page_title: Rutherford Alcock
section_title: Service in Japan (1858–64)
hierarchical_section_title: Rutherford Alcock / Service in Japan (1858–64)
caption_attribution_description: Attack Of The British Legation in Tozenji, Edo, July 5, 1861. Drawing by Charles Wirgman, photographed by Felice Beato.
context_page_description: Sir John Rutherford Alcock, KCB was the first British diplomatic representative to live in Japan.
context_section_description: In 1858, he was appointed Consul-General in Japan.
  Alcock opened the second British legation in Japan within the grounds of Tōzen-ji in Takanawa, Edo (now Tokyo), the first being at Hiogo (Kobe), under Sir Harry Parkes and the vice-consul Frank Gerard Myberg (also known as Francis Gerard Mijburg and Frans Gerard Mijberg, died 18 January 1868 buried at Kobe).  He saw
  "peace, plenty, apparent content, and a country more perfectly cultivated and kept, with more ornamental timber everywhere, than can be matched even in England", Sir Rutherford Alcock, 1860.
  In those days, foreign residents in Japan faced some danger, with noticeable Japanese hostility to foreigners (sonnō jōi). In 1860, Alcock's native interpreter was murdered at the gate of the legation, and in the following year the legation was stormed by a group of ronin from the fiefdom of Mito-han, whose attack was repulsed by Alcock and his staff.
  In September 1860 he became the first non-Japanese to climb Mount Fuji.
caption: Attack on the British legation in Tōzen-ji on 5 July 1861.
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