Satō Nobuhiro’s Kairiku senbō roku and Son-Ka zateki ron

Abstract

There is a ‘work entitled Kairiku senbō roku (An Account of Military Defenses on Sea and Land) by Satō Chin’en’ mentioned in Katsu Kaishū’s Kaikoku kigen (Origins of the Opening of the Country; preface dated 1891, copyrighted by the Imperial Household Ministry) as an ‘outline of the uprising in China.’ In it as well the story of the capture of the English princess is recorded. I have not seen an original edition (or even a manuscript copy) of this work and know of it only through Katsu’s work. The author, Satō Chin’en is best known as Satō Nobuhiro (1769–1850), Chin’en being his style. In the bakumatsu years, a variety of fragmentary news about the Opium War circulated in Japan, but Satō’s work was probably noted in the Kaikoku kigen because it was seen as a relatively coherent chronicle of information and perhaps a representative work.