Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on Albert du Bousquet's immense contribution to modernizing Japan's institutions not only in the military domain but also in the judicial, political and cultural sphere. With an excellent command of Japanese, he also played a key role in promoting Japanese studies in France.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on Albert du Bousquet's immense contribution to modernizing Japan's institutions not only in the military domain but also in the judicial, political and cultural sphere. With an excellent command of Japanese, he also played a key role in promoting Japanese studies in France.

Also known as "ジブスケ", Albert du Bousquet (1837-1882) remained loyal to the French army all through his life. Born in Liège, he went back to France to enter the French military academy, Saint Cyr. After graduation, he participated in six campaigns including the Algerian campaign and the expedition of China (1860), which helped him to master six foreign languages such as Arabic and Chinese. He arrived in Japan as a member of the First French military mission in 1867 and unlike the other officers who left Japan by tennō's decree in October 1868, he decided to stay as an interpreter of the French Legation, situation offered by French administration because of his excellent command of Japanese. In the meantime, he was married to a Japanese woman, later with four children.

In 1870 Du Bousquet was recruited by Japanese government as a foreign adviser to War Ministry and a year later, to Sain until 1875, then to Genrōin until November 1877. During seven years, he had devoted himself day and night to translating French documents into Japanese in order to make solid proposals for modernization and for reinforcement of French influence in various fields. The documents in the National Archives of Japan show that he had an impressive working capacity: the number of documents he submitted amounts to approximately 100 and the domains cover military laws and organizations, but also political institutions such as Conseil d'État and different laws on a wide variety of subjects. In cultural terms, he attended the first International Congress of Orientalists in Paris in 1873 and he helped to constitute a Japanese collection in the École des langues orientales.

This paper examines the significance of his proposals and networks, especially while he served Sain under Etō Shinpei, between 1871 and 1875.