When I first saw the photo over 30 years ago, I thought, “This is a joke. It must be a fake image”. The photo showed more than 20 samurai in front of the Sphinx in Egypt.
They were the “横浜鎖港談判使節団 (Yokohama Port Closure Negotiation Delegation)” dispatched to France by order of the Edo Shogunate in 1864, and this photo was taken in Egypt on the way to France.
After calling at ports in China, India and other countries, they finally reached Suez and then traveled overland to Cairo to see the pyramids and the Sphinx.
What must they have felt there at that time? It gets me excited when I imagine it.
In 1868, four years after they returned from France, the Edo Shogunate, established by Tokugawa Ieyasu, came to an end after 265 years of history, and Japan moved from the Edo period to the Meiji era. With the start of the Meiji era, Japan's class system was abolished and the samurai class disappeared.
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Very interesting!
One of the most exciting photos ever taken, and honestly it isn't just exciting to think about in terms of what they must have felt, but what ended up happening afterwards; Japan and France bound together in brotherhood.
I love this picture, one of the finest you've shared really liked your note attached to it explaining your thoughts.