Machida Seijiro

• Other Names: 清水兼次郎 (Shimizu Kenjirou), 財部実行 (Takarabe Saneyuki)
• Japanese: 町田清次郎 (Machida Seijirou)

Machida Seijirô was one of nineteen young men from Satsuma han who snuck out of the country in 1865 in order to study in Europe. Age 15 at the time, he accompanied his two older brothers, 28-year-old Machida Hisanari and 19-year-old Machida Sanetsumi, on this journey.

Unlike most members of the mission, he did not choose a subject to focus on in his studies, because of his young age. While in Europe, he went by the name Shimizu Kenjirô, but after he returned to Japan in 1866/8, he changed his name to Takarabe Saneyuki.

References

• Plaque at Satsuma students monument outside Kagoshima Chûô train station.[1]