Algernon Mitford

Algernon Bertram Mitford, Lord Redesdale, was a British diplomat of the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods, who visited Japan in 1866-1867, and again in 1906.

His 1906 trip was undertaken in order to formally bestow the Order of the Garter upon the Meiji Emperor. As part of the festivities and entertainments prepared for his visit, a sankin kôtai procession was recreated; having seen genuine sankin kôtai processions in the 1860s, he commented on how powerfully it evoked an image or idea of the feudal past.

References

• Vaporis, Constantine. "Lordly Pageantry: The Daimyo Procession and Political Authority." Japan Review 17 (2005), 4.