H
National Library of Australia - Home page
NLA News - home April 2005 Volume XV Number 7

Mary Kawatani Kirby: A Woman of Two Worlds

click to enlarge

Mary Kirby at the age of eight with her mother
Photograph by S. Ichida, Kobe. Manuscript Collection MS6681/1/76

Keiko Tamura sketches the story of a girl at the intersection of East and West

The city of Kobe has been a gateway to Asia and the West since the mid-nineteenth century, when it was opened up as one of the first international ports after 200 years of Japan’s isolationist policy. On a sunny autumn day in 2004, Tor Road in Kobe is busy with tourists and shoppers. The road used to connect downtown Kobe in the south to Tor Hotel in Kitano on the northern hills. Even though the hotel is long gone, this unusual street name has remained and has become a symbol of the cosmopolitan atmosphere, with shops selling imports and exotic restaurants. The Kitano area, where several Western-style residences have been preserved, is the main tourist attraction of the city. Although the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 flattened major sections of the city, 10 years on there is hardly any evidence of the destruction. 

At the northern end of Tor Road is the Kobe Foreign Club. The club was first established in 1868 by English expatriates, and moved in 1955 to the present premises, where the Tor Hotel used to be. At the back of the clubhouse, away from the view of casual visitors, Kirby Hall stands quietly against the hill. Its four white Corinthian stone pillars and the matching facade look out of place among local apartment buildings and parked cars nearby.

click to enlarge

Mary Kirby at the age of 19
Photograph by Browning, Exeter, England. Manuscript Collection MS6681/1/76

Kirby Hall was built in 1971, for the Freemasons, with the legacy left by a daughter of Alfred Kirby—Mary Kawatani Kirby—in memory of her father. The hall is still used regularly for meetings by local Freemasons, though Mary Kirby’s name seems to have completely disappeared from memory, as those who are currently associated with Kirby Hall or the Kobe Club know nothing about her. Who was she? What kind of life did she lead? Why did she leave such a legacy?

When I was doing research on the Harold Williams Collection at the National Library in 2002, two old photographs caught my attention. They were images of the same girl, taken 10 years apart, and in two countries. The first photograph was taken in November 1891 in Kobe, Japan. This studio photograph shows a little girl in a kimono, holding her mother’s hand and an umbrella. Her mother is also wearing a kimono. The other photograph was taken in 1901, in Exeter, England. It shows a young girl in a Western white high-collar blouse. The girl still has the same serious expression, and the photograph is signed. 

The girl in both photographs is Mary Kawatani Kirby, also known as Ume Kawatani. She was the elder daughter of Alfred Kirby and Miss Kawatani. These two images stirred my curiosity. How did this girl move from Kobe to Exeter? What kind of life did she lead after her return to Japan? The file that contained the photographs described Mary’s father and uncle, Alfred and Edward, relatively well. In contrast, the documentation of the daughter’s life was very fragmentary.

click to enlarge

The Tor Hotel, Kobe
From the Japan Chronicle, Sunday 8 November1936
Manuscript Collection MS6681/1/127

Edward Kirby arrived in Japan from England via Hong Kong and Australia around 1860, with his Chinese wife and three daughters, Anne, Clara and Emily. In Kobe he established an ironworks, which rapidly expanded into a shipbuilding enterprise with the assistance of capital from overseas banks. Orders started to come in from the Japanese government, which was eager to strengthen its naval capability, and the business was eventually bought by the Japanese government to become a foundation of the Japanese Naval dockyard.

click to enlarge

Emily Kirby
Photograph by Browning, Exeter, England. Manuscript Collection MS6681/1/76

Edward’s nephew, Alfred Kirby, joined his uncle’s business in the 1870s from India, where he had been working on the Indus River as a paddle-boat engineer. After arriving in Japan, Alfred was sent by Edward to Otsu, a town on the shore of Lake Biwa, to assemble two ferryboats that had been prefabricated in Scotland. During this stay, Alfred met Miss Kawatani at the Otsu Licenced Quarter and, without the formality of marrying, eventually two girls were born: Mary in 1882 and Amy a few years later. Tragically, Amy was blinded at a young age and suffered severe disability.

Edward and Alfred’s families could have enjoyed the comfortable expatriate lifestyle in Kobe. However, Edward committed suicide due to financial worries in 1883, and his family left Japan for England soon after. The management of his estate was left to Alfred, who remained in Kobe to work in the shipbuilding business as a foreman, and later as a marine surveyor.

It was not clear how Mary was brought up in Kobe. Probably, she was sent to an English school where foreign children were taught. All we know is that her first studio photograph was taken in that city in 1891, and 10 years later she was in Exeter, attending school—most probably with her cousin, Emily, the youngest daughter of Edward. (Mary and Emily maintained a very close friendship throughout their lives, and in later years exchanged letters frequently between England and Japan.)   

After spending some years in England, however, Mary returned to Japan. Alfred Kirby led a comfortable expatriate life in Kobe until his death in 1940 at the age of 88. He and his daughters became the largest shareholders of the Tor Hotel, famous for its exclusive European style. He was a very active Freemason in the local club. His old acquaintance, Bill Lackie, wrote in 1971 that the only exercise Alfred had was toddling the few hundred yards from his house to the local Masonic Club, where he had a chair designated for him and where he played the occasional game of snooker. Even though he drank quite heavily and smoked strong cigars continuously, he had good physical and mental health into his old age.

Mary did not marry, most probably because Alfred needed somebody who could look after him and his blind daughter. Alfred discouraged young men from seeing Mary and would not let ‘white men’ visit his home for many years. Mary apparently had a budding romance with a young English banker with whom she sang in a church choir, but her father prevented it maturing. 

click to enlarge

Kirby Hall, October 2004
Photographed by Keiko Tamura

After Alfred’s death, the dividends from the shares in the Tor Hotel should have provided for his daughters. However that expectation was not realised, as the Pacific War started in 1941. 

Mary and Amy had always retained Japanese nationality. It was not clear whether they chose to remain Japanese, or whether the common-law marriage between Alfred and their Japanese mother prevented them from obtaining British nationality. 

At the beginning of the war, the sisters were in a much better position than British citizens. While Allied nationals wwere stripped of their assets, and eventually interned in Enemy Alien Camps, Mary and Amy could continue their daily lives as Japanese nationals. Tor Hotel was allowed to operate, and Mary was made one of the directors of the hotel. But, as the Japanese war situation deteriorated, the hotel shareholders were forced to sell their shares to the Kawasaki Dockyard for unreasonably low prices, as the Hotel was to be turned into a hospital for wounded soldiers. Mary and Amy must have had difficult lives during the war. Although they were Japanese nationals, those who had previously associated with Allied citizens were often viewed with suspicion and hostility. Furthermore, being racially mixed must have made their lives harder.

click to enlarge

The front gateway of the Tor Hotel following the great flood disaster in Kobe on 6 July 1938
Manuscript Collection MS6681/1/127

With Japan’s defeat, Mary was hit with a further blow. Allied nationals were compensated for the loss of their property during the war, but Japanese nationals were not. Since Mary and her sister were Japanese, they weren’t offered compensation for their loss in the sale of the Tor Hotel shares. The only property they had was the land and house, but no source of income. They were virtually penniless.

Local Freemasons returning to Kobe after the war assisted the sisters financially during this difficult time. When Mary died in 1955, she left a will stating that the two local Masonic lodges in Kobe were the residual legatees of hers and Amy’s estate. Amy died in 1962. As the Japanese economy started to boom, the sisters’ house and land were sold in 1970 for a considerable sum. With the money from the sale, Kirby Hall was built in the compound of the Kobe Club where the Tor Hotel used to stand. 

In the 1970s, there were attempts made by Harold Williams to trace Mary’s three cousins in England—particularly Emily, with whom Mary had exchanged many letters. Unfortunately however, it was too late. She had died in 1966, and her family could not shed any light either on her friendship with her cousin in Japan or on the letters.

Mary Kawatani Kirby’s life seems to have disappeared almost completely, even though the Masonic Hall she donated still stands solidly in Kitano. Edward and Alfred Kirby’s lives can be traced because of Edward’s business and Alfred’s involvement in Freemasonry. In contrast, the only reminder of Mary’s presence is the two old photographs. If it was not for Harold Williams, who included them in his collection, the life of Mary, who had been part of two worlds, could have been completely lost. 

KEIKO TAMURA was a 2002 Harold White Fellow at the National Library. She is currently based in Kobe as a Japan Foundation Research Fellow

 

The Harold S. Williams Collection
(Manuscript and Asian Collections)

The Harold S. Williams Collection’s main focus is on westerners’ experiences in Japan. Harold Williams travelled to Japan from Melbourne in 1919 in his university holiday, to study the language; he decided to stay, and settled in Kobe. Except for four years during the Pacific War he continued to live in Kobe for more than 60 years, until his death in 1987. He was a respected businessman within the community, but his real passion was historical research on foreign settlement in Japan. His collection, which includes monographs, manuscripts and photographs, was donated to the National Library in the late 1970s. Fascinating historical documents and photographs which vividly depict the cross-cultural experiences of Westerners in Japan are found in the collection.

 

Back to NLA News Index Back to April Issue Back to NLA Home Page
NLA News - home

To order a particular issue of the NLA News e-mail nlasales@nla.gov.au
or join the Friends of the National Library of Australia and receive a copy each month by mail.