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Updated: May 25, 2025
By eight o'clock in the morning Togo's squadron, consisting of the flag-ships Satsuma, the Aki, Katou, Kashimi, Mikasa and Akahi, and forming the backbone of the Japanese battle-fleet, had succeeded in locating Admiral Perry's squadron, thanks to intercepted wireless dispatches.
An Imperial mandate might indeed have been issued, but even an Imperial mandate without the means of enforcing it would probably have proved futile. In fact, compulsion in any form could not be employed: the only resource was persuasion. The feudatories of Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, and Hizen were the four most puissant in the empire.
With the Satsuma and the Aki in the van and the four other ships following, the enemy's squadron advanced, enveloped in a thin veil of smoke. High up in the stern of the Connecticut and at her mastheads waved the tattered Stars and Stripes. The few gunners, who had served the guns to the end, crept out of the turrets and worked their way up over broken steps.
It was the problem whether an army of conscripts, supposed to be lacking in the fighting instinct and believed to be incapable of standing up to do battle with the samurai, could hold its own against the flower of the bushi, as the Satsuma men undoubtedly were. There really never was any substantial reason for doubt about such a subject.
There is also a holy place called the Satsuma Temple, which has a special interest; in it is a tablet in honour of Tadayoshi, the fifth son of Iyéyasu, whose title was Matsudaira Satsuma no Kami, and who died young. At his death, five of his retainers, with one Ogasasawara Kemmotsu at their head, disembowelled themselves, that they might follow their young master into the next world.
This ceramic ware, as my readers probably know, differs greatly in appearance, quality, and, I may add, in price according to the particular part of the country in which it is produced. It is not necessary to be an art connoisseur to grasp the fact that, say, the famous Satsuma ware is distinct in almost every respect from that of Imari, Kaga, Ise, Raku, Kyoto, &c.
In this engagement, the Satsuma men learned for the first time the utter helplessness of their old weapons and old manner of fighting, and their conversion to progressive ideas was thoroughly effected. The submissive attitude of the Bakufu towards the Imperial Court encouraged the extremists in Kyoto to prefer fresh demands.
At the moment when Admiral Perry's ships emerged out of the rain, Admiral Togo opened the battle by sending the following signal from the Satsuma: "To-day must avenge Kanagawa. As Commodore Perry then knocked with his sword at the gate of Nippon, so will we to-day burst open San Francisco's Golden Gate." The signal was greeted with enthusiasm and loud cries of "Banzai!" on board all the ships.
On the family dinner-table the condiment line is not so severely drawn; vinegar in cut-glass cruets, mustard in Satsuma pots, and individual "peppers" in silver, china, or glass, and of quaint designs are convenient and allowable. A table covered with white damask, overlaid with sparkling china and cut-glass, and reflecting the white light of polished silver, is a pretty but lifeless sight.
He scarcely heard the words of the flag lieutenant who called out to him: "That's the Japanese Satsuma, Togo's Satsuma!" The admiral reached the telephone-board in one bound and yelled down the artillery connection: "Hostile attack!... Japanese. We've been surprised!"
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