Kobe foreign settlement
[4] Its extraterritoriality was acknowledged in some of its administrative and financial affairs, and it was managed by an autonomous organization structured with foreign residents (most of whom had interests in east-India company and/or associates) at its center.
[1] A November 1865 survey of the surrounding ocean by an attendant of the British envoy Harry Smith Parkes indicated that the area intended for the foreign settlement, somewhat removed from the old Hyōgo town center, looked out on a small bay that was sufficiently deep and provided an anchorage abundant in nature.
Kokusai Toshi Kōbe no Keifu posits from this that this site was Kōbe-mura, and that the foreign powers also found this location more suitable than the existing port of Hyōgo.
[32][33] The remainder of the construction was carried out under the Meiji government,[34][35] and around 1872 the building of roads and drains was finished, completing the 8-by-5 grid of streets that defined the area of the settlement.
[50] After the opening of the port, the settlement was outfitted according to a logical urban plan,[4] with the roads and drains complete around 1872,[36] and bidding on the land lease over by February 7, 1873.
[56] The first round of major restorations that led to its position as Japan's foremost international trade port were decided in 1907, after the foreign settlement's return, and work began in 1908.
[58][† 11] In 1894, the Meiji government concluded the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation with the United Kingdom, realizing its goal of repealing consular jurisdiction and reclaiming the foreign settlements.
Specifically, the Municipal Council (居留地会議, Kyoryūchi Kaigi) was created as the highest legislative organ in charge of the improvement of infrastructure and public order within the settlement.
[94] Under the consular jurisdiction guaranteed by the Ansei Treaties, the hearings for the case were heard over five days beginning on November 1 in the Kobe foreign settlement, but the British consul James Troup found the crew innocent.
[95] As the initial inquiry over the incident had found the crew blameless, doubts and criticism of the right to consular jurisdiction arose domestically in Japan,[96] along with a wave of anti-British sentiment.
[114] Beginning with the rebuilding of the Kobe Club [ja] in the foreign settlement, Hansell worked on the designs of a great number of buildings, including branches of HSBC and Jardine Matheson, as well as the German consulate.
[118] Architects like these, who studied under the Englishman Josiah Conder at the Imperial College like Tatsuno,[† 22] or overseas like Yamaguchi, laid the development for the advancement of architecture in Japan during the Meiji period.
[124] The Oriental Hotel purchased Lot 80 in 1888 and moved its main building there, and at this time enjoyed critical acclaim for the culinary efforts of its French chef Louis Begeux.
[134] As Qing China had no treaty with Japan at the time of the port's opening, its citizens were unable to reside within the settlement and were limited to the mixed residential zone.
However, the foreign countries instead interpreted the ten ri as a radius of direct distance, expanding the treaty limits to encompass the entirety of Innami to the west and Kawabe, Taki, and Taka districts to the north.
This was because foreigners were not allowed to buy export goods or sell their own imports outside the settlement, while Japanese merchants lacked the know-how to conduct business directly with businessmen overseas.
[165] When Sim began selling Ramune, cholera was prevalent in Japan, and demand increased in 1886 when the Yokohama Mainichi Shinbun reported that "beverages containing gas prevent infection".
[169][172] In the late 1870s the businessman Suzuki Kiyoshi [ja] developed canned beef flavored with soy sauce and sugar, which became a nationwide hit product.
[175] In Gōshō shinpei minato no sakigake (豪商神兵湊の魁), published the same year, introduced a Western confectionery shop called Sangoku-dō near the Aioi Bridge.
[178] On August 9, 1868, the missionary Pierre Mounicou [ja] of the Paris Foreign Missions Society began holding weekly Catholic services every Sunday at a temporary place of worship on the Saigoku Kaidō.
[204][205] KRAC was able to secure land on the eastern side of the foreign settlement immediately, and by December 1870, just three months after its founding, had completed a boathouse and gymnasium,[† 27] and a pool by June 1871, launching its activities at a favorable pace.
[209] KRAC members competed in a wide variety of sports including regatta, track and field, rugby football, tennis, swimming, water polo, and rifle shooting.
The club only intended to admit Germans, but to cover the costs of their clubhouse on the eastern end of the settlement they began to accept others as well, including Dutch, Norwegians, and Swedes.
One was built at Nakayamate-dōri 7-chōme in 1888 by the powerful local Chinese Lán Zhuōfēng, Zhèng Wàngāo, and Mài Shǎopéng, under the auspices of relocating the derelict Jigan-san Chōraku-ji temple from Fuse-mura, Kawachi-gun, Osaka.
[248] The rebuilt Kantei-byō holds an event (suiriku fudo shōe (水陸普度勝会)) during the Ghost Festival from the 14th to the 16th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar each year.
[264] After the settlement was returned and the firefighting force incorporated into Kobe's, Sim was left a position as honorary advisor in the new structure[264] and allowed to direct a team.
[287] Hunter succeeded in building a wooden dry dock in 1883, when the project was considered quite difficult with contemporary technology, and successfully transformed Osaka Iron Works into a leading shipbuilder of the Kansai region.
[289] When the effects of the Japanese government's deflation measures drove Osaka Iron Works into dire straits in 1882, his company was able to endure the crisis with profits from exporting polished rice.
He found employment at the Kobe Chronicle newspaper through an introduction by Basil Hall Chamberlain,[296] and for four months published critical essays in its editorial section.
In the end, the foreign powers ratified the opening of Yokohama when the depth of the water there proved it a geographically superior location for a port compared to Kanagawa.
