A SOLDIER WHO LOVED WILD BIRDS

THOMAS WRIGHT BLAKISTON was the first person to establish that animals in Hokkaido belong to the Northern Asian family and differ in appearance from those in Honshu. As a result of Blakiston's work, the narrow sea called the Tsugaru Straits, which divides Hokkaido from Honshu, became known as an important border in the distribution of animal species. The straits are internationally known in biology as the ‘Blakiston Line’

It was in 1861, at the age of twenty-eight, that this remarkable man first came to Hokkaido. A former soldier, he was then called Captain Thomas Wright Blakiston. Born of noble family in Lymington, Hampshire, England, he came into the world on 27 December, 1832. Brought up in a wealthy family, he was interested from early childhood in birds. In his youth he entered the Royal Military Academy and became a soldier. In 1854, when England fought against Russia, he went to the front in the Crimea as an artillery officer and was promoted to captain because of distinguished service.

After retiring from the army Blakiston went to Canada, joining the Pareeza expeditionary force which was engaged mostly in surveying. He also studied the wild birds he had been interested in since childhood, writing a notable essay on Canadian birds in Ibis, a world-famous ornithological magazine. From Canada he went to the East, investigating the upper banks of the Yangtze River in China, then under the Ching Dynasty. At the same time, he studied the Miao people, making the results of his study public through the Royal Geographical Society of England and receiving a reward from the society.

Soldier that he was, Blakiston was also an excellent scholar. But he came to Japan not as a scholar or soldier but as a businessman. He intended originally to operate a lumbering mill in Eastern Siberia.

RESIDENCE IN HAKODATE

Forthat purpose, he returned once again to England from China, obtained all the machines and tools necessary for lumbering, and sent them on board three ships around the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean, and to the East. With his wife, he himself made his way on land across Siberia. At that time, there was no Siberian railway and he had a very hard trip. At last, however, he managed to arrive at the mouth of the Amur River.