Charles Wirgman was a special correspondent and artist of the Illustrated London News. He came to Japan in 1861 and died in Yokohama in 1891.
In June, 1861, he traveled from Nagasaki to Edo with the British Minister Rutherford Alcock and some other British and Dutch diplomats.
They took the route from Osaka to Edo by way of Nara, since they were not allowed to go through Kyoto.
It is understood that hundred of Japanese people helped the party consisting of five Europeans and about twenty Japanese officials, carrying their baggage or driving horses from
station
to
station
, just like the procession of Daimyos.
About the articles on their journey which Wirgman contributed to ILN, two points had not been clarified. One was whether the party had visited Daibutsu, the great image of Budda in Nara, and the other was where they had put up at on the next day they had left Nara. (According to Wirgman the place name of the latter is Seranyi.)
The old diary of a town official of Nara tells us that the party did not visit Daibutsu though the program to visit there had been made. I considered the reason and concluded that it was due to their experience in Osaka on the day before they left there.
As for Seranyi, several documents were discovered in May this year at the house which used to be an official inn, Honjin as it was called, at Shimagahara near Ueno in Mie Prefecture. These documents say that British minister and Dutch consul stayed there on June 20. 1861. Seranyi proved to be Shimagahara. Why did Wirgman spell Shimagahara Seranyi? This is also the point of consideration of this essay.
The second part of this essay is about the articles Wirgman contributed in 1872 in Kyoto. He visited the Kyoto Exhibition and also the Japanese ballet that was held as an entertainment of the exhibition.
This exhibition was an important event since foreigners, who had not been allowed to ramble further than 25 miles from any open port, were permitted to visit under the special passport system. And 770 foreign people are said to have visited the event.
Wirgman also commented on the attitude of Japanese people at a dinner party to which he was invited.
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