FURUKAWA (Nobuyoshi).
Perusha Kiko. [Travels to Persia].
In 1880 Japan sent a small delegation to Persia in order to open diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries. Yoshida Masaharu (1852-1921), a high-ranking official of Ministry of Foreign Affairs was accompanied by Furukawa Noriyoshi (1849-1921) of the General Staff Office, and five merchants. They were the first Japanese to enter Persia. This account starts with general observations about Persia, its geography, population, government, the Royal House, religion, the laws as well as chapters about the army and navy. The second part describes the journey up the Tigris to Baghdad (at the time part of the Ottoman Empire) and from there by caravan to Tehran, where they stayed for three months. It was a gruelling journey via the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Persepolis.
In Tehran, they gained an audience with the reformist Shah Naser al-Din (1831-1896) and they obtained permissions to trade. An important part of the mission was to gather intelligence about the intentions and influence of the Russian as well as the British Empire in the Middle East and Central Asia.
The author of the present work Furukawa Nobuyoshi (1849-1921) was the deputy envoy under Yoshida Masaharu. He was a captain in the Japanese army and the present account was published by General Staff Headquarters in Tokyo and it was not for sale. Unusually it was published three years before Yoshida’s official account. It is extremely rare. Only one copy in OCLC (National Diet Library).
