald H. (ed.), Tradition and modernization in Japanese culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971)Google Scholar.

5 Chishū, Naitō, Nitto kōshō shi, 15–16Google Scholar. The first Japanese visitor to the Ottoman empire was Fukuchi Genichirō who was instructed by the mission of Prince Iwakura Tomomi to the West to study the Ottoman conditions of the capitulationist treaties with the Great Powers. The Iwakura mission hoped to achieve revision of the ‘unequal treaties’ signed between the Western powers and the last Tokugawa Shoguns in 1858.

6 Pyle, Kenneth B., The new generation in Meiji Japan: problems of cultural identity, 1885–1895 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969)Google Scholar; see pp. 6–23 for the new generation.

7 For the Asianist mood of Japanism see Gluck, , Japan's modern myths, 20–21, 38–9, 114Google Scholar; Pyle, , The new generation, 163–187, 198Google Scholar.

8 Naito, Nitto kōshō shi, 15 on British encouragement of Turko-Japanese relations; Zürcher, Turkey, 78–80 for the Ottoman defeat in the war with Russian in 1878; 85–8 for the international problems due to nationalism and ethnic conflict in the empire.

9 Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 131–134 for YamadaGoogle Scholar.

10 For early contacts and the Ertuğrul disaster see, Komatsu, Kaori, Ertuğrul faciasi: bir dostluğun doğuşu (Ankara: Turhan Kitabevi Yayinlan, 1992)Google Scholar: Mütercimler, Erol, Ertuğrul faciasi ve 21 yüzyila Doğru Türk-Japon ilişkisi (Istanbul: Anahtar Kitaplar, 1993)Google Scholar; Türk-Nippon dostluğunun sonrasiz[sic] hatirasi Ertuğrul/Nitto shinkō eikyū no kinen: toruko koku gunkan erutogururu go (Tokyo: Tokyo Büyük Elçiliği, 1937). A very detailed official account is given in the special 1937 volume published in commemoration of the ceremonies which were held on the site of the newly-constructed memorial. It includes Turkish and Japanese accounts of the event and a great number of photographs.

11 Komatsu, , Ertuğrul faciasi, 1–16 for a summary of the eventGoogle Scholar.

12 Deringil, Selim, ‘Osmanli Imparatorgulu'nda Gelenegin Icadi, “Muhayyel Cemaat”, ve Panislamizm’, Toplum ve Bilim, 54 Yaz–Güz, 1991, 47–65 for PanislamismGoogle Scholar; Mütercimler, Ertuğrul faciasi, 151–2.

13 Matsutani, , Nihon to toruko, 44Google Scholar; Yamada, , Suioku roku, 1–5 for the account of the disasterGoogle Scholar.

14 Yamada, , Suioku roku, 6–7Google Scholar.

15 Yamada, , Suioku roku, 4–5, 7Google Scholar.

16 Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 143Google Scholar; Annuaire Oriental, Commerce, Industrie, administration, magistrature de l'Orient (Istanbul: Annuaire Oriental Ltd., 1914) 606 (my thanks to Edhem Eldem for this source).

17 Matsutani, , Nihon to toruko, 46–47Google Scholar; Yamada, , Suioku roku, 7Google Scholar.

18 Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 131Google Scholar; Blanche, Lesley, Pierre Loti: the legendary romantic (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983)Google Scholar for the romantic career of Loti and his photographs in oriental garb.

19 Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 131–134Google Scholar; Yamada, , Suioku roku, 12Google Scholar; Matsutani, , Nihon to toruko, 48Google Scholar.

20 Yamada, , Suioku roku, 16Google Scholar; Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 146Google Scholar.

21 Yamada, , Suioku roku, 12Google Scholar; Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 146Google Scholar; Wilson, H. W., Japan's fight for freedom (London: Amalgamated Press, Ltd., 1905) 3 volsGoogle Scholar.

22 Arik, , A century of Turkish-Japanese relations, 46–55Google Scholar.

23 Yamada, , Suioku roku, 11Google Scholar.

24 Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 146–147, 152Google Scholar; Arik, , A century, 80Google Scholar; Matsutani, , Nihon to toruko, 49–50 for Yamada's later yearsGoogle Scholar.

25 Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 152Google Scholar.

26 I am grateful to Selim Deringil for documentary information on the negotiations concerning the diplomatic and trade treaty between Japan and the Ottoman Porte. See, Başbakanlik Arşivi, Yildiz Mütenewi Maruzat, 198/122, Daire-i Hariciye no. 436, On the protection of Yamada.

27 For a general treatment of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, see, Jansen, Marius B., Japan and China: from war to peace, 1894–1972 (Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing Company, 1975) 84, 197, 206, 214Google Scholar.

28 BBA, Yildiz, Mtv, 198/122.

29 ibid.

30 Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 138, 150Google Scholar.

31 Yamada, , Toruko gakan, 1Google Scholar; the author's explanation of the text of the book.

32 Yamada, Toruko gakan, Sakatani's unpaginated introduction at the front.

33 Yamada, Toruko gakan; poems at the end of the book, unpaginated.

34 Yamada, Toruko gakan, Sakatani introduction.

35 Mansel, Philip, Sultans in splendor: the last years of the Ottoman world (London: Andre Deutsch Ltd., 1988)Google Scholar.

36 Yamada, , Toruko gakan, 16Google Scholar.

37 ibid., 32–37.

38 ibid., 60.

39 ibid., 22.

40 ibid., 59.

41 ibid., 9–10.

42 ibid.

43 Yamada, , Toruko gakan, 14–15, 21 for both ceremoniesGoogle Scholar.

44 Hobsbawm, Eric and Ranger, Terrance (ed.), The invention of tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983) 1–14, 102–62, 253–307Google Scholar for state ceremonies as the invention of neotraditions by the great powers in the nineteenth century to foster a loyal citizenry; see also, Deringil, Selim, ‘The invention of tradition as public image in the late Ottoman empire, 1808–1908’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 35/1, 1993, 3–29 for a case study of the Ottoman experienceCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45 Yamada, , Toruko gakan, 15Google Scholar.

46 ibid., 14–15.

47 Gluck, , Japan's modern myths, 45, 326Google Scholar for tenno heika banzai (‘Long live the Emperor!’); Deringil, ‘Invention of tradition’, 9–10, 18, 28 for European style ceremonies and Padişahim çok yaşa (‘Long live the Sultan!’).

48 Yamada, , Toruko gakan, 15Google Scholar.

49 ibid., 21.

50 ibid.

51 ibid.

52 ibid.

53 ibid.

54 ibid., 19.