Introducing Watanabe Kanjuro 渡邊勘十郎

The Report that got me thinking...

The initial response to the debut of this blog has encouraged me to get cracking on presenting some of the material. I don’t intend the posts will be simply screeds of translated material, though that is a key purpose. Rather, I want to try and convey something of the life and times of Australians and Japanese people in the late 19^th century, particularly around the 1890s, as both countries set out to establish an international identity.

My main proposition here is that there was enough going on in both countries at the time to draw some interesting parallels in understanding the emergent political culture. Today’s entry is an introduction to the Japanese report that got me thinking about this possibility.

Material, and especially commentary, on this blog is to be considered a work in progress. It will be updated as new information comes to hand (for example when I make research trips to Japan).

Watanabe was commissioned by the then Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu (陸奥 宗光 unusual reading of the family name, yes) to undertake an excursion in Australia to report on what he saw as well as the circumstances of the growing Japanese migrant population there, largely centred on the pearling industry in Northern Queensland. His report is some 297 pages long and includes several reprinted lithographs in the back, taken from photos we now know to be in the possession of the National Library of Australia.

The region now known as Wakayama Prefecture will become a significant part of our story as it unfolds. Mutsu was from the area, as was Watanabe. Another significant player I will introduce shortly, Satoh Torajiro (佐藤虎次郎) also spent some time there. Wakayama today plays an important part in the whaling industry in Japan, stretching back to the 19^th century. Hattori Toru (服部徹) I learned recently wrote a lengthy piece on relations with the ‘southern oceans’ (a common reference to Australia) as well as whaling in Wakayama in 1888. These are all interesting, currently coincidental, threads that tell a story I hope to weave together.

Let’s get going then. Here’s the contents and introduction to Watanabe’s report back to the foreign minister.

渡邊勘十郎　「濠洲探検報告書」明治27年　(1894)　297pp.

The report has three main sections: descriptions of Australia, a section about Queensland and a section about the Northern Territory. He also includes an introductory section which we will look at here.

There is a level of formality in addressing the Foreign Minister, while at the same time, Watanabe is having a bit of a 19^th century whinge about expectations and actual costs, what was expected to be achieved and what was not. It seems, no-one realised just how big Australia was. So what was the plan? What was he expected to learn about Australia, that he could take back to the Foreign Minister.

The red line marks part of Watanabe's trip.
From his report, in the National Library of Australia Asian collection. 

Watanabe was expected to consider: the overall topography and climate, the history, the politics, education, religion and society, the conditions of the indigenous people and factors in place for foreigners. Of interest was the need to consider the history of white settlement and the ‘protection’ for migrants. There was general transport conditions along with protections for maritime companies. The economies of the commerce, industrial agricultural and mining industries were to be examined as well as relations between ‘capitalists and labourers’. International relations were also on the board including Australia’s relationship with Britain, Indo-China, Canada and America and the South Seas countries (all these countries were within Japan’s orbit of interest in this era). Watanabe also had to review ‘feelings’ towards Japanese people as well as the situation for Chinese people (already sensitive to the emerging White Australia policy). The list continues of a comprehensive intended analysis.

He provides his itinerary next: Leaving Tokyo for Kobe on 16 July 1893 he travelled by ship to Hong Kong and on to ‘Port Darwin’ in the ‘Northern Territory’ where he arrived in August and set off to look around the area on 1 September. On 17 September he boarded another ship at ‘Port Darwin’ and set out for ‘Thursday’ Island where he observed the fishing industry and economy of the ‘Torres Strait’ Islands. He looked at the ‘Gulf of Carpentaria’ region on 5 October and on 16 October, returned to Thursday Island and on the 18^th, and set out to ‘Cooktown’ on 31 October arriving on 2 November. After looking around ‘Laura’ 4 November he headed south to ‘Cairns’, ‘Hambledon’ and ‘Crandy’. On 9 November he found himself in the vicinity of the Johnstone River before heading to ‘Townsville’ on 19 November and then onto ‘Charters Tower’, ‘Felden’ and back to Townsville. He went to ‘Mackay’ and the ‘Malini’ and ‘Eaton’ sugar fields and on 28 November ended up in Rockhampton. On 1 December, he arrived in Brisbane and then travelled, by steam train, to Sydney, leaving on 6 December. He departed Sydney on 11 December for Melbourne, looked around and returned to Sydney on 14 December. On 16 December he departed Sydney for Hong Kong by ship and arrived back in Kobe 15 January 1894, ‘from leaving Tokyo to arriving back in Tokyo a total of 175 days, and 16,600 nautical miles’. Quite a trip.

The remainder of his preface reiterates some of the issues he had in trying to fulfil the objectives of the trip, the limitations he unexpectedly encountered and the things that remain to be done. One of the bright moments in this preface is the pleasure he expressed in being able to capture some of the moments of his travels on a most convenient ‘photo machine’, an early camera, the results of which we do see reprinted in this report. This was actually quite critical in piecing together a bit of a puzzle in Watanabe’s work, but more on that in another instalment.

So taking out about 60 days for ocean travel, in just about three months, Watanabe Kanjuro set about documenting and recording migrant and labour issues in Northern Queensland in 1893, in the wake of the formation of the antecedents to the modern Australian Labor Party (1891 in Barcaldine in Queensland). It was an interesting and challenging time for all, not least a Japanese Meiji adventurer, travelling in Queensland ‘on the cheap’ but observing an intriguing time.

Next instalment: What sort of ‘history’ of Australia did Watanabe record?

*Note: a number of the towns identified by Watanabe are simply transliterated here from the katakana renderings by Watanabe. Some may not correspond to present day names.