Thank you, Angie! This part of the history of Jūnisō was completely unknown by the people of the shrine, the neighborhood organization, the local library, and even the Shinjuku History Museum. I was also unable to find it in any Japanese source.
I found it thanks to a tip by photography historian Sebastian Dobson when he visited me for breakfast earlier this year. He has studied and written about the Prussian Expedition and suggested I read the diaries that I quoted.
Thanks to this I finally managed to learn reading old Prussian script, something that had intimidated me for decades. I had to learn it in order to read the old diaries. Thankfully, it was a lot easier than I thought.
In short, I don’t think this story of the Prussians visiting Jūnisō, and what was probably the first concert of Western music in Shinjuku, has been published since the German language diaries were published in the 1860s.
Great series!
I linked to Part 1 in a Facebook group, so hopefully you’ll get a bit of traffic from there!
Thank you very much, Daniel. Appreciate it!
My paternal heritage is Prussian. I found this article really interesting!
Thank you, Angie! This part of the history of Jūnisō was completely unknown by the people of the shrine, the neighborhood organization, the local library, and even the Shinjuku History Museum. I was also unable to find it in any Japanese source.
I found it thanks to a tip by photography historian Sebastian Dobson when he visited me for breakfast earlier this year. He has studied and written about the Prussian Expedition and suggested I read the diaries that I quoted.
Thanks to this I finally managed to learn reading old Prussian script, something that had intimidated me for decades. I had to learn it in order to read the old diaries. Thankfully, it was a lot easier than I thought.
In short, I don’t think this story of the Prussians visiting Jūnisō, and what was probably the first concert of Western music in Shinjuku, has been published since the German language diaries were published in the 1860s.
Glad you found it interesting!