Namamugi Incident and the location of its historical markers

The map showing the site where the incident began

The site that Richardson reached where he fell off his horse and was given the coup
de grâce (todome). The map below is where the memorial was moved to during
building works
The memorial has since been moved back to its original site under the overpass

(left) 1883 Shōzō Kurokawa monument. Inscription by Masanao (Keiu) Nakamura (center) Shōzō Kurokawa and the monument
in 1883 (right) Shōzō Kurokawa

Inscription:

（碑文） 文久二年壬戌八月二十一日英国人力査遜
殞命于此処乃鶴見人黒川荘三所有之地也
荘三乞余誌其事因為之歌々日
蹟 君流血号此海壖我邦変進亦其源強藩起号
王室振耳目新号唱民権擾々生死聴知聞萬
菖 国有史君名傳我今作歌勅貞珉君其含笑干
九原
明治十六年十二月 敬宇中村正直 撰
（裏）彫刻師 飯島吉六
Translation…
(Inscription)

A creditable investigation determined that in Bunkyō 2 (1862), the 59 th year of the

sexagenary cycle, on the 21st day of the 8th month (note: 14th September), an English
tourist was ordered to be killed here. The Tsurumi resident Shōzō Kurokawa
(黒川荘三) owns this patch of ground. Shōzō requested that a poetic tribute be made
about the affair as a record of what happened

Traces (蹟: Seki)

This open space by the sea, your blood was shed, caused by one, from a most
powerful clan, a wake-up call triggered, positive change…
The Imperial family, a new name change, a Nation called to attend, democracy
advocated, chaos and confusion, life and death, to hear and to know, everything…

Iris (菖: Shō - possibly symbolic of truth, friendship and trust)

I am a poet who strictly adheres to and chronicles National history now creating
poetry that speaks to you in tones of good humoured virtue

12th Month of Meiji 16 (1883) Honest Nakamura Keiu (敬宇中村 – aka Nakamura
Masanao) Poetry selection (reverse) engraver Iijima Kichiroku (飯島吉六)

Nakamura Keiu (敬宇中村 – aka Nakamura Masanao)

…

A Shanghai merchant by the name of Charles Lennox Richardson, on his way home
to England, had stopped off in Yokohama.
 Charles Lennox Richardson with autopsy notes

On 14th September 1862 (Bunkyū 2) he set out on horseback accompanied on a

sightseeing trip by two merchants, one an old friend from Shanghai, Woodthorpe
Charles Clarke who worked in an American owned shop in Yokohama, the other
William Marshall a long time merchant living in Yokohama, along with Marshall's
sister-in-law Margaret Watson Borradaile, the wife of a British Merchant living in
Hong Kong. They were travelling along the Tōkaidō Road heading via Kanagawa
towards the Kawasaki Daishi-ji Temple.

Shimazu Hisamitsu, Regent of Satsuma Domain

Travelling in the opposite direction was Shimazu Hisamitsu (aka Shimazu Saburō),
the Regent of Satsuma on behalf of his underage son Shimazu Tadayoshi, the
twelfth and last Daimyō of Satsuma Domain. He was returning home from a stay in
Edo (now Tōkyō) where he had been promoting a political partnership between the
Imperial Court, the Shōgunate and the great south-western Seinan Yūhan
partnership of the domains of Satsuma, Chōshu, Hizen and Tosa (which eventually
went on to overthrow the Shōgunate) as part of the Bunkyū Reforms of 1862 which
were intended to relax restrictions on Daimyō that had been imposed by former Tairō
Ii Naosuke in the Ansei era. He was accompanied by a large retinue of around
eleven hundred people seven hundred of whom were Satsuma samurai.

They encountered each other as both parties passed through the village of
Namamugi (Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama). Traditionally in Japan in such circumstances
anyone on horseback was required to dismount, move to one side and show respect
as a Daimyō’s party passed by. The Japanese authorities had warned foreigners in
Yokohama to stay off the road that day because feudal lords and their retainers
would be passing along it, something which was patently ignored by Richardson and
his party.

Accounts differ as to what happened next. According to Hisamatsu’s party in spite of

repeated requests and motions indicating that they should stop the party refused to
turn aside and dismount as they reached the main vanguard of Hisamatsu’s party,
though Westerners were exempted from this and supposedly protected by the Treaty
of Extraterritoriality. Richardson allegedly rode into the retinue and as he approached
Hisamatsu’s palanquin turned his horse. According to one account Marshall shouted
at Richardson to stop. Richardson allegedly said, "I have been living in China for
fourteen years. I know how to deal with these people." Richardson's uncle was
reportedly not surprised about his nephew's demise and blamed him for being
reckless and stubborn. Frederick Wright-Bruce, the British envoy to China,
remembered Richardson as an arrogant adventurer.

However it has been suggested that as Richardson did not speak or understand
Japanese he would have been at a loss to understand the request, that his horse
was skittish and moved into the middle of the road turning into the samurai retinue as
Borrowdale’s horse grew skittish also at which point they were ordered to turn back
by the samurai retinue and failing to do so were attacked.

Richardson was slashed very badly twice, firstly by Narahara Kizaemon and
secondly by Kukimura Toshiyasu who also slashed one of the other merchants.
Clarke and Marshall were both wounded one of whom shouted to Borrowdale “Ride
on, we can do nothing for you!”.

As all three escaped a sword blow was aimed at Borrowdale but only managed to
slice off part of her hat and some of her hair. Borrowdale managed to escape to
Yokohama where she raised the alarm. Clarke and Marshall escaped to Hongakuji
Temple in Kanagawa Prefecture which served as an American Consulate where they
received treatment for their injuries. Clarke had a wound that made his left arm
unusable and Marshall was wounded on the left arm and shoulder.

One of them said that he thought all they had been told was to “pass by the side” of
the entourage but that the entourage was so great it filled the entire width of the road
and that it was as Hismatsu’s gun unit had passed that Richardson and his horse
had become mixed up in the entourage and had got between Hisamatsu’s palanquin
and his guard. It was, he said, that as he was told to get back he tried to go around
the guard but was slashed at by several samurai including one Kaeda Nobuyoshi
who had also stabbed Richardson.

Kaeda Nobuyoshi

It was reported that Richardson cried out, “Oh Clarke! They have killed me!”.

The Killing at Namamugi (生麦之發殺 Namamugi no hassatsu) by Hayakawa Shozan 1893

Richardson at the edge of death and with his bowels spilling out managed to ride
some two hundred meters from the melee by a tea house called Kiriya where he fell
off his horse and as he lay on the ground was attacked by a number of samurai at
which point Hisamatsu gave the order for Takeji Kaieda to administer the coup de
grâce (todome in Japanese) and his throat was cut to the degree he was very nearly
decapitated. Some reports say that his body was wrapped inside a straw mat and
placed at the side of the road by a large pine tree. Others say that he was still alive
and moving into the sitting position had asked for water which the woman who ran
the Kiriya, Ofuji-san nicknamed Black Eyed Susan, had tended to him. This was
where his body was found by the first foreigner on the scene, an English medic from
the British Legation by the name of Dr. William Willis.
 Dr. Willis

“Lieut.-Colonel Vyse, the British Consul, led off the Legation mounted escort in spite
of Colonel Neale's order that they should not move until he or their own commander
gave the word. M. de Bellecourt, the French Minister, sent out his escort, consisting
of a half-dozen French troopers; Lieut. Price of the 67th Regiment marched off part
of the Legation guard, accompanied by some French infantry. But amongst the first,
perhaps the very first of all, was Dr Willis, whose high sense of the duty cast on him
by his profession rendered him absolutely fearless. Passing for a mile along the
ranks of the men whose swords were reeking with the blood of Englishmen, he rode
along the high road through Kanagawa, where he was joined by some three or four
more Englishmen. He proceeded onwards to Namamugi, where poor Richardson's
corpse was found under the shade of a tree by the roadside. His throat had been cut
as he was lying there wounded and helpless. The body was covered with sword
cuts, any one of which was sufficient to cause death. It was carried thence to the
American Consulate in Kanagawa, where Clarke and Marshall had found refuge and
surgical aid at the hands of Dr Hepburn and later on of Dr Jenkins, our other doctor.
There was only one British man-of-war lying in the harbour, but in the course of the
evening Admiral Küper arrived in his flagship, the Euryalus, with the gun-vessel
Ringdove. The excitement among the foreign mercantile community was intense, for
this was the first occasion on which one of their own number had been struck down.
The Japanese sword is as sharp as a razor, and inflicts fearful gashes. The
Japanese had a way of cutting a man to pieces rather than leave any life in him. This
had a most powerful effect on the minds of Europeans, who came to look on every
two-sworded man as a probable assassin, and if they met one in the street thanked
God as soon as they had passed him and found themselves in safety.” ‘A Diplomat
in Japan’. Ernest Satow. 1921.

The body of Lennox was taken to the merchant William Aspinall’s house in
Yokohama where an autopsy was undertaken that evening and an inquest held the
following day.

Namamugi circa 1862

 The body of Charles Lennox Richardson at William Aspinall’s house in Yokohama

Dr. William Willis’ autopsy on the body of Charles Lennox Richardson on the 14th
September 1862 at 11pm.

Rigor mortis marked. No wound of head.

1. Transverse wound of throat extending from the angle of the lower jaw on one
side to a corresponding point on the opposite side; severing the structures
down to the vertebrae, which are partially divided. The wound extends
through the upper part of the Thyroid cartilage, passing back above the
Arytenoids Cartilages. The deep vessels cut through on the left side.
Uninjured on the right.
2. About 2 inches below the clavicle of the left side there is a clean transverse
wound, about 5 inches in length, extending from the medial line interiorly,
downwards, outwards and backwards, severing the 2nd and 3rd ribs and
opening into the cavity of the chest.
3. An extensive incised wound commencing at the coracoids process on the left
side, and passing obliquely around the arm to a point opposite posterior,
severing the humours about 2 inches below the joint.
4. About the middle of the left upper arm there is an obliquely transverse wound,
extending downwards and outwards, severing the biceps, but not injuring the
bone.
5. Near the commencement of the fingers, the left hand is almost entirely divided
across.
6. About an inch above the right wrist, there is an obliquely transverse wound
extending upwards severing both bones of the forearm; the hand is attached
merely by integument.
7. About 3 inches below the uniform cartilage there is a transverse wound about
3 inches in extent opening into the abdominal cavity and through which part of
the large intestine is protruded.
8. One inch above the latter there is a punctured wound, an inch in extent
opening into the abdominal cavity.
9. Four inches below and to the right of No. 7 there is a punctured wound of the
same size as preceding, and also opening into the abdominal cavity.
10. An extremely large incised wound, extending from middle line posterior,
nearly opposite the lower angle of the scapula, downwards and outwards
round the left side, to a spot 2 inches above the anterior superior spinouts
process of the ileum, severing the ribs and through which part of the lungs,
stomach, large and small intestines is protruded. Length of wound 16 inches.

Remarks
The transverse wound of the neck from its position and direction appears to have
been inflicted whilst the body was on the ground.
The wounds in the front of the abdomen appear to have been inflicted by a weapon
of the nature of a Japanese small sword, or lance thrust.
The large wound of the shoulder was inflicted whilst the arm was raised in a posture
of defence. The large wound of the chest and abdomen was received whilst sitting in
the saddle. The two latter wounds were seen inflicted by those in the company of Mr.
Richardson.

The grave of Charles Lennox Richardson is between the later graves of Clarke and
Marshall in the 22nd section of the Foreigners Cemetery in Yokohama which is not
normally open to the public

It can be seen through the fence from the Motomachi side of the cemetery from the
Uchiki-pan bakery

Every year on August 21st at Namamugi an event is held in remembrance of the

incident

Photographic images published before December 31st 1956, or photographed before 1946
and not published for 10 years thereafter, under jurisdiction of the Government of Japan, are
considered to be public domain according to article 23 of old copyright law of Japan and
article 2 of supplemental provision of copyright law of Japan