Edward and Henry Schnell

Dutch businessman

Edward Schnell and Henry Schnell were brothers of Dutch extraction and German arms dealers active in Japan. After the enforced opening of Yokohama to foreign trade, Edward, who in the 1850s had served in the Prussian Army and spoke Malay, must have arrived in Japan no later than 1862, as he had a 7-year-old boy from his Japanese wife Kawai Tsugonusuke in 1869. He is also listed as owner of plot "No. 44" in Yokohama. He teamed up with the Swiss watch dealer François Perregaux presumably until 1867. Henry served as secretary and translator to the Prussian consul Max von Brandt. While travelling in an open coach through Edo in September 1867 the brothers were attacked by a samurai from Numata, who, by drawing his sword, in a private vendetta was trying to enforce the Sonnō jōi policy. The attacker was shot in the chest but managed to escape. While wildly shooting around the Schnells injured an innocent passer-by. The Japanese bodyguards provided by the Bakufu remained inactive. Von Brandt demanded that the attacker be executed, something the gaikoku-bugyō would not consent to. After much diplomatic wrangling the Prussian consul, realising that he had not the necessary military means, backed up and left it to the appropriate authorities of the samurai's Han to decide an appropriate punishment.

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