Foreign government advisors in Meiji Japan
The foreign employees in Meiji Japan, known in Japanese as O-yatoi Gaikokujin (Kyūjitai: 御雇い外國人, Shinjitai: 御雇い外国人, "hired foreigners"), were hired by the Japanese government and municipalities for their specialized knowledge and skill to assist in the modernization of the Meiji period. The term came from Yatoi (a person hired temporarily, a day laborer),[1] was politely applied for hired foreigner as O-yatoi gaikokujin.
The total number is over 2,000, probably reaches 3,000 (with thousands more in the private sector). Until 1899, more than 800 hired foreign experts continued to be employed by the government, and many others were employed privately. Their occupation varied, ranging from high salaried government advisors, college professors and instructor, to ordinary salaried technicians.
Along the process of the opening of the country, the Tokugawa Shogunate government first hired, German diplomat Philipp Franz von Siebold as diplomatic advisor, Dutch naval engineer Hendrik Hardes for Nagasaki Arsenal and Willem Johan Cornelis ridder Huijssen van Kattendijke for Nagasaki Naval School, French naval engineer François Léonce Verny for Yokosuka Arsenal, and British civil engineer Richard Henry Brunton. Most of the O-yatoi was appointed through government approval with two or three years contract, and took their responsibility properly in Japan, except some cases.[2]
As the Public Works hired almost 40% of the total number of the O-yatois, the main goal in hiring the O-yatois was to obtain transfers of technology and advice on systems and cultural ways. Therefore, young Japanese officers gradually took over the post of the O-yatoi after they completed training and education at the Imperial College, Tokyo, the Imperial College of Engineering or studying abroad.
The O-yatois were highly paid; in 1874, they numbered 520 men, at which time their salaries came to ¥2.272 million, or 33.7 percent of the national annual budget. The salary system was equivalent to the British India, for instance, the chief engineer of the British India's Public Works was paid 2,500 Rs/month[3] which was almost same as 1,000 Yen, salary of Thomas William Kinder, superintend of the Osaka Mint in 1870.
Despite the value they provided in the modernization of Japan, the Japanese government did not consider it prudent for them to settle in Japan permanently. After the contract terminated, most of them returned to their country except some, like Josiah Conder and William Kinninmond Burton.
The system was officially terminated in 1899 when extraterritoriality came to an end in Japan. Nevertheless, similar employment of foreigners persists in Japan, particularly within the national education system and professional sports.
Notable O-yatoi gaikokujin
Agriculture
William Smith Clark Edwin Dun Max Fesca Oskar Kellner Oskar Löw, agronomist William Penn Brooks, agronomist
Medical science
Law, administration, and economics
Georges Appert,[4] legal scholar Gustave Emile Boissonade, legal scholar Hermann Roesler, jurist and economist Georg Michaelis,[5] jurist Albert Mosse, jurist Otfried Nippold, jurist Heinrich Waentig, economist and jurist Georges Hilaire Bousquet, legal scholar Horatio Nelson Lay, railway developer Alexander Allan Shand, monetary Henry Willard Denison, diplomat Karl Rathgen, economist
Military
Jules Brunet, artillery officer Léonce Verny, constructor of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal Klemens Wilhelm Jakob Meckel, Army instructor James R. Wasson, Civil engineer and teacher, army engineer Henry Walton Grinnell, Navy instructor José Luis Ceacero Inguanzo, Navy instructor Charles Dickinson West, naval architect Henry Spencer Palmer, military engineer Archibald Lucius Douglas, Naval instructor
Natural science and mathematics
William Edward Ayrton, physicist Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, physicist Edward S. Morse, zoologist Charles Otis Whitman, zoologist, successor of Edward S. Morse Heinrich Edmund Naumann, geologist Curt Netto, metallurgist Sir James Alfred Ewing, physicist and engineer who founded Japanese seismology Cargill Gilston Knott, succeeding J.A. Ewing Benjamin Smith Lyman, mining engineer
Engineering
William P. Brooks, agriculture Richard Henry Brunton, builder of lighthouses Charles Alfred Chastel de Boinville, architect Josiah Conder, architect William Kinnimond Burton, engineering, architecture, photography Horace Capron, agriculture, road construction Henry Dyer, engineering education Hermann Ende, architect George Arnold Escher, civil engineer John G.H. Godfrey, geologist, mining engineer John Milne, geologist, seismologist Colin Alexander McVean, civil engineer Edmund Morel, civil engineer Johannis de Rijke, civil engineer, flood control, river projects John Alexander Low Waddell, bridge engineer Thomas James Waters, civil engineer William Gowland, mining engineer, archaeologist Jean Francisque Coignet, mining engineer Henry Scharbau, cartographer Wilhelm Böckmann, architect Anthonie Rouwenhorst Mulder, civil engineer, rivers and ports
Art and music
Edoardo Chiossone - engraver Luther Whiting Mason, musician Ernest Fenollosa, art critic Franz Eckert, musician Rudolf Dittrich, musician Antonio Fontanesi, oil painter Vincenzo Ragusa, sculptor John William Fenton, musician
Liberal arts, humanities and education
Alice Mabel Bacon, pedagoge Basil Hall Chamberlain, Japanologist and Professor of Japanese James Summers, English literature Lafcadio Hearn, Japanologist Viktor Holtz, educator Raphael von Koeber, philosopher and musician Ludwig Riess, historian Leroy Lansing Janes, educator, missionary Marion McCarrell Scott, educator Edward Bramwell Clarke, educator David Murray, educator
Missionary activities
William Elliot Griffis, clergyman, author Guido Verbeck, missionary, pedagoge Horace Wilson, missionary and teacher credited with introducing baseball to Japan
Others
Kenji Ceacero Kuroda, journalist and writer Francis Brinkley, journalist Ottmar von Mohl, court protocol
See also
References
- James Curtis Hepburn, Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, 1873.
- Hardy's Case, The Japan Weekly Mail, January 4 1875.
- A Table of Salary of D.P.W. of the British India, The Engineer, January 29, 1869.
- Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BnF), Appert, Georges (1850-1934); retrieved 2013-4-2.
- "Georg Michaelis" at Archontology.org; retrieved 2013-4-4.
External links
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