Born on the 25th of August 1836 at Yedo, Enomoto Buyo was sent by the Tokugawa Government as a young naval officer to study in Holland, and he was in Europe for several years, ultimately returning to Japan on board the Kai-yo Maru, as she was named, a corvette built at Amsterdam to the order of the Shogunate. With him returned several of the students who had been despatched in 1862 and 1863 to Europe for purposes of study, some sent by their clans, and some by the Bakufu. Ito Shunsuke and Inouye Bunda, two of the number, had, as is elsewhere recorded, returned some years previously, in consequence of trouble in their native province of Choshiu. The Kai-yo Maru reached Japan in 1866, and she was a formidable addition to the fleet of six vessels already possessed by the Shogun’s Government. Being a native of Yedo he was of course one of the Bakufu supporters, and when the troubles of 1867 began, and which were to culminate in the fall of the Tokugawa family from power, Admiral Enomoto was loyal to his chief, Prince Keiki, and fought strenuously for his side in the War of the Restoration.

When, on the result of the battle of Fushimi between the Tokugawa men and the Imperialist regiments belonging to Satsuma and Choshiu becoming known at Osaka, the Shogun recognised the impossibility of retrieving the fortunes of the day, his retainers procured a small boat for him at an adjacent wharf and he made his way to the vessels belonging to him,—three in number,—lying off Tempo-san, at the mouth of the river Yodo, on which the city of Osaka stands. He was quickly taken on board the Kai-yo Maru, Admiral Enomoto’s flagship, and she was next seen entering Kobé harbour with her consorts on the 26th January 1868, Prince Keiki being on board. Lying in Kobé were three Satsuma steamers, and the Kai-yo Maru challenged them to combat by steaming round them and leading the way to the open sea. The contest took place in “Awa Bay” as it is termed, in reality the indentation of the coast facing Tokushima, the chief town of Awa province, close to the southern extremity of the island of Awaji, a few hours’ steam from Kobé. One of the Satsuma ships was sunk and another took fire. The three ships under Admiral Enomoto, one of which was the steam-yacht Emperor which Queen Victoria had sent out as a present to the Shogun some time before, escaped with slight damage, and subsequently steamed to Yedo, where the Prince Tokugawa Keiki landed a week after the battle. The Emperor yacht was best known by her Japanese name of Banrio Maru. Several of the clans at this period possessed foreign-built steamers, and the chieftain Shimadzu Saburo of Satsuma had purchased the Fiery Cross in Yokohama as far back as 1862, as a present for his nephew the daimio of Kagoshima. She had been handed over to her new owners in Yedo bay and navigated by them to the headquarters of the clan. The ships belonging to the several territorial barons were ultimately surrendered to the Central Government, after the Restoration, as well as those belonging to the Shogunate, and formed the nucleus of the splendid navy that Japan may now rightfully pride herself on having established.

The eight ships which had been lying in Shinagawa waters, and which were to have been given up to the Imperial Government when Yedo was finally surrendered, suddenly left there, however, on October 4th, 1898, under the command of Admiral Enomoto, and it became known that he had stolen away to Hakodate. There, in conjunction with three other supporters of the Shogun’s lost cause, he presently proclaimed the “Republic of Yeso,” the other signatories being Otori Keisuke (subsequently pardoned, and at a later date the faithful and energetic representative of Japan at the Court of Korea) Matsudaira Taro,—a relative, as his name implied, though in this case a distant one, of the Tokugawa family, and Arai Ikunosuke, subsequently appointed to an office under the Colonisation Department in Yeso, and in which he evinced no little talent as an organiser.

Admiral Enomoto declared that his reason for going to Hakodate with his squadron was that he and his friends had resolved to guard the Northern Gate for the Emperor, and to till the soil, as yet wholly uncultivated, of the island of Yeso.

“Men who have the hearts of Samurai,” they pleaded, “cannot turn into farmers or merchants, so it appeared to us that there was nothing for us but to starve. And considering the untilled state of the island of Yeso we petitioned the Government that we might remove thither, but all in vain.” In sheer despair they had sailed north at their own risk, using force only against the fortified places, Hakodate and Matsumai (now Fukuyama). “The farmers and merchants are unmolested, going about their business without fear, and are sympathising with us, so that already,” they added, “we have brought some land under cultivation. We pray that this portion of the Empire may be conferred upon our late lord, Tokugawa Kamenosuké, and in that case we shall repay your beneficence by our faithful guardianship of the Northern Gate.” The newly appointed head of the Tokugawa clan, here alluded to as Kamenosuké, now Prince Tokugawa Iyesato, President of the House of Peers, was ordered to go to Yeso and restrain his clansmen, but it was asked that as this young prince was then only a child of five years old, the ex-Shogun Keiki might be given control. This, however, was refused, lest his prestige might still be employed by his followers to incite others to rebellion and thus prolong a useless struggle.

“Why should we quit this spot?” asked Enomoto afterwards, when told he must surrender: “If his Majesty the Emperor will take pity on us and give us a portion of this barren northern region, our men shall guard the gate till death, whilst for the crime of having opposed the Imperial army, we two [Matsudaira and himself] will gladly suffer capital punishment.”

It was not until the following spring that the newly formed Central Government at Yedo found itself able to turn its attention seriously to the subjugation of the little band of malcontents up north, and then the Imperial fleet steamed away from the anchorage at the head of the bay, off Shinagawa, intending to rendezvous at Hakodate where the rebels were making a last stand. The chief hope of the Satsuma officers lay in their recent acquisition, the Stonewall, to which had been given the Japanese title of Adzuma. She had been employed in the American Civil War before she came into Japanese hands, as one of the Federal Squadron in the assault on Vicksburg.

The Adzuma though of small tonnage, was an ironclad, and with her mighty ram she presented a most sinister appearance. Altogether the collective fleet made a very good beginning, and the Imperialists were justly proud of it as marking an appreciable advance on the agglomeration of war junks with which the nation’s sea-fighting had been done under the old conditions.

The Stonewall (or Adzuma) had been bought in America by the agents of the Shogunate, and she dropped anchor in Yokohama on the 24th of April 1868, only a few days before the Prince Tokugawa Keiki resigned his office. She was never delivered to the Shogun’s government, but was, by order of the American Minister, retained in port at Yokohama under the Stars and Stripes ensign, though as a matter of fact she had flown the flag of Japan on her voyage thither from the United States. There was some little heart-burning at this, for it was thought that had she been available for use by the Shogunate party which had bought her, she might with her far greater power have made short work of the imperial fleet. But, as we have seen, the Shogun was then ready to resign, and all prospect of success vanished with his submission to the Emperor five days after the ironclad’s arrival in Japanese waters.

With the resignation of the Shogun she naturally came into the hands of the Imperialists, to whom the United States authorities were no doubt justified under the circumstances in delivering her, and she set out bravely enough with the remainder of the imperial squadron for the north in 1869. But less than twenty-four hours had elapsed before she was in difficulties with her engines, and it was with much trouble and anxiety that she was navigated as far towards Yeso as the harbour of Miyako, a little to the north of Sendai Bay, and about half way to Hakodate. Here she might have been captured, but for good luck, for she had entered to coal and her crew were ashore, not scenting danger, as they had no expectation that any of Admiral Enomoto’s vessels were in the vicinity. While she was lying at anchor the Eagle, flying the Shogunate ensign, steamed in, and catching sight of the ram, charged her at full speed. It was magnificent, but it was not war, and the Eagle’s bow was severely damaged by the exploit. There was a tussle on the deck of the Adzuma, and several were killed on either side, but numbers were with the Imperialists, and the Eagle was obliged to seek safety as best she could in flight. She ultimately reached port at Hakodate, though her consort, the Ashuelot gunboat, which was waiting for her outside Miyako, contrived to run ashore, it being rather a foggy time of year, and was captured with all hands, by the Imperial fleet, which followed as soon as steam could be got up, and went to Aomori Bay, on the south side of the Straits of Tsugaru, opposite to Hakodate.

The engagement which shortly afterwards took place on land and sea at Hakodate itself was described by eye-witnesses as a splendidly contested affair from first to last. The besiegers advanced under a very heavy and well-sustained fire, and Admiral Enomoto’s defence of his vessels, on the other hand, was skilful and resolute. The Kwan-gun or Imperialist forces, which had come to the straits overland from Tokio, were landed on Hakodate Head in the rear of the town of Hakodate, while the rebels held the battery at Benten, and the villages of Chiyoga-oka and Goriokaku. They were under the command of Matsudaira Taro, Otori Keisuke, and Arai Ikunosuke, while Admiral Enomoto was afloat, one of his captains being the present Ambassador in London, Viscount Hayashi. Despite their undoubted bravery, the Tokugawa men were overmatched, for the Imperialists acquired a position which dominated the fortifications of the town from the hill behind, and when at last he saw that it would merely prolong the strife and cause useless bloodshed if he persisted in his opposition, Admiral Enomoto, yielding to the earnest remonstrances of the Imperialist Army, surrendered, and the Shogun’s followers finally laid down their arms.

Admiral Enomoto and many of those with him were imprisoned for a time, but there was no desire to treat harshly those who had been loyal to the party which had a claim on their services, notwithstanding that they had of necessity been classed as rebels, and Enomoto was himself given a high post as Minister of the Colonisation Department then newly established under the title of the Kai-taku-shi, its operations being specially directed to the development of this northernmost island of the Empire. Thus in some degree Enomoto had his wish gratified, of being entrusted with the guardianship of the Northern Gate, but in 1874 he was despatched to St Petersburg on a mission to arrange with the Russian Government for the exchange, in conformity with Russia’s request, of the southern half of Sakhalin island for the northern half of the chain of islets forming the Kuriles Archipelago. When he returned from Russia he was again occupied with the work of Colonisation, and in 1882 he went to China as Japan’s representative at the Court of Peking.

He has occupied a seat in the Cabinet on several occasions, having held the portfolios, at various times, of the Navy, Foreign Affairs, Education, Communications, and Agriculture and Commerce. The last-named office he occupied in the Second Ito Ministry at the close of 1896, and was similarly placed in the Second Matsukata Ministry which fell in December 1897.

It was characteristic of him that when the conflict was over at Hakodate in 1869 he sent to the Imperialist Generals two volumes on Naval Tactics which he had studied while in Holland prior to 1866. They were very valuable books, he said, and were otherwise unobtainable in the Empire and he could not bear that they should be destroyed. The Imperialist leaders acknowledged the gift, and in return sent to the Admiral five kegs of saké, the native wine. Enomoto and Matsudaira were both resolved on putting an end to their lives by the traditionally honourable act of seppuku, but they were closely watched and were prevented from doing so, and they finally surrendered and were taken prisoners to Yedo, where, as already explained, their punishment was only of brief duration.

Happily, Admiral Enomoto, though no longer on the active List of the Navy, is still in the enjoyment of good general health at seventy years of age. He is rightfully regarded by the younger men as the father, to all intents and purposes, of the Japanese Navy, and his exploits at the beginning of the Meiji era certainly entitle him to a high place in the affections of those who recognise in the fleet as it exists to-day a bulwark of defence against invasion and a force which has proved itself capable of making the flag of the Rising Sun Empire everywhere respected.