Lecture 2001-03-01 (special lecture)
This Most Strange of Strange Places: The diaries of Jane, Lady Franklin, an intrepid traveller who came to Japan in 1862

Dott. Maria Pia Casarini

A special meeting was arranged for March 1st to give an opportunity to hear from Dott. Maria Pia Casarini Wadhams, who had been introduced to us by H.I.H. Princess Takamado; the meeting was graced by the presence of both Their Highnesses. The Princess had made the acquaintance of Mrs. Wadhams through her husband, Dr. Peter Wadhams, Reader in Polar Studies at Cambridge University, whom she had consulted when writing her book "Lulie the Iceberg". Before introducing the speaker, Dr. Berendt called upon Prince Takamado to say a few words about the exhibition of his photographs currently being shown at Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi to help raise money for WWF Japan. His Highness had modestly given to this exhibition of over 100 pictures taken in 17 countries the title "The Magnificent Earth captured by the Camera of Prince Takamado".

Mrs Wadhams spoke on the subject "The Most Strange of Strange Places: The Diaries of Jane, Lady Franklin, an Intrepid Traveller who Came to Japan in 1862", illustrating her talk with slides and the use of an overhead projector. Lady Franklin, who was born Jane Griffin in 1791, is mainly known in relation to her husband, the British naval officer Sir John Franklin, who lost his life trying to discover the Northwest Passage. But this "intrepid traveller" was very much a personality in her own right. The first journey she made was a continental tour of Europe, where she travelled extensively in France, Switzerland and Italy between 1814 and 1816. She was still travelling at the age of 78, when she voyaged right up the western coast of the Americas, before dying in 1875 in her 84th year. Already in 1809 she had developed the habit of keeping very detailed diaries, thanks to which we can learn not only about her activities but also about her intelligent and independent personality.

Following her first tour, she was travelling around Britain or continental Europe nearly every year, and in the course of her social life met Captain John Franklin, who had married a friend of hers. Unfortunately, while Franklin was on an expedition following the Mackenzie River in northwestern Canada and exploring the neighbouring coastline, his wife died, leaving a daughter Eleanor. On his return in 1827 he renewed acquaintance with Jane, and they were married the following year. In 1830 he was stationed in the Mediterranean, and this gave her the opportunity to travel to more exotic places, such as Egypt (where she sailed up the Nile in a ship captained by Perry, who as Commodore was later to open up Japan), the Holy Land, and the principal cities between there and Athens (she even climbed up Mt. Olympus alone). In 1833 she rejoined her husband in Malta, and when he returned to England she made Athens her base for further trips, before returning to England in 1834.

Sir John Franklin's next appointment was as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, later renamed Tasmania at her suggestion. Tasmania was established as a penal colony, and her years there gave her the opportunity not only to travel but to further causes for the improvement of social conditions. Unfortunately intrigues led to Sir John's removal from office in 1843. The opportunity to rehabilitate himself came when he was given the command of a Royal Navy expedition to complete the discovery of the Northwest Passage. They left in May 1845, and were last seen in Greenland in July. When there was still no news of them in 1847, by which time they should have returned, Lady Franklin began to initiate search expeditions, first enlisting the help of others, and finally financing four expeditions of her own, in two of which she herself participated. Unfortunately these expeditions all went to the wrong places. But finally, in 1854, Dr. John Rae of the Hudson's Bay Company reported that some Eskimos had seen white men on the shores of King William Island, "falling as they walked". Lady Franklin now sent a final expedition in 1857, to try and recover at least the written records of her husband's expedition and also to establish her husband as the discoverer of the Northwest Passage. A record of the expedition was in fact found, showing that Franklin had died on June 11th, 1847.

Having achieved her object, Lady Franklin was now free to resume her passion for travel. She now had a travelling companion in the person of Franklin's niece, Sophia Cracroft, who had been with her since their time in Tasmania. By the spring of 1861, after extensive tours of the Americas, they tired of San Francisco and decided at short notice to go to the Sandwich Islands, where they were guests of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, and proceeded from there on a 90-day crossing to Japan, before returning home via China, Singapore and India. They travelled five more times during the 1860s, on one occasion returning from India via the Suez Canal before it was officially opened.

Mrs. Wadhams now turned to the diaries, from which she showed edited excerpts by means of the OHP. For the purpose of the lecture she had combined the diaries of the two ladies, as Sophy's diary is the more complete and accurate. They arrived at Yokohama on February 23rd aboard the American ship Carrington, at a time when an incident in Boston might have led to hostilities between Britain and the United States, and news of the peaceful solution of the problem had not yet reached Japan. As they ran along the coast they had a magnificent view of "Fusi-yama" , and noted the high pointed prows of the Japanese boats; they were also hailed with cries of "Ohio". On arrival they were made the guests of Mr. Keswick, the agent of Jardine and Matheson, who had a large house and an English-speaking Chinese butler. They were invited to dinner with the Minister, Rutherford Alcock, who has brought in a guard of Lancers following an attack on the British Legation by a band of r冢in the previous year. Like all other merchants, Keswick was living at Yokohama, as this was a better port than Kanagawa, which had been named as the treaty port. The diary records that all the Ministers of foreign countries were now residing in Yokohama, with the exception of the American Minister, Townsend Harris, who remained in Edo.

Alcock sent two "Norimons" to bring them to his place; these were specially lengthened from the regular Japanese kago, and the party was accompanied by twelve attendants. Mr. Alcock was described as "a most gentlemanlike and evidently very clever man". One member of the dinner party was the 15-year-old Alexander Siebold, who had been engaged as an interpreter. Alexander was the son of the naturalist Philipp Franz Siebold, whom they were to meet later in Nagasaki. (In these early days misunderstandings often arose, as everything had to be doubly translated via the medium of Dutch, so that a good interpreter was invaluable.) Alcock invited them to go with him to Edo a few days later, but said there was a complete rupture of relations between him and Harris arising from the slaying of the latter's interpreter Henry Heusken. Alcock like the other Ministers, considered that official reparations should be demanded, and in consequence they had all moved from Edo to Yokohama; but Harris was of the opposite view. Heusken had been cut down because he persisted in going out at night without a guard in spite of the government's repeated warnings.

The ladies seem to have engaged in a lot of shopping during their visit, and gained some knowledge of how to distinguish between cheap lacquer meant for ignorant foreigners and genuine old lacquer. Some of the old lacquer commanded enormous prices, 1,000 "itzibous" (ichibukin, a quarter of a ry・ or koban) for one pair of boxes, and 800 for another. On March 1st they made an expedition to Kamakura, Sophy and the men riding on horseback. They were very much struck by the cleanliness everywhere, and also by the lack of farm animals. The temples they visited would have been much as they are today. They found the serenely beautiful face of the Daibutsu "most impressive in its grandeur and repose". They went inside the Daibutsu, and Sophy said it reminded her of a Roman Catholic chapel by reason of the gilt figures with haloes around their heads. Here Mr. Keswick was warmly greeted by two women, evidently married as was seen by their blackened teeth and shaven eyebrows. The account ends with the comment that the people showed nothing but good nature, mingled with astonishment. This was hardly surprising, considering that Sophy was on horseback! The following day they experienced their first earthquake, "a slight shock, but quite enough to satisfy me". And the next day they met Dr. Hepburn, of romanization fame.

On March 4th they embarked on their "little voyage to Yedo". They headed for the British Legation at the Tozenji in Shinagawa ("which is to Yedo as Hampstead is to London"!). (Here Mrs. Wadhams skipped to March 7th for lack of time.) They went for their first ride in Edo, accompanied by "yaconins", grooms and Lancers, a party of fifty in all. Once more they excited the curiosity of the local population, who ran out of the shops to look at them. They proceeded to the official quarter where the "Daimios" resided with their numerous retainers. This area Sophy described as the Belgravia of Japan. Mr. Alcock showed them the spot where the "Prince regent" had been assassinated a few months back (a regent was necessary as the "Tycoon" was a boy of only 16). He also took them to a tea house near a temple "placed upon a considerable elevation, so that we might get some view of the vast City". Tea was served by handmaidens "with whitened faces and necks, exquisitely neat hair, and small stature. They were smartened up a little by the bunch of silk and crape which is fastened behind." Sophy ends her account of her first ride in Edo by remarking that she would never forget the face of a man as he caught sight of a woman on horseback, looking at her in horrified fascination as if she had been a supernatural being.

And here Mrs. Wadhams was forced to end her account, as time was moving on. The meeting was followed by a mini-reception, and instead of having a question-and-answer time, Dr. Berendt asked members to speak to Mrs. Wadhams individually. In thanking her for her fascinating account, he made reference to the various attempts, finally successful, to sail through the Northwest Passage, which it had once been hoped would provide a shorter route from Europe to China and Japan. Through her talk tonight, Mrs. Wadhams had recalled the links between his country, Canada, and Japan.

Adapted from "The Asiatic Society of Japan Bulletin No. 4", April 2001, compiled by Prof. Hugh E. Wilkinson and Mrs. Doreen Simmons.