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Opinion Forum
Turning Stone into Gold:
Some Reflections on My Research about
the 1854 Shōin-Perry Encounter
De-min TAO*

When Yoshikawa Kōjirō 吉川幸次郎 (1904–1980), a prominent scholar of
Kyoto University known for teaching Chinese literature in spoken Mandarin,
was writing a critical biography of the Sinologue Ogyū Sorai 荻生徂徠
(1666–1728), he commented that Sorai was a linguist when he was young, aliterary man in his middle ages, and a philosopher in his later years. After
three decades of research, I found the comment to be a great inspiration,
reminding me that I should now try to be a bit more philosophical so as torefine and sublimate my scholarship and share my experience with students inan memorable way. In this spirit, I developed the following four-line instruction set that I call “Shihai shibei” 史海拾貝 (Collecting shells from the sea of
history), based mainly on my research about the 1854 Shōin-Perry encounterat Yale, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), based in
Washington, D.C., and Tokyo. This instruction set incorporates several wellknown Chinese and Japanese proverbs:(1) 就著碎影拼月亮, 自圓其說。
(2) 大海撈針何處尋, 巧思引路。
(3) 兩個兔子輪番追, 有心插柳。
(4) 問題意識勤磨練, 點石成金。
The following is a brief translation:(1) Make your moon whole from partial fragments; justify your claims.
(2) ‌It is hard to fish a needle out of the ocean; use creative thinking to leadthe way.
(3) Chase two rabbits in turn; plant a willow with purpose.
(4) ‌Refine your awareness of the question itself; touch a stone and turn it intogold.
	  * Professor, Kansai University; Founding President of the Society.

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For the story I am going to tell today, I will change the sequence to (3), (2),(4), and (1).

1

Taking the Second Rabbit Seriously: Shōin’s Petitions kept at Yale

There is a Japanese proverb 二兎を追う者は一兎を得ず, meaning “One
who chases two rabbits at the same time catches neither.” But my experiencetells me that you should chase two rabbits in turn—the first rabbit being the
research topic planned at the outset, and the second rabbit being the interesting materials that you unexpectedly encounter when doing the actual
research—so as not to discount the accidental discoveries that you make inpursuing your original topic.
In a sense, my discovery of Shōin’s petitions at Yale was accidental. I
came to Yale in the spring of 2003 to find the original diary of Luo Sen 羅森(1821−1899), Chinese assistant to Samuel Wells Williams (1812–1884).1 As
you may know, kanbun (classical Chinese), the Latin of East Asia, was thelanguage of negotiation in the days of Japan’s opening, both for the U.
S.-Japan treaty and for Shōin’s attempted stowaway.2 Although by 1853
Williams had been in Hong Kong and Macau for 20 years and was familiar
with the Chinese language, as the first interpreter, he still needed Chinese
assistants to help him polish diplomatic documents and copy them into
elegant calligraphy. Luo was recruited shortly before Perry’s second visit in1854 and kept a diary during the encounters. He published his Riben riji 日本
1 The Asian Center of Kansai University and Sinology Center of Beijing Foreign Studies
University cohosted an international conference in Beijing in December 2012 tohonor the bicentennial of Samuel Wells William’s birth. The proceedings of theconference will be published by Hong Kong University Press.
2 De-min Tao, “Negotiating Language in the Opening of Japan: Luo Sen’s Journal of
Perry’s 1854 Expedition,” Japan Review, no. 17 (March 2005). Luo was quite
popular in Yokohama, Shimoda, and Hakodate in the Spring of 1854. In response to
overwhelming demand from Japanese officers and commoners, he inscribed his
extempore verse in elegant calligraphy on hundreds of blank paper fans. Four of
Luo’s fans survive in the Municipal Museum of Hakodate and the Local Museum ofMatsumae in Hokkaido. Williams told his wife in Macau that Luo “takes a lively
interest in all our operations and gets on admirably with the natives; he is, indeed,
the most learned Chinaman they have ever seen, and their delight in showing off to
him their attainments in Chinese is increased when he turns a graceful verse or two
for them upon a fan; of these he has written, I should think, more than half a thousand since coming to Japan, and nothing pleases him like being asked to do so” (F.
W. Williams, ed., The Life and Letters of Samuel Wells Williams, LL.D.: Missionary,
Diplomatist, Sinologue [1889], p. 219). See also Tao De-min 陶徳民, “Kurofune no
motarashita Kanton-jin senpū: Ra Shin no kyozō to jitsuzō” 黒船のもたらした広東人旋風：羅森の虚像と実像 (The Cantonese Whirlwind Brought by the Black Ships:
Luo Sen, Fiction and Fact), in Image and Identity: Rethinking Japanese Cultural
History, edited by Jeffrey Hanes and Hidetoshi Yamaji (2004).

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日記 in the earliest Chinese journal, the Xiaer guanzhen 遐邇貫珍 (Chinese
Serial), shortly after returning to Hong Kong, and its English translation,
Journal of a Visit to Japan by Williams, was included in the second volume
of Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seasand Japan: Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under theCommand of Commodore M. C. Perry, United States Navy, by Order of theGovernment of the United States, edited by Francis L. Hawks.
Through a close comparison, I found an important difference between thetwo published versions of the diary. Many Japanese then were wondering why
a Chinese man joined the American expedition to Japan. Luo had a long
written conversation 筆談 with Hirayama Kenjirō 平山謙二郎, a metsuke 目付(surveillance officer), in which Hirayama shared Confucian knowledge andcontemporary concerns with Luo. In this conversation, Luo made it clear that
although he had organized a militia group to fight against the British soldiersduring the Opium Wars of 1839 to 1842, his efforts were not rewarded afterwards by the Qing government.3 He was so angry about this that he left his
hometown in Nanhai county, Guangdong Province, to go to Hong Kong andserve as a Chinese teacher and secretary in the new British colony. But thisstory, which was included in Williams’s translation, was missing in Luo’s
Riben riji, and the reason for this was apparently that Luo would occasionallyvisit his hometown and relatives there, and was cautious about possible
trouble that the Qing government might give him if the Chinese version
included the truth, and so he decided to cut it out before submitting the diary
to the publisher of Xiaer guanzhen.
This discovery made me wonder if there were other differences between
the English and Chinese versions, and I tried to find Luo’s original handwritten diary or a copy in the S. W. Williams Family Papers at Yale.
Although I did not find what I was looking for, I did find Shōin’s kanbun
petitions, “Tōisho” 投夷書 (Letters to Foreigners), including the well-preparedfirst letter submitted to the American side seeking to stow away (accompanied by a sōrōbun 候文 note beginning with the famous sentence “We twowant to see the world”), and the second letter written in the Shimoda jail.4
3 In March 2016, Kansai University Press will publish a volume that includes
Hirayama’s collected works in Chinese (held by Hokkaido University Library), thewritten information he got from Luo, Manshin kiji 満清紀事 (held by Kansai
University Library), his 1854 diary kept during the investigation of Ezochi 蝦夷地(Hokkaido) and Sōya Strait 宗谷海峡, and a diary kept by two prison guards who
escorted Shōin from Shimoda jail to Edo in 1854 (both part of the materials on theaftermath of the Meiji Restoration, held by the Historiographical Institute of the
University of Tokyo). I will begin editing and annotating them in the coming
summer.
4 I have made a thorough textual examination of the two petitions in the following

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(See the appendix of this paper.) The first petition was discovered forty years
ago by Yamaguchi Eitetsu 山口栄鉄, a Japanese instructor at Yale, and thesecond one was discovered by me on my 2003 visit to Yale.5 The interesting
fact here is that although the petition was carefully pasted on the inside of theback cover of S. W. Williams’s journal to keep a record of the unusual incident, the importance of this document was unknown to his son, Yale
Professor of East Asian History Frederic Wells Williams, who did not include
it in A Journal of the Perry Expedition to Japan (1853–1854) (1889) or in his
father’s biography, The Life and Letters of Samuel Wells Williams, LL.D.:
Missionary, Diplomatist, Sinologue (1910).
According to my examination of their calligraphic and prose styles, thesōrōbun note was in Shōin’s own handwriting, whereas the two kanbun petitions were fair copies made by Luo Sen at Williams’s direction, and in thissense, my discovery at Yale was not completely accidental. The second petition was originally written on a wooden board when Shōin and his fellow
stowaway Kaneko were confined in the Shimoda jail in a small cage.6 Its
articles: “Shimoda mikkō zengo ni okeru Shōin no Seiyō ninshiki: Beikoku ni
nokoru ‘Tōisho’ o megutte” 下田密航前後における松陰の西洋認識：米国に残る「投夷書」をめぐって (Shōin’s Understanding of the West around the Time of His
Stowaway: The ‘Letters to Foreigners’ in the United States), Kan 環 13 (May 2003);“Shimoda goku ni okeru daini no ‘Tōisho’ ni tsuite: Shōin no kakugo ni taisuru Perīno kyōkan” 下田獄における第二の「投夷書」について：松陰の覚悟に対するペリーの
共感 (The Second ‘Letter to Foreigners’ from the Shimoda Jail: Perry’s Sympathy
toward Shōin’s Determination), Kan 環 14 (July 2003); “Ri-Mei jianjiao zhi chuyi
zhuang toudu gongan de xin jiedu: Jitian Songyin ‘Touyishu’ zai Yelu Daxue
danganguan faxian” 日美建交之初一樁偷渡公案的新解読：吉田松陰〈投夷書〉在耶魯大学檔案館発現 (A New Interpretation of the First Stowaway Case at the Dawn ofJapan-U.S. Relations: The Discovery of Yoshida Shōin’s “Letter to Foreigners” inthe Yale University Archives), Dongya Wenming Yanjiu Zhongxin tongxun (National
Taiwan University), no. 6 (January 2005).
5 An Okinawa-born leading scholar in the history of Ryūkyū’s foreign relations,
Professor Yamaguchi introduced the petition under the title “Nemutteita Shōin no
missho” 眠っていた松陰の密書 (Shōin’s Sleeping Secret Letter) (Rekishi to jinbutsu
1975, no. 10). Recently he supervised the publication of a complete reprint of the
3-volume Narrative.
6 The petition was considered “a remarkable specimen of philosophical resignation
under circumstances which would have tried the stoicism of Cato, [and] deserves a
record” (Hawkes, Narrative, 1: 422). From the comparison made with Cato Minor(95−46 BCE), the tragic hero who committed suicide in Utica, Africa, rather thanfalling alive into Caesar’s hands, it seems that the Americans were deeply affectedby Shōin’s “letter on the board” and deeply concerned about his fate. The size of thecage, as Williams measured it, “was about six feet long by three wide and four anda half high, quite large enough to sit and sleep in, and entered by crawling througha low door; it is probably just such a cage as McCoy and his fellows were at last
shut up in” (Journal 1: 181−182). Isaac McCoy (1784−1846) was a Baptist
missionary, surveyor and U.S. Indian agent, and the association by similarity made

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English translation by Williams was included in the first volume of the
Narrative, and there have been seven Japanese translations based on the
English without any knowledge of the kanbun original, from Tokutomi Sohō’s
1908 biography of Shōin to the 2002 Japanese translation of J. Willett
Spalding’s Japan Expedition: Japan and around the World). After discovering
the kanbun original, I found a critical mistake made by Williams that wasinherited by all the Japanese versions.

2

Fishing a Needle Out of the Ocean: The Logbook of Perry’s
Flagship at NARA

A Chinese proverb 大海撈針 compares the difficulty of a situation bycomparing it to fishing a needle out of the ocean. The mistranslation by
Williams was in the sentence “In public have we been seized and pinioned
and caged for many days.” Here the original word 面縛 (mianfu in Chineseand menbaku in Japanese) is short for 面縛輿櫬 mianfu yuchen, meaning “totie one’s hands at the back and cart along one’s coffin before the victor” andimplying “to submit.” Williams translated 面縛 as “in public have we been
seized,” as if Shōin and his fellow were caught during the daytime.
Shōin’s Kaikoroku 回顧録 (Memoirs), written in the Noyama jail of theHagi domain, made it clear, however, that after being sent ashore, Shōin and
Hirayama, unable to find the boat they used to access the flagship, whichcontained some incriminating evidence, decided to turn themselves in to thevillage head of Kakizaki and were brought to the Shimoda police box shortly
after the crack of dawn. The word 面縛 was used exactly in this sense, to turnoneself in.
But one problem still remained unresolved: When did Shōin actually climb
aboard Perry’s flagship, and how long did he remain on board? Shōinrecalled that it was around 4 a.m. (“七つ時”), whereas Williams, who waspresent at the interview with Shōin, noted “2 a.m.” in his journal. When I wastraveling to NARA in Washington, D.C., in the spring of 2009 to findWilliams’s original letter to the Secretary of State suggesting using thesurplus of the indemnity paid by the Qing government for the property lossof American citizens in China during the Arrow War to establish an
American-Chinese college in China, an idea occurred to me: Why don’t I use
this chance to take a look at the logbook of Perry’s flagship, the USS
Powhatan, to see if there are any relevant records in it?7 Fortunately, I wasby Williams here was apparently a criticism of the inhuman treatment of prisoners
in Japan then. On McCoy, see George A. Schultz, An Indian Canaan: Isaac McCoyand the Vision of an Indian State (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972).
7 Williams’s suggestion was aimed at training interpreters, diplomats, and businessmen
to foster American-Chinese relations, and it was approved by the State Department

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able to find Captain William J. McCluney’s brief note, as follows:
Remarks of This 25th Day of April, 1854
Commences at 2:45 two Japanese came on board by a small boat,
remained about 3/4 of an hour, on getting aboard their boat got drifted &they were sent ashore by the S’ [steamer’s] cutter by order of theCommo. [Commodore].8
Shōin’s attempt at stowaway was thus identified with a specific durationof time: forty-five minutes on board the flagship. His self-submission andasking for punishment can thus be reasonably explained as occurring in thissequence of time. Some may discount the importance of discoveries of thiskind. Isn’t this merely a trivial pursuit of Shōin’s time on board? However,imagine the huge difference in time systems between Japan and West then.
Thus, since Shōin had no way to make an appointment with the American
officers due to the difference, he even wrote in another sōrōbun note, “Pleasecome to rescue us when you see the fire we light as a sign at midnight
tomorrow.” Such drama gives one a better sense of the turbulence of thetimes when the West came into contact with the East. Salvaging an important
lost historical record conveys the feeling of real history to today’s digitized
generation and helps us relive some exciting events that happened in the past.
Line (2) thus acknowledges the difficulty that researchers may encounter
when trying to sift through a sea of information to find the most useful piecesof evidence, but at the same time, it gives hope that improving one’s
linguistic abilities, one’s ability to use sources, and one’s creative imagination
will help to break through this formidable barrier.

3

Turning Stone into Gold: Humanitarian Concerns Mattered in theAge of Gunboat Diplomacy

The Chinese proverb 點石成金 means “To touch a stone and turn it into
gold.” If we look back at the history of research in certain areas or fields, wefind that a major change in perspective can bring about a totally different
view of the same historic figure, incident, or time period.
In two articles I published in Hong Kong and Tokyo, in 2003 and 2009
and President Lincoln, but was denied by Congress.
8 Tao De-min 陶徳民, “Perī no kikan ni nobotta Shōin no ‘jikan’ ni semaru: Pouhatan-gō
no kōkai nisshi ni mita Shimoda mikkō kanren kiji ni tsuite” ペリーの旗艦に登った

松陰の「時間」に迫る：ポウハタン号の航海日誌に見た下田密航関連記事について(Closing in on Shōin’s Time on Board Perry’s Flagship: An Entry in the Logbook of
the Powhatan Related to the Shimoda Stowaway), Higashi Ajia bunka kōshō kenkyū(Institute for Cultural Interaction Studies, Kansai University), no. 3 (March 2010).

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65

respectively, marking the 150th anniversary of Perry’s first visit to Japan andthe opening of Yokohama as a treaty port, I tried to break with existing
nationalistic thinking and interpretations of the first U.S.-Japan encounter, as
revealed in the alleged white-flag 白旗 incident and the view of the petition asa ruse for attack. Supposedly, Perry, in anticipation of possible hostilities,
passed two white flags to the Japanese side for them to surrender with. He
thus, insultingly, sought to teach the Japanese to act in a civilized manner. In
the view of the petition as a ruse for attack 墨夷膺懲, Shōin’s alleged real
purpose in pretending to be a stowaway was to kill Perry and punish theAmericans. Shōin is here portrayed as a patriotic terrorist.9
But what I found, on the contrary, was a story that exemplified the factthat humanitarian concerns did matter in the age of imperialism and nationalism. The evidence for this view can be found in three interrelated documents.
• In the kanbun version of the first petition copied by Luo, I found a Confucian
term 仁厚愛物之意, meaning “kindness, generosity, and love of otherbeings,” which could be compared to the concepts of humanism and tolerance in modern Western thought. The term appeared twice, first in thesentence “We are fully assured of the kindness and liberality of your excellencies, and your regard for others,” and later in the sentence “If this mattershould become known, we should uselessly see ourselves pursued andbrought back for immediate execution without fail, and such a result would
greatly grieve the deep humanity and kindness you all bear towards
others.”• Shōin was then a twenty-five-year-old young man, and his petition had beenpolished by his mentor Sakuma Shōzan 佐久間象山 (1811–1864), a leading
scholar of Chinese and Dutch learning who strongly encouraged Shōin to
go abroad to study advanced Western military technology. It seemed thatthe appeal to the humanity of Perry and his team was both strategic andeffective. When Perry got to know the miserable situation of Shōin and his
companion in the cage, he sent his Flag Lieutenant Silas Bent and9 Tao De-min 陶德民, “Shijiu shiji zhongye Meiguo dui Riren quanwaijiao de qishi:
Xie zai Mei-Ri jianjiao 150 zhou nian zhi ji” 十九世紀中葉美國對日人權外交的啟
示：寫在美日建交150 周年之際 (Mid-Nineteenth-Century U.S. Human-Rights
Diplomacy towards Japan: On the 150th Anniversary of the Dawn of U.S.-Japan
Relations), Ershiyi shiji (Chinese University of Hong Kong), no. 82 (April 2004).
De-min Tao, “The Stowaway’s Dilemma: Yoshida Shōin’s Encounter with
Commodore Perry,” in Japan and Its Worlds: Marius B. Jansen and theInternationalization of Japanese Studies, edited by Martin Collcutt, Katō Mikio, andRonald Toby (Tokyo: International House Press, 2007).

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Williams the following morning, only to find that the two had just beentransferred to a jail in Edo. Out of serious concern over the possible
beheading that Shōin had warned him of in the first petition, Perry decided
to exert his influence. The Narrative describes his intervention as follows.
“The fate of the poor fellows was never ascertained, but it is hoped that theauthorities were more merciful than to have awarded the severest penalty,
which was the loss of their heads, for what appears to us only liberal anda highly commendable curiosity, however great the crime according to theeccentric and sanguinary code of Japanese law. It is a comfort to be able toadd, that the Commodore received an assurance from the authorities, uponquestioning them, that he need not apprehend a serious termination.”10 The
assurance was apparently a relief to Perry, who faced a difficult choice
between national interest and human rights.
• According to Bokui ōsetsu roku 墨夷應接録 (Record of Negotiations with
the Americans), compiled by the Bakufu’s diplomatic team, Perry proudly
boasted that respect for and rescuing the lives of people had been the
major concern and policy of the American government.11 He severely
criticized the Bakufu for its inhumane treatment of American shipwrecked
whalers and Japanese sailors who drifted abroad owing to storms. (In the
1840s and 1850s there were hundreds of American whalers operating inJapanese waters. Once a whaler was shipwrecked, the surviving castaways
would be brought by the current to southern Ezochi. From there they were
escorted by foot to Nagasaki, where they awaited ships of the Dutch East
India Company, arriving on the monsoon current, to transport them to
Batavia [present-day Jakarta]. There they would be picked up by American
rescue ships. Also, surprisingly, Japanese sailors who drifted abroad
because of storms were denied rights of repatriation to prevent any
possible Christian influence.12)
10 Hawkes, Narrative, 1: 423.
11 Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku Bunka Daigaku Shiryō Hensan-gakari 東京帝國大學文科大學史料編纂掛. Bakumatsu gaikoku kankei monjo 幕末外國關係文書 (Sources of Late
Tokugawa Foreign Diplomacy), appendix 1. In Dai Nihon komonjo 大日本古文書.
Tokyo: Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku, 1913.
12 During the eighteenth century, there developed a system of mutual aid between
Tokugawa Japan, Qing China, Yi Korea, and Vietnam, in which each country agreed
to help shipwrecked fishermen repair their boats, to provide them with food andother necessities, and to send them home. However, this arrangement did not apply
to Westerners. In 1837 Williams and several other American missionaries headed toJapan from Canton on the American merchant ship Morrison in an attempt to repatriate seven Japanese shipwrecked sailors. However, they were driven away bycannon fire, first at Uraga Bay, and later at Kagoshima Bay, in accordance with the
Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels 無二念打拂令 of 1825.

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When I was investigating these sources, I was surprised to find stones
that could be turned to gold, that is, important lines and critical facts, overlooked by scholars, that could be evaluated in the new light of humanitarianism. Line (4) thus recognizes the importance of refining one’s awareness ofthe question itself by approaching the object from different angles andperspectives.

4

Make Your Moon Whole by Making Sense of the Rays andShadows

To sum up, as the Chinese proverb 自圓其說 implies, the task of a
researcher is to discern a path from all the possible sources of informationand shape it into some sort of argument. This task is similar to piecing
together the fragmented light that shines through the leaves to re-create a fullmoon, much like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Line 1 thus points out our limited
capabilities in the face of the grandness of nature and the universe. Yet it also
fully recognizes the possibility that we can deepen our understanding of boththe external and internal worlds.
Many proverbs, taken literally, invite pessimism. But it is important tomaintain a positive attitude toward what is admittedly a difficult field. For
example, 二兎を追う者は一兎を得ず (One who chases two rabbits at the sametime catches neither) instills a negative lesson, but in line (3) I change thisnegative lesson into a positive suggestion: 兩個兔子輪番追 (Chase two rabbits
in turn). The line ends with 有心插柳 (Plant a willow with purpose). This
derives from the Chinese proverb 有意栽花，花不开；无心插柳，柳成蔭 (Awatched flower never blooms, but an untended willow thrives). Here too I
made a positive change to remind scholars of the importance of always being
attentive in their research, as the second rabbit they encounter might be adecisive clue that helps them develop their second or third areas of interest. A
scholar needs three or more areas of expertise to establish scholarly credentials and research style, as suggested by the Chinese proverb 三足鼎立 (The
Chinese cauldron stands on three legs).
Appendixes
The First Petition (translated by S. W. Williams)
Two scholars from Yedo, in Japan, present this letter for the inspection of the“high officers and those who manage affairs.” Our attainments are few andtrifling, as we ourselves are small and unimportant, so that we are abashed incoming before you; we are neither skilled in the use of arms, nor are we able
to discourse upon the rules of strategy and military discipline; in triflingpursuits and idle pastimes our years and months have slipped away. We have,68

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however, read in [Chinese] books, and learned a little by hearsay, what are
the customs and education in Europe and America, and we have been formany years desirous of going over the “five great continents,” but the laws of
our country in all maritime points are very strict; for foreigners to come into
the country, and for natives to go abroad, are both immutably forbidden. Our
wish to visit other regions has consequently only “gone to and fro in our own
breasts in continual agitation,” like one’s breathing being impeded or his
walking cramped. Happily, the arrival of so many of your ships in thesewaters, and stay for so many days, which has given us opportunity to make apleasing acquaintance and careful examination, so that we are fully assured of
the kindness and liberality of your excellencies, and your regard for others,
has also revived the thoughts of many years, and they are urgent for an exit.
This, then, is the time to carry the plan into execution, and we now secretly
send you this private request, that you will take us on board your ships as
they go out to sea; we can thus visit around in the five great continents, evenif we do in this, slight the prohibitions of our own country. Lest those whohave the management of affairs may feel some chagrin at this, in order toeffect our desire, we are willing to serve in any way we can on board of theships, and obey the orders given us. For doubtless it is, that when a lame mansees others walking he wishes to walk too; but how shall the pedestrian
gratify his desires when he sees another one riding? We have all our lives
been going hither to you, unable to get more than thirty degrees east andwest, or twenty-five degrees north and south; but now when we see how you
sail on the tempests and cleave the huge billows, going lightning speed thousands and myriads of miles, skirting along the five great continents, can it not
be likened to the lame finding a plan for walking, and the pedestrian seeing amode by which he can ride? If you who manage affairs will give our request
your consideration, we will retain the sense of the favor; but the prohibitionsof our country are still existent, and if this matter should become known weshould uselessly see ourselves pursued and brought back for immediate
execution without fail, and such a result would greatly grieve the deep
humanity and kindness you all bear towards others. If you are willing toaccede to this request, keep “wrapped in silence our error in making it” until
you are about to leave, in order to avoid all risk of such serious danger tolife; for when, bye-and-bye, we come back, our countrymen will never think
it worthwhile to investigate bygone doings. Although our words have only
loosely let our thoughts leak out, yet truly they are sincere; and if yourexcellencies are pleased to regard them kindly, do not doubt them nor oppose
our wishes. We together pay our respects in handing this in. April 11 [1854].
(Hawkes, Narrative, 1: 420.)

Turning Stone into Gold: My Research about the 1854 Shōin-Perry Encounter69

The sōrōbun note (translated by the author)
We two want to see the world. Please allow us to board your ship in secrecy.
Going to foreign countries, however, is strictly prohibited in Japan. We would
be in deep trouble if you tell the Japanese officers about this. If your admiral
were to consent to our intention, we hope that you will send a barge at
midnight tomorrow to the shore of Kakizaki village to meet us. April 19[1854]. Ichigi Kōda, Kwanouchi Manji
The Second Petition (translated by S. W. Williams)
When a hero fails in his purpose, his acts are then regarded as those of avillain and robber. In public have we been seized and pinioned and caged formany days. The village elders and head men treat us disdainfully, theiroppressions being grievous indeed. Therefore, looking up while yet we havenothing wherewith to reproach ourselves, it must now be seen whether a hero
will prove himself to be one indeed. Regarding the liberty of going throughthe sixty States [of Japan] as not enough for our desires, we wished to makethe circuit of the five great continents. This was our hearts’ wish for a longtime. Suddenly our plans are defeated, and we find ourselves in a half sizedhouse, where eating, resting, sitting, and sleeping are difficult; how can wefind our exit from this place? Weeping, we seem as fools; laughing, as
rogues. Alas! for us; silent we can only be. (Hawkes, Narrative, 1: 422ff.)

Illustrations(1) Yoshida Shōin in Shimoda

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Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 6 2015(2) ‌First Interpreter

S. W. Williams(3) Luo Sen(4) Hirayama Kenjirō(5) ‌A fan inscribed with friendly words including Confucian world view by Luo Sen and

S. W. Williams(6) ‌Luo Sen’s poem describes the powerful black ships and the beautiful landscape ofRyūkyū and Japan.

Turning Stone into Gold: My Research about the 1854 Shōin-Perry Encounter(7) Yoshida Shōin(8) Commodore M. C. Perry(9) Perry’s flagship, the USS Powhatan(10) Record of Shōin’s time onboard in the logbook of the Powhatan

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Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 6 2015(11) The First Petition(12) The sōrōbun note(13) The Second Petition

Note: The paper was given at “Treasures from Japan: An International Conference on
Pre-modern Books and Manuscripts in the Yale University Library,” on March 5–6,
2015, sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies, the Beinecke Rare Book &Manuscript Library, and the East Asian Library, in cooperation with theHistoriographical Institute (University of Tokyo) and the National Institutes for the
Humanities (Japan).
		    Illustrations (5) & (6)： Courtesy of Hakodate City Museum.