Chōshū Five

The Chōshū han, based in what is now known as Yamaguchi Prefecture, was eager to acquire better knowledge of the western nations and gain access to military technology in order to strengthen the domain in its struggle to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.

The decision by Chōshū han elders to sponsor five promising students to study overseas came in the midst of growing domestic political tensions and in the wake of reports from the First Japanese Embassy to Europe that had returned in January 1863.

[3] With the support of Nagasaki-based trader Thomas Blake Glover, arrangements were made through his local agent, a Mr. Weigal, to secure passage for the five students on one of the many British trading ships calling at the port of Yokohama.

The Chōshū students disguised as English sailors were put aboard the Jardine, Matheson & Co. vessel Chelswick for 1000 ryō each with the reluctant agreement of the ship's captain, J. S. Gower.

[citation needed] While Inoue Masaru, Yamao Yōzō and Endō Kinsuke travelled to Europe as passengers on the 915 ton three-masted tea clipper Whiteadder[citation needed], Inoue Kaoru and Itō Hirobumi, destined to be two of the greatest Japanese statesmen of the age, were mistakenly assumed to be eager to earn their passage as crew and were put to work as deckhands on a grueling 130 day journey aboard the 525 ton sailing ship Pegasus.

[3] Inoue Kaoru and Itō Hirobumi returned after only six months in early April 1864 when they received news via Jardine Matheson's London representatives that the Chōshū clan was engaged in direct conflict with Western allied powers over control of the strategic Straits of Shimonoseki.