2022 - 虎年

If you visit this homepage you are certainly interested in Japan and particularly in the development during the Meiji era (1868-1912). Thus, I am very pleased to have "met" a like-minded person and I hope to get into contact with you!

The project Meiji-Portraits presented here aims to register all persons who have influenced the Meiji era in Japan.
After a seclusion policy of more than 200 years the so-called "Meiji Restoration" of 1868 had to organize the political, economical and scientific-technical development of Japan. This task was to be realised by two ways:

• Education of Japanese persons abroad


• Education by foreign specialists in Japan, so-called o-yatoi gaikokujin

The education and training took place in almost all fields with the emphases on medicine, education, armed forces, establishing the railway and telephone systems, urban development, electrification, judiciary, financial economy, architecture, geology and art, to mention only some. The introduced measures proved to be right - after only approximately 30 years Japan belonged to the leading World Powers.

Of course the fast developing country also attracted humans of all occupational groups, missionaries as well as merchants who looked for their luck in the unknown country and thus influencing the situation in Japan.

For this reason the logo of this website was compiled by the Japanese words 明治人物 = Meiji jinbutsu and お雇い外国人 = o-yatoi gaikokujin, i. e. „Persons of the Meiji Era“ in the top part and „Foreign Employees” in the bottom, in red and somewhat larger, as these persons have dominantly influenced the development in Japan.

The Introduction will give you an historical summary on the situation in Japan at the beginning and during the Meiji era. Some stages will be represented by stamps and postal items picturing impressively the development in the Meiji era. The main part of this website, however, is generated in the

In the Register Meiji-Portraits all persons are alphabetically listed, possibly with short curriculum vitae, photo and their corresponding stay in Japan. Prerequisites for the recording are, with a few exceptions, that persons must have lived in Japan during the Meiji era for at least three months. A temporal delimitation couldn’t always be maintained as some activities started before the relevant period, some lasted on afterwards.

The period until 1905, however, formed the main emphasis for the registration of persons. This date marks the victory of Japan in the Russo-Japanese War and proves definitely Japan to be a World Power, from then on the foreign influence diminished continuously.

Besides foreigners also Japanese persons have been considered, especially those who studied abroad. They belong to the pioneers of modern Japan as they contributed substantially to the development of Japan to become one of the leading nations of the world.

Foreigners and Japanese have been arranged separately in order to obtain a better clearness.

Tourists, sailors without Japanese contract, and other persons staying only for a short period in Japan as well as persons from other Asian, Arabian, Middle-and South American countries have not been considered.

Within this Register you will also find two sub-registers:

• Abbreviations , used in the Register Meiji-Portraits


• Unknown FE , a real puzzle, your help is pressingly wanted (see also below Help Requested! )

An unusual feature of this listing is generated by the inclusion of cards and covers. As I have been a philatelist for many years especially collecting covers and cards of Meiji-Japan I attempted to combine the Meiji-Portraits with Philately, the latter being a helpful source of information in this project.

Who was the sender or addressee of a letter or card? What has he done in Japan? Corresponding information have been regarded within the biographies. Generally you can say that the collection of "personified documents" represents a side line of philately. Such items are partly very rare, items of firms depending on their size and existence are more frequent than those of individual persons. Please mind, this scarceness has nothing to do with a “philatelic value”. Existing correspondences have been marked.

This project of biographies also aims to support and improve the judgement of philatelic items.

The correlation of the foreign persons to their activity fields is realised in the

In this register Meiji-Firms established within the Meiji era are listed including their field of activities and employees occupied. Organizations and Clubs have not been considered yet.

Most important references used for this website are:

• The “Japan Gazette”, Hong List and Japan Directories von 1868 - 1905


• Ooga, Tetsuo (Publisher); Shiryō o-yatoi gaikokujin [Material on Foreign Employees], Unesco Higashi Ajia Bunka Kenkyū Sentā, Tokyo, Shogakukan 1975 (発行者: 相賀徹夫; 資料御雇外国人 [ユネスコ東アジア文化研究センター編])

Further helpful literature and websites you find in the Register Bibliography.

A number of Japanese and other not everyday expressions are used in this website which are explained in the Glossary , recorded in an alphabetical order.

Help Requested!

In my opinion there are two main complexes

1. The a/ m book „Material on Foreign Employees” contains quite a number of „Foreign Employees“ (abbr. FE) only with their Japanese katakana names, the relevant original names could not ascertained yet. Can you help cracking the “katakana code” finding out the original name? For this reason I have prepared a corresponding sub-register Unknown FE

2. As you see, some entries do require further information. Additions and comments are always requested; partly even the given name of a person is missing! Please check your collection for corresponding items!

Do you know additional relevant literature and photos?

Or perhaps you are even a descendant and you have detailed additions?

The website presented is being continuously enlarged and it is only an excerpt of the complete data file.

Please contact me, also when you discover any faults, and I will give you an immediate reply:
bernd.lepach@t-online.de

Specific offers on Books and Philately (covers/ cards/ postal stationary and postcards) are submitted under this register covering the theme of this website. Visit these pages, maybe also you can find something of interest!

In this Register you find hints to contact me, some brief information about me as well as Links of websites I like very much and which I recommend herewith. By clicking on Contact you will come directly to this Register.

Already at this place I want to thank deeply

- Austria + Hungary: Max Fink; Monica Leiss; Tószegi Zsuzsanna; Sándor Kiss;
- Australia: Medlen, David
- Canada: Prof. Mary Chapman, University of BC, Vancouver; Dr. Carolyn Butler Palmer, University of Victoria, B. C.; Mack Strathdee ;
- Denmark: Anker Nielsen;
- England: Ken Clark; Peter Duckers; Richard Wilmot (presently residing in Spanien);
- France: Harald Zierock;
- Germany: Heike Bund; F. Eichhorn; Wolfgang Etting; Prof. Hermann Gottschewski (Franz Eckert/ website); R. Jaehrling (StuDeO); Dr. A. Kast; Nagel, Vera; Renate Piasek-Lenz; Dr. Michael Rauck; Chieko Shibata-Vartmann; Dr. U. Thiel (Stadt-und Bergbaumuseum Freiberg); Roland Volkmer (Universitätsarchiv der Bergakademie Freiberg); Beate Wonde (Mori-Ōgai Memorial Place in Berlin); and above all Prof. E. Pauer, Prof. P. Pantzer und Prof. Rolf-Harald Wippich.


Special thanks also go to Dr. Wolfgang Stoehr, Wilhelmshaven, who edited quite a number of significant contributions for this website, such as Brennwald, Caspar; Elgar, Francis; Florent, Louis; Florent, Vincent; Kirby A.; Kirby E. C.; Lalande, Georg de; Montgolfier, Emile de; Pélegrin, Henri-Auguste; Reed, Edward James; Sarda, Pierre Paul; Savatiere, Paul A.; Siber, Hermann; Thibaudier, Jules César Claude; Verny, F. L.; Vidal, Jean Paul; and many more

- Italy: Giordano Castiglioni; Prof. Teresa Ciapparoni;
- Japan: Matsuda Masaru; KAMIMURA Naoki; MORI Gen´ ichi; Ozawa Takeshi (Hermann Ritter; Carl August Schenck); SUGIYAMA Akane; YAGITANI Ryoko; Takeda Tōru ("Asakawa Peace Association" - T. E. Hallifax); Dr. Tani; Michel Nelis; Niels Martensen; Yamamoto Akira; Lottaz, Pascal; Burke-Gaffney, Brian (Nagasaki)
- Nederland: Wilbert Davids; Dr. H. J. Moeshart;
- New Zealand: Dov Bing;
- Spain: Rafael Abad
- Switzerland: Hermann Wichers, Dr. phil.; Mottini, Rogers; Sigerist, Stephan;
- USA: Martha Chaiklin; Alan Gillogly; Kathy Hughes; Michael G. Price; Michael Soper; Cohen Aaron;

and many more, not able to mention all, for their continuous and great assistance in this project.


Also many thanks to the descendants of the Meiji-Persons
- Asakawa, Joni (ASAKAWA Toshinobu)
- Alderson, Jackie (Byrne, Edward)
- BAS, Daniel (Eymard-Family)
- Becker, Gernot (Becker, Ernst and Hansen, Hans)
- Boden, Christian G. (Georg Boden)
- Bublitz, Dr. Lothar (MAERKL, Johann)
- Burgess, Anne (John Meldrum Stoddard, E. B. Meldrum)
- Carter, Tom und Carter-Familie (Reverend J. G. Dunlop);
- Champanhet Bernard (Montgolfier, Emile de)
- Cunningham, Glen (Berta Babcock)
- Duhain, Mary ( Claude Louis Faye Duhain)
- Evison, Alan (Ernst Edward Evison)
- Faherty, Gail (Cameron-family; Blundell, G.J.; Harrington, T. J.; James-Family; Pollard's; Wevill, F.);
- Feid, Herbert (Winckler & Co.)
- Flaig, Christian ( Emil and Carl Flaig)
- Fraser, Iain (James Campbell and Evan James Fraser)
- Geerts, Anton J. C. (Charlotte Crosswell Meyer)
- Gray, Allen P. (Hugh W. Hagart)
- Greenway, Patricia (DUUS-Family);
- Griffiths, Andrew (FLOWERS, M. O., TAYLOR, William S.)
- Guggenheim, Julia (Guggenheims)
- Heer, Werner (Carl Michael Heer; C. F. Martin; A. Greeven; SASAKI Chōjun)-Spinning Mill Shinmachi
- Helm Bros. - USA;
- Hoene, Paul Erik (Wilhelm Hermann Hoene)
- Houston, Colin (McVEAN, Colin Alexander; GUBBINS, John Harrington)
- Hoyer, Jan (FESCA, Max)
- Hutchinson, John (Hutchinson-Family);
- Jacobs, Boike and Kai (BENRATH, Carl Friedrich);
- Karig, Joachim (RASPE, Max, Hans und Fritz);
- Kleffel, Juergen (Dr. R. Kleffel);
- Knight, Edna (verh. Marlow), Ottawa, Canada (Francis Ernest Worth);
- LaFara, Barb ( FLUCAWA, Frank Takeo)
- Larkin, Sue and Dr. Peter O'Connor (Miller-Family und Robert Young) + G. COZAD
- Lels, Berend (Murk Lels, Gerrit Lelsz und Carst-Family)
- May, Carolyn (Gray, Nicholas)
- Mechlenburg, Georg (Dr. Karl Marstrand-Mechlenburg)
- Meffle, Anne-Christin (Charles Ferdinand Rhine)
- Muller Pierre Emmanuel (Salabelle-Family)
- Murdoch, Santiago D'Angelis (MURDOCH, James)
- Peters, I. (Felix Schiff)
- Raetz, Jennifer; Raetz, Roland and Raetz-Gaenssler, Margot (Friedrich W. Retz and Family)
- Rainsberger, Angela (RENAULT, Hyacinthe E.; SILVA, T. E. da)
- Rainwater, Bill (D. C. Jencks);
- Reid-Smith, Edward (TOMS, W.);
- Richthofen, Dr. Karl Friedrich Frhr. von (Ferdinand, Herbert, Wilhelm von Richthofen)
- Rogers, John (Rogers, Alfred)
- Russell, Keith (Russell-Family, Curnow, Mansbridge, Mitchell)
- Rush, Joy ( John Alfred Marston)
- Samson, Charles A. (Francis, Albert Victor)
- Savory, Vickie (Nathaniel Savory and Family)
- Schirmer, Ralph (SCHIRMER, Alfred)
- Schnabel, Detlef (DREYER, Alfred)
- Shil Ilati (Ferdinand Leopold Schoettler)
- Staines, Judith (Drummand-family, J. W. Ekstrand)
- Sterneck, Checo (BIEGELEBEN, Rüdiger)
- Tat, Rosamund ( Horace John Carew, Kapitän; Horace John Carew Sinclair, Abbey's + Worth);
- Teasdale, Alison (Willoughby, Joseph)
- Tegner, Henry ( Stuart Eldridge, Frederick May Tegner)
- Turnbull, Janet (James Stewart)
- Troester, Peter (Dr. Carl Troester)
- Vidal, Owen Alexander (Sally Morris)
- Watson, Keith (Cain, Thorn, Watson, etc.)
- Wold, David C. (Francis Kate Morgan)
- ZIERCKE, John (Koletzki, Peter)
etc.