Jean Marlin was a non-commissioned officer, a sergeant of the French 8th Battalion of infantry. He was a member of the first French Military Mission to Japan

French Military Mission to Japan (1867)

The French Military Mission to Japan of 1867-68 was the first foreign military training mission to Japan. The mission was formed by Napoléon III, following a request of the Japanese Shogunate in the person of its emissary to Europe, Shibata Takenaka .Shibata was already negotiating the final...

 in 1867, in which he accompanied Jules Brunet

Jules Brunet

Jules Brunet was a French officer who played an active role in Mexico and Japan, and later became a General and Chief of Staff of the French Minister of War in 1898...

. He worked as an instructor for infantry in the army of the Shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

.

With the advent of the Boshin War

Boshin War

The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....

, and the declaration of neutrality of foreign powers, Marlin chose to resign from the French Army and continue the fight on the side of the Bakufu.

Jean Marlin chose to remain in Japan, and was buried at the Yokohama International cemetery in 1872.