Shimazu Nariakira - Love of Education and Western Culture

Love of Education and Western Culture

Nariakira was considered one of the wisest daimyō of his time, thanks to his love of education. In order to better understand this point, his background and education must be considered.

In 1812, at age three, Nariakira was designated the heir to the Satsuma lordship by his father. As with any daimyō’s heir, Nariakira was prepared for his future role, by receiving a well-rounded education in the martial and scholarly arts. As stated above, Nariakira shared his grandfather Shigehide’s fascination with Western culture and learning. The young Nariakira was fascinated by his grandfather’s collection of western items, which included clocks, musical instruments, telescopes, microscopes, and weapons. In the course of his education, he was also taught how to read and write Roman letters, and would later use Roman letters to write Japanese words as a personal form of code. Shigehide also introduced Nariakira to Philipp Franz von Siebold, a German physician serving as the director of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie)in Nagasaki, making him one of the few Japanese to have actually met a Westerner.

After he became daimyō of Satsuma, Nariakira had Minayoshi Hotoku, a Satsuma physician, to build the Iroha-maru, one of the first Western-style ships built in Japan. It was based on Minayoshi’s 6-foot-long (1.8 m), 3-foot-wide (0.91 m) model. Nariakira then built a shipyard for Western-style shipbuilding at Sakurajima. He carried his love of Western culture into the military of Satsuma where he implemented Western-style cavalry and demanded annual military field maneuvers. However, without the Satsuma budget that had been so carefully restored by his enemy Zusho, none of this would have been possible.

He also began enacting educational changes in Satsuma geared at bringing in Western science and technology. Nariakira established the Rangaku Koshujo, a school for the study of the Dutch language and Western culture. He would frequently visit schools and ask students to explain the meaning of the Confucian texts, to ensure that their Western learning did not corrupt their sense of nationalism. So strong was Nariakira’s desire to raise well-educated youths that he set aside four koku annually to feed starving scholars, essentially a form of financial aid or scholarship. His goal in promoting education in Satsuma was to make sure the youths of Satsuma were “taught to master themselves, rule their homes wisely, preserve national peace, and trust the universal power.”

In 1848, Shimazu obtained the first daguerreotype camera ever imported into Japan, and ordered his retainers to study it and produce working photographs. Due to the limitations of the lens used and the lack of formal training, it took many years for a quality photograph to be created, but on September 17, 1857, a portrait of Shimazu in formal attire was produced. This photograph became an object of worship in the Terukuni Shrine (照国神社, Terukuni jinja?) (also referred to as Shōkoku Shrine) after Shimazu's death, but it later became missing. Lost for a century, the daguerreotype was discovered in a warehouse in 1975 and was later determined to be the oldest daguerreotype in existence that was created by a Japanese photographer. For this reason, it was designated an Important Cultural Property by the government of Japan in 1999, the first photograph ever given this honor.