はじめのひとこと
ここ高輪の東禅寺に置かれたイギリスの公使館は、ある夜、刀を持った者たちに襲われました。
その翌朝、公使館の中には、夜の跡がいくつも残っていました。
そしてのちに、イギリス政府は、警護にあたった日本の役人にメダルを贈っています。
The British legation here at Tozenji in Takanawa was attacked one night by men with swords.
The next morning, the legation still bore many marks of that night.
Later, the British government gave a medal to a Japanese officer who had been on guard.
騒ぎが収まってから、公使のオールコックは、屋内を見て回りました。
寺の側の薄い板が破られ、小さな中庭に入り込んだ跡がありました。
浴室の傾いた屋根には、血の付いた手形。手負いの者が、そこを越えて逃げたらしい、と書いています。
破られた板のそばで、オールコックは、刀一振りと、銭と印の入った革の財布を拾いました。
ほかの部屋も、暗闇の中でめちゃくちゃに斬られていた、と書記官のオリファントは書いています。
ベッドの柱は一太刀で切り落とされ、机の上の聖書は、四分の三まで切り込まれていました。
午前三時ごろになっても、兵たちは庭の藪を刀で突いて、隠れた者を探していました。
翌朝、御典医だと名乗る老人たちが、見舞いに来ます。
オリファントは、包帯を外して傷を見せることを、きっぱり断りました。
オリファントは傷を治すために本国へ送られ、将軍から女王への手紙を託されました。
これ以上の港を開くのを、数年待ってほしい、と求める手紙でした。
のちにイギリス政府は、この夜に警護にあたった幕府の役人、江幡吉平に、銀のメダルを贈りました。
港区の資料によれば、メダルは明治22年（1889年）、江幡の娘に渡されました。
令和2年（2020年）9月の時点で確かめられているそのメダルは、2点です。
そのうちの1点は、港区の文化財になっています。
When the uproar was over, the Minister, Rutherford Alcock, went through the house.
On the temple side, thin planking had been broken through into a small court.
On the sloping roof of the bath-room was a bloody handprint; a wounded man, he writes, had apparently escaped over it.
By the broken planking, Alcock picked up a sword and a leather purse holding some coins and a seal.
The other rooms, too, had been slashed about recklessly in the dark, writes the Secretary, Laurence Oliphant.
A bedpost had been cut clean through at one stroke, and the Bible on his table was cut three-quarters through.
Even at about three in the morning, soldiers were still prodding the bushes in the garden with their swords, searching for anyone hidden.
Early the next morning, some elderly men came, announcing that they were the Imperial physicians.
Oliphant firmly refused to take off his bandages and show them his wounds.
He was sent home to recover, and was entrusted with a letter from the Shogun to the Queen.
The letter asked that no more ports be opened for some years.
Later, the British government gave a silver medal to Ebata Kichihei, a shogunate officer who had stood guard that night.
According to Minato City, the medal was handed to Ebata's daughter in 1889, the twenty-second year of Meiji.
As of September 2020, only two of those medals were known.
One of them is now a cultural property of Minato City.
記録の言葉
この話のもとになった記録の言葉です。ページは、その本に刷られたものです。
Rutherford Alcock『The Capital of the Tycoon』Vol. II（New York: Harper, 1863）一次史料
we found an entrance had been effected from the Temple at another point, through some thin planking into a little court, on which the room of Mr. Lowder, one of the student interpreters, opened.
The mark of a bloody hand was found on the sloping roof of the bath-room, over which apparently some wounded man had made his escape ; and by the broken planking I picked up a sword and a leather purse, with a few cash and a seal in it, which had been dropped.
One morning, after the attack on the Legation, the Prince of Xendai sent an officer with a retinue of a hundred men or more, to remove one of his ancestors' tablets to another temple.
My informant, however, thought he had taken this very unusual step to show his displeasure that the Legation was not removed, and his hatred to foreigners, which is commonly spoken of as something generally known.
the evening before the tablet was removed, our chief of the Yaconins on service came to inform me of what was about to take place, with a sort of vague intimation that it would be as well if our own guard were on foot.
They came, as it happened, at a much earlier hour than was announced ; so that, as far as any preparation on our part was concerned, they might have had us at a disadvantage ; but it was observed that all our Japanese guards were mustered, and stood to their arms, lining the palisade which surrounded our court-yard and the entrance.
Mr. Oliphant, the Secretary of Legation, sent Home for the Cure of his Wounds. — Bearer of the Tycoon's autograph Letter to the Queen, urging the Non-opening of more Ports for a Term of Years.
The common people believed he did this because he was displeased that the temple should be contaminated with our presence, and the 'unclean' food we use, by killing sheep and fowls.
Laurence Oliphant『Episodes in a Life of Adventure』New Edition（Edinburgh and London: Blackwood, 1896）一次史料
Early in the morning I was roused from a troubled doze by six or eight solemn-looking elderly Japanese, who announced that they were the Imperial physicians come to inquire after my health. I positively refused to allow them to remove the bandages and examine the wounds ; so they contented themselves with looking very wise, examining my tongue, and placing their ears over my heart.
It was about three o'clock in the morning that I determined to struggle back to bed ; and even then the soldiers were hunting about the garden for concealed members of the gang that had attacked us, prodding the bushes with their swords
The assailants appear to have slashed about recklessly in the dark, in the hope of striking a victim. Some of the mattresses were prodded through and through; one bedpost was completely severed by a single sword-cut; and a Bible lying on a table was cut three-quarters through.
one of our assailants, a stalwart young fellow with a somewhat hang-dog countenance, was taken prisoner and afterwards executed
港区立郷土歴史館「東禅寺事件銀製メダル及び江幡家文書」（港区文化財総合目録）
東禅寺（イギリス公使館）襲撃事件（以下、東禅寺事件）の際、警護にあたった幕府の外国御用出役の江幡吉平に対して、イギリス政府から贈られた銀製メダル
明治22（1889）年、連絡の取れた55名へ渡されることになりました。江幡へのメダルは同年7月10日に、娘のきくに授与されました
このときのメダルは本資料のほか1点しか確認されていません（令和２年９月現在）
所有者／港区教育委員会／概要／32点 歴史資料 令和2年10月28日指定