Humbert - Aimee Humbert

Japanese: アンベール - Ｈｕｍｂｅｒｔ，Ａｉｍｅ´

Year of death: 1900.9.19 (1900.9.19)
Born: June 12, 1819
A Swiss educator and politician who came to Japan at the end of the Edo period. Born in a small village in the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, he became a teacher halfway through his studies for economic reasons. When the anti-Prussian Provisional Government was established in Neuchâtel in 1848, he entered the government and held a succession of important positions. He left politics around the time the canton formally joined the Swiss Confederation, and in 1858 he was put in charge of the canton's watchmaking association. In 1859, the association sent a representative to Japan to propose the conclusion of a treaty, but after the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and Prussia (1861), he decided to send a mission to Japan, and in May 1862 he was appointed its leader. He arrived in Yokohama on March 10, 1863 (Bunkyu 3), and at the height of the Sonn-joi movement, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and Switzerland was finally signed on December 29. After returning to Japan, he took up a teaching position in Neuchâtel, retiring in 1892. The two volumes of "Le Japon Illustre" (translation of "Hambert's Illustrations of Japan at the End of the Edo Period," New Foreign Books, vols. 14 and 15), which record what he saw and heard during his stay in Japan, are full of illustrations and are very interesting.

(Yasuko Hirose)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：1900.9.19(1900.9.19)
生年：1819.6.12
幕末に来日したスイスの教育者,政治家。スイスのヌーシャテル州の小村に生まれ,経済上の理由で学業半ばにして教師となる。1848年同地で反プロイセンの臨時政府が成立するや官界入りし,要職を歴任。同州のスイス連邦正式加盟と前後して政界を去り,58年同州の時計組合統轄の任に当たる。同組合から59年代理人を日本へ送り込み,条約締結の申し入れを行ったが,日本プロイセン修好通商条約の調印(1861)をみるにおよんで対日使節団派遣を策定,62年5月団長に任命される。文久3(1863)年3月10日横浜到着,尊攘運動最高潮下ようやく12月29日日瑞修好通商条約調印にこぎつける。帰国後はヌーシャテルで教職に就き,1892年引退。日本滞在中の見聞を記録した《Le Japon Illustre´》2vols.(翻訳『アンベール幕末日本図絵』新異国叢書14・15巻)は図版がふんだんに入れてあり興味深い。

(廣瀬靖子)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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