Ichiki Kazuhiko

• Other Names: 松村淳蔵 (Matsumura Junzou)
• Japanese: 市来和彦 (Ichiki Kazuhiko)

Ichiki Kazuhiko was the first Japanese to graduate from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis.

He first traveled abroad in 1865, at the age of 24, as one of a group of students from Satsuma han who snuck out of the country in order to travel to Europe. For the duration of the trip, he went by the name Matsumura Junzô. Ichiki studied naval surveying while in Europe, and then in 1867/7 traveled to the United States.

After graduating from Annapolis, he returned to Japan in November 1873, and later became head of Japan's naval military school.

References

• Plaque at the monument to the Satsuma students at Kagoshima Chûô train station, Kagoshima.[1]