John Manjirō: From Tosa to Massachusetts and Back

Manjirō's story starts in Nakanohama, a fishing village on the western shore of the Ashizuri peninsula in old Tosa Province, today part of Tosashimizu in Kōchi Prefecture. He lived there as a simple fisherman. In 1841, aged 14, he went out fishing with four friends, and the trip ended in shipwreck.

Location precision: The pin marks the village area; the sources do not name the exact quay the boat left from.

The fishing boat was wrecked on the island of Torishima. Manjirō and his four companions were stranded there until the American whaleship John Howland, under Captain William H. Whitfield, rescued them. At the time the island was uninhabited aside from occasional shipwreck survivors, and Torishima was never repopulated.

The John Howland carried the castaways to Honolulu. Four of them were left there, but Manjirō, nicknamed John Mung, stayed on with the whaleship and Captain Whitfield. None of the group could simply sail home: leaving Japan was an offense punishable by death. Manjirō met his four friends there again in October 1847.

Location precision: The sources name Honolulu but no specific harbor or street; the pin marks the city.

In Fairhaven, Whitfield briefly entrusted the boy to his neighbor Ebenezer Akin, who enrolled him in the Oxford School. Manjirō studied English and navigation for a year and was apprenticed to a cooper, before signing on to the whaleship Franklin with Whitfield's help. Today the Manjirō Historic Friendship Society has renovated Whitfield's home as a museum on the Manjirō legacy, and the town holds a Manjiro Festival in early October of odd-numbered years.

Location precision: The sources name the town and Whitfield's home but give no street address; the pin marks Fairhaven.

Visitor guidance: The Whitfield home museum is run by the Manjirō Historic Friendship Society; the festival runs in early October of odd-numbered years.

After whaling in the South Seas, the Franklin returned to New Bedford in September 1849 and paid off its crew. Manjirō was self-sufficient, with $350 in his pocket. He promptly set out for the California Gold Rush, where he found enough gold to exchange for about 600 pieces of silver.

Location precision: The sources name New Bedford but not the dock where the Franklin tied up; the pin marks the city.

Manjirō bought a whaleboat, the Adventure, and with two companions sailed from Honolulu aboard the bark Sarah Boyd on 17 December 1850. They reached Okinawa on 2 February 1851. The three were promptly taken into custody, although they were treated with courtesy. Months of questioning followed, and the three were eventually released in Nagasaki.

Location precision: The sources say only that they reached Okinawa; the pin marks the island, not a landing beach.

After months of questioning, the three men were released in Nagasaki and eventually returned home to Tosa. Lord Yamauchi Toyoshige awarded them pensions. In September 1853 Manjirō was summoned to Edo, now Tokyo, questioned by the shogunate government and made a hatamoto.

Location precision: The sources do not say where in Nagasaki the questioning took place; the pin marks the city.

The journey ends where it began, on the Ashizuri peninsula. Cape Ashizuri is the southernmost tip of Shikoku, and a short distance inland stands a bronze statue of Nakahama Manjirō, who was born nearby. Tosashimizu became a sister city of both Fairhaven and New Bedford in 1987, tying the cape to the Massachusetts towns that sheltered him.

Visitor guidance: Cape Ashizuri lies within Ashizuri-Uwakai National Park; the statue is a short way inland.