Japanese Traveler Describes Journey Across Iran and Ancient Persian Sites // (1899) Yenaga Toyokichi 

hail on all, I am Baron Benyamin the translator for this episode, if you want more episodes about Japan on middle east, middle east on japan (like Yenaga in Ottoman empire) or much more diverse subjects make sure spread the word & like as much as you can. (a point: Yenaga was an employee in Japanese government of Taiwan & his job was dealing with drugs between Chinese commoners )

"Why didn't I bring my camera!?" One of the biggest questions in history.

The first, and last Japanese tourist to forget to bring his camera.

*generic conical-shaped mountain appears above the horizon* Japanese man: is this Fuji?

I love these little snippets of personal history

General Fukushima Yasumasa, mentioned around 6:20, was known for taking a little horseback trip from Berlin to Vladivostok in 1892-1893 (he was a Major back then). His relation inspired Japanese poet Naobumi Ochiai to write a lengthy poem "Kiba ryokō” or “Journey on a horse”, part of which known as "Porando kaiko" or "Reminiscence of Poland" became popular and was made into a song.

5:36 “Why didn’t I bring my camera?” You are not yet a weirdo tourist until you ask this question.

In 1899, this Japanese man knew so much about Western and Middle Eastern Classical history! His time at Johns Hopkins was well spent.

Many thanks to Seyed Benyamin Keshavarz (Baron Benyamin aka Getsugawa Yuzuru) for this translation.

"Why didn't I bring my camera?" Ahh, Japanese tourists...

Japan opened the country in 1854, but Toyokichi received a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1890. What a global man! (source is wikipedia tho)

5:32 - 5:40 the most relateble quote ever

Whenever you guys post a video, I stop all that I'm doing just to listen.

Imagine If he brought a camera and it was on RU-vid.

>Japan on Iran A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!

>"why didn't I bring my camera" >rebelling against lockdown the more things change the more they stay the same

This channel is just too interesting. You'd just never hear this stuff anywhere else, atleast from my experiences.

Thank you for making these. It is real time travel.

Fascinating...this channel is heroin, for people who enjoy learning about history and how people thought a hundred years ago

Nice, keep up the amazing work.

Thank you very much for sharing this piece of history 🙏.

Excellent, keep on keeping g on! Thank you.

Iyenaga (as spelled on his tomb at the Verona Beach Cemetery in Oneida County, NY) Toyokichi was drowed in Oneida Lake while fishing through the ice in 1936. He was a lecturer at the University of Chicago from 1901 to 1920 and at Columbia University from 1913 until retirement.

I like these videos before I even see/hear them , top class 👌🏻

Wow what a movie ! pictures are awesome. Thank you.

"My time in Iran was a test of my patience" Thought of every Iranian ever since.

Fantastic, thank you!

These videos are so well made; and so much more interesting than regular history books

Wow such a great video

Amazing that just a few decades before much of these Japanese accounts few Japanese knew or cared about the world outside of their Island

Once again: Utterly fascinating.

I would like to see what he said about the Ottoman Empire too

I loved it Please make more content about Iran/Persia subject I looking forward to see many more Episode about Iran Thank you🙏

a great memory from a Japanese passenger in Iran .thank you

"The midnight thermometer still showed 39 degrees" Remind me never to go the Gulf of Oman in the summer

These are wonderful, thank you so much for the readings and thank you to the translator for their work. Please do more when you can!

As an Iranian who is into our history specially Qajar Era ( 1780s to 1925 ) it was amazing and even close to make me cry. One of the most interesting thing for me was seeing Japanese version of Map of Qajar Iran seeing name of Former old state of Iraq e ajam which means the Persian Iraq which it was included cities of Tehran , Isfahan , Qazvin , Zanjan and .....

These accounts are absolute treasures. Please keep up the good work

Also in 1877 a Persian guy name Haj Sayah in his way back to Iran from US visits Japan and China. He was amazed to see how diligent and hard working people Japanese are.

Thank you so much

This is absolutely fascinating stuff. You can learn about both the traveler culture as much as the land he is traveling thru. Fascinating!

Thank you.

The first woman in Iran to remove her veil and call for the emancipation of women was Tahirih Qurratu 'l-'Ayn (born 1817). She was killed for her beliefs in 1852.

Getting ripped off again and again. Sounds like tourism indeed

Hi thanks for posting this video love it I really love Japan can't wait to travel there and I'm from Iran.

Fascinating how erudite the Japanese narrator is; how well-versed he is in the Biblical and classical history of the region regarding Alexander the Great etc. What surprises me is his own surprisal at the state of women in Iran when I’d imagine that contemporary Japanese women lived similar, secluded lives, though I know very little of Japanese history. Also, the story of him getting ripped off at the end/ the journey being one that tested his patience “physically and mentally” was hilarious and could very well occur today.

Things were so cool back then to be able to explore still

2:13 those damn lockdowns because corona

You can't eventually turn right from Persepolis and see Damavand, there's more than a thousand kilometers distance between these two.

I intrested 4 it.thanke 2 u 4 such these progrom.

To see a Japanese traveler in Persia in 1899 would have been an exotic sight.

I thought this would be boring but it was actually quite enjoyable, amazing work mate!! Looking forward for the rest of story in Ottoman empire :)

This is medicine for us history nerds. Thank you for another great video ..

That was great! 👍

: D More Japan guy

The pirates in the Persian gulf during the 19th century were not Omanies but Al-Qasimi Tribe centered around Jelfar (today Ras Al-Khaymah). The Omanies and the East India company and later the British together were the ones that drove them out.

*I think they should make a modern story about a Japanese man with servant in tow passing through Compton California and South Side of Chicago*

Interesting look into a world of the past

"Why didn't I bring my camera?" That was the most Japanese thing he could have said. 😄

this channel is absolutely great, but have you ever thought adding subtitles to the video

7:24 I wonder that too. That must be depressing.

good thing he didn't take a wrong turn and end up in South Carolina.. "I arrived in a strange humid land, there were overweight men ontop of a truck spinning tank tops above their head yelling "HOOO!" they spotted me from a distance and attempted to chase me down with a dozen basset hounds but I managed to hide inside a nearby Cracker Barrel"

marvelous testimony.very well read

He's fair in his praise and his scorn.

Amazing

Wonderful time travel

Excellent work. and thank you from canda, shir. Lion. Rise.

Fascinating!

Fun fact: Iran was defeated in the two Russo-Persian wars (the last one ending in 1823) and by 1905 was nothing but a de facto Russian client! But the Russo-Japanese war of 1905, caused the Iranians to revolt against the Shah, both because Russia went into turmoil, and perhaps more important, because the fellow Asian nation of Japan proved Russia (and the West/Europe) weak. This eventually lead into a full revolution known as the Persian constitutional revolution. Another funny fact is that the very same war also caused a Russian constitutional revolution at the very same time!

Please just read to me. Anything, I don’t care. Read the Apple terms of service if you want, that’s fine! #bestnarratorever

Incredible

One of the first people to say "why didnt I bring my camera"

Many Slavic languages, German and Swedish have word similar to Doroshke describing light carriage. To my knowledge it was slavic in origin, but seeing it used in Persia maybe it's the case. But it also might be that term was adopted from Russians.

Do you upload these on an audio only platform too? Like Acast? I think it'll be great if you did. Thank you for these. 🙏🏻

Would love to see the rest of his travels!

aaah, come on man, 7:16 these are Armenian fedayi women

"They love to hunt, ride, and shoot." Said every admiring warrior-culture visitor to any other warrior-culture.

My man respect❤️❤️❤️

5:33 I like how this is still a problem for travelers to this day 😂

Fascinating story

Kinda funny how he was so fixated on the Fuji like mountain. You think he would be more interested in the aspects of Iran that you can't see in Japan like the mosques or the deserts lol.

A Japanese tourist that forgot to bring the camera 5:33 now that's rare to hear about these days Japan has canon Nikon fujifilm etc.

Thank you for posting this video i'm from Iran and i love Japan i cant wait to travel to Japan and i was wondering what do Japanese people think about Iranians now a days?

Great video I would like to say that Iran have not always been like this. For example the French tell about the Safavid Persians hospitality, equality and quality and say that the Persians are the most closely European people compared to the Ottomans. They say that the Persians lived better lives than the French and that the Emperor manage the economy well. That the people were well educated and good quality soldiers. The cities were clean and the people welcomed them. But after emperor Sam Mirza Safavi the government was on a decline. It regained its power by Emperor Nader Shah and the Zands. But when the Qajars (the dynasty of this era) came to power many things changed. It did look good first when they took power, Iran did retake Shirvan and did fought of her enemies well. Abbas Mirza actually modernised Iran and some reports say that the infantry of Iran was like the British infantry. Either way, because of Napoleon, Iran "started" a war with Russia. They did manage well but as they had a lack of cannons could not fight as good as a modern army. When Napoleon lost they were also doomed to lose and did lose all of Shirvan and Armenia. After that the emperors really gave up and did not really believe that they could do anything (expect the son of Abbas Mirza). They did manage to push out the British and the Ottomans but after that they pretty much were a secondary power. This unrest that is talked about is close to the constitutional revolution that actually emperor Mozaffarad-Din Shah accepted. But the Russians attacked and put back the king to power. Iran only got back her rights to rule Iran after the fall of the Qajar. This is really a "in a nutshell" comment. There is a lot more to this. So I recommend to read it yourself if you are interested. Also northen Iran is pretty green.

Just subscribed. I find this fascinating! As a North American I think of things in respect to my own culture(s). Getting an outsider opinion on an outside society is something I feel We need more of.

What a journey this man was on. He must have been very happy when it ended.

I’ve spent 14 years translating Farsi and never heard a story like this. I find it incredibly interesting I would love to hear more. If you would like any help with pronunciation of place names then I would be happy to work with you on that.

O..... nice explanation

"He is 47. How young to be in politics" I'm guessing Japanese lords were usually real geezers.

Those women in 7:23 are not Iranian, it is a picture of the Chillengarian (

"The king doesn't really rule at all, the real law is the religious law and true power is with the Imams(Mullahs)." That statement... so true!

Didn’t read the full title, thought it was from Ancient Japan or something - still very interesting though. Thanks for this! Cheers, G.M. Bar.

Glorious

Isn't the photo @7:20 of Armenian militia women?

How do you find and select primary sources?

You should talk about the Ethiopian embassy that visited Naples around 1450. More broadly you should talk about the African Christian view on Europe.

Cyrus was foretold by name some centuries before he was born. These voices of the past are wonderful. Thank you! God bless y'all with salvation. My horse and clothes and other stuff was lost. Aka stolen. Did servant mean slave to the Nipponese?

Soooooo... interesting... and elucidative... This guy was for sure a leaned person... Here we can see why, at the time... and once again... Persia was in the down path.... (corruption and indigence) and Japan was in the up direction (Honor and abnegation) (not endorsing or criticizing,,, just stating) I fell most amusing when seeing the Fuji-like mountain,,, regret forgetting the cellular phone (ooopss... the camera ;-)

great

I miss read this and thought this was Japan on Japan and was really confused