{"record":{"affiliations":[{"polityId":"polity-9c85110c7cf1ef58fef797d5","role":"Interpreter accompanying Japan’s 1860 diplomatic mission","sourceIds":["a-tateishi-imai"],"validTime":{"attestations":[{"precision":"year","value":"1860"}],"continuity":"attestation","end":null,"endInclusive":true,"start":null}}],"aliases":["Tateishi Onojiro","Tateishi Onojirō Noriyuki","Tommy Tateishi","Nagano Keijirō","Keijiro Nagano","立石斧次郎","長野桂次郎"],"appointmentIds":[],"appointmentsDataset":"https://chanceries.org/diplomats.json","archivalSources":[],"canonicalUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/person-87becdaf1dfb73b386cb65b3-ae7fdccec2/","countrySlug":null,"countrySlugs":["japan"],"documentedRoles":[{"assertionId":"assert-35176362a6722d61f42c39fe","associationBasis":"documented-participant","evidenceClass":"direct","note":"Traveled with Japan’s 1860 embassy to the United States as a probationer interpreter and assisted English lessons during the outward voyage.","predicate":"participated_in","role":"probationer interpreter in the visiting mission","sourceIds":["a-tateishi-imai"],"targetId":"event-21d7bf0f1951af5580c71192","targetType":"event","title":"Japan’s first diplomatic mission visits Washington","url":"/research/history/japan-delegation-21d7bf0f19/","validTime":{"attestations":[{"precision":"year","value":"1860"}],"continuity":"attestation","end":null,"endInclusive":true,"start":null}}],"entityId":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/person-87becdaf1dfb73b386cb65b3-ae7fdccec2/#person","eventIds":[],"expandedParagraphs":["Tateishi Onojirō accompanied Japan’s first embassy to the United States in 1860 as a probationer interpreter. Known to Americans as Tommy, he helped with English lessons aboard the Powhatan in historian Ichiryō Imai’s reading of a copied letter by Sano Kanae. He traveled as the adopted son of interpreter Tateishi Tokujurō, his uncle, while the senior envoys conducted the mission to exchange treaty ratifications.","Language work remained central to his career after the journey. He interpreted for the American legation in Japan and taught English. On 3 May 1867, Tateishi interpreted for American minister Robert B. Van Valkenburgh at his audience with the shogun in Osaka.","After fighting on the Tokugawa side during the Meiji transition, he used the name Nagano Keijirō. He taught English at Kanazawa before joining the Iwakura mission under that name. His later posts included supervising Japanese emigrants in Hawaii and interpreting for the higher court in Osaka."],"id":"global:person-87becdaf1dfb73b386cb65b3","identifiers":{},"identityScope":"global","legacyPersonIds":[],"legacyUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplomat-ae7fdccec2583707a03e.html","name":"Tateishi Onojirō","notes":[{"sourceIds":["a-tateishi-imai","a-tateishi-ishikawa"],"text":"Imai’s chronology, drawing on family materials, gives 1843–1917; the Ishikawa Library authority gives 1848–1909."}],"paragraphSources":[["a-tateishi-imai","a-jacar-burlingame"],["a-tateishi-imai","a-tateishi-frus"],["a-tateishi-descendants","a-tateishi-imai"]],"profileUrl":"diplomat-ae7fdccec2583707a03e.html","relatedEvents":[],"relatedPeople":[],"relationships":[],"researchStatus":"reviewed","reviewedOn":"2026-11-02","revision":"cc4f0212b65aff6f","sources":[{"accessedOn":"2026-11-02","date":"1983","id":"a-tateishi-imai","inspection":{"inspectedOn":"2026-11-02","language":"ja","representation":"secondary_account","scope":"Full Japanese PDF accessed and extracted; pp. 16, 23, 25–28 visually inspected.","status":"document_inspected"},"itemUrl":"https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jeigakushi1969/1983/15/1983_15_15/_pdf/-char/ja","locator":"英学史研究 15 (1983), pp. 15–32, DOI 10.5024/jeigakushi.1983.15; especially pp. 16, 23, 25–28","publisher":"Historical Society of English Studies in Japan, J-STAGE","title":"今井一良, 佐野鼎の英学とTommy・立石斧次郎のこと / Kanae Sano and Tommy Onojiro Tateishi","type":"scholarly-article","url":"https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jeigakushi1969/1983/15/1983_15_15/_article/-char/en"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-02","date":"","id":"a-tateishi-descendants","inspection":{"inspectedOn":"2026-11-02","language":"ja","representation":"secondary_account","scope":"Public Japanese chronology and cited materials; not original family documents.","status":"document_inspected"},"locator":"Chronology entries for 1843, 1909, and 1917; grave location","publisher":"Association of Descendants of the 1860 Japanese Embassy","title":"立石斧次郎教之, delegation member profile","type":"institutional-biography","url":"https://1860kenbei-shisetsu.org/history/register/profile-64/"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-02","date":"1867-05-06","id":"a-tateishi-frus","inspection":{"inspectedOn":"2026-11-02","language":"en","representation":"published_transcription","scope":"Dispatch paragraphs fixing the private audience on 3 May and identifying Tommy as interpreter; credentials ceremony on 4 May distinguished.","status":"document_inspected"},"locator":"FRUS 1867, Part II, document 28, pp. 33–34, audience on 3 May and paragraph beginning I should mention here","publisher":"Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State","title":"Van Valkenburgh to Seward, 6 May 1867","type":"primary-record","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1867p2/d28"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-02","date":"","id":"a-tateishi-ishikawa","inspection":{"inspectedOn":"2026-11-02","language":"ja","representation":"catalog_metadata","scope":"Authority entry’s life dates, aliases, and cited bibliography; cited items not inspected.","status":"catalog_inspected"},"locator":"Person prsn17824, dates and bibliography entries 1–6","publisher":"Ishikawa Prefectural Library","title":"Tateishi Onojirō, Ishikawa Prefectural Library person authority","type":"library-catalog","url":"https://www.library.pref.ishikawa.lg.jp/shosho/furucolle/list/prsn17824"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-01","date":"","id":"a-jacar-burlingame","locator":"Sections 幕末に欧米へ派遣された3つの使節団, paragraph on the 1860 ratification mission; and 清朝によるバーリンゲーム使節団派遣と西洋への眼差し, paragraphs on Zhi Gang’s leadership and published accounts","publisher":"Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan","title":"Japanese and Qing diplomatic missions before the Iwakura mission","type":"institutional-history","url":"https://www.jacar.go.jp/exhibition/iwakura/column/index.html"}],"topics":["Diplomatic interpretation","United States–Japan relations"]},"schemaVersion":1}