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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
Affiliation:
Boğazici University, Istanbul

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
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1996

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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, 4346Google 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) 2829 (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) 1425Google 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, 575586Google 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.

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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.

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12 Deringil, Selim, ‘Osmanli Imparatorgulu'nda Gelenegin Icadi, “Muhayyel Cemaat”, ve Panislamizm’, Toplum ve Bilim, 54 Yaz–Güz, 1991, 4765 for PanislamismGoogle Scholar; Mütercimler, Ertuğrul faciasi, 151–2.

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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, 4647Google 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, 131134Google 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.

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23 Yamada, , Suioku roku, 11Google Scholar.

24 Komura, , Nihon isuramu shi, 146147, 152Google Scholar; Arik, , A century, 80Google Scholar; Matsutani, , Nihon to toruko, 4950 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.

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.

43 Yamada, , Toruko gakan, 1415, 21 for both ceremoniesGoogle Scholar.

44 Hobsbawm, Eric and Ranger, Terrance (ed.), The invention of tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983) 114, 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, 329 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.

54 ibid., 19.