“A MOST AUDACIOUS YOUNG MAN”

The Life of Yoshida Shōin

“A MOST AUDACIOUS YOUNG MAN” The Life of Yoshida Shōin

By

Hayato Tokugawa

An Excerpt from Profiles In Japanese History: The Bakumatsu

SHISEI-DŌ PUBLICATIONS Tajimi, Japan and San Francisco, California

“A MOST AUDACIOUS YOUNG MAN.” Copyright © 2010, 2011, and 2012 by Hayato Tokugawa and Shisei-Dō Publications. Japanese Version Copyright © 2009, 2010, and 2012 by Hayato Tokugawa and Shisei-Dō Publications. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States and Japan by Shisei-Dō Publications. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission of the author or publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. “A Most Audacious Young Man” is an abstract from Profiles in Japanese History: The Bakumatsu, by Hayato Tokugawa. © Copyright 2009 by Hayato Tokugawa.

www.shiseidopublications.com

For Aoi, My wife, my translator,

and my muse.

1

“A Most Audacious Young Man”

On October 17, 1859, a young Japanese man was led into a small

courtyard in Edo (now Tokyō). With stoic grace he knelt down on a

straw mat, in front of which had been dug a rectangular hole. The

young man calmly composed himself, arranged his clothes, and then

recited his death poem:

“Mi wa tatoi

Musashi no nobe ni

Kuchinu tomo

Todome okamashi

Yamato-d

amashii”

2

“Though my corpse rot

Beneath the ground

Of Musashi

My soul remains forever

Japanese”

The executioner, Yamada Asaemon, a gentleman most skilled at

his craft, raised his katana1 and with one stroke, severed the head of

the bowing young man. As the small group of government officials

who had been required to witness the execution departed, one

member of the Bakufu2 shook his head and commented, “A most

audacious young man.”

This “most audacious young man” was the same young man who

often referred to himself as “Tora” and who once wrote, “Tora means

tiger, and the virtue of the tiger is courage. If I have the valor of a

tiger, it can only be as a teacher.” He was more commonly known as

Yoshida Shōin, one of the most distinguished intellectuals and

revolutionaries in Japanese history and the closing days of the

Tokugawa Shōguns3. He was a man who was devoted to developing

many ishin shishi4 or political activists, who later would play a

significant role in the new Japan of the Meiji Restoration5. Only

twenty-nine when he died, he possessed a passion and resolute spirit

for his vision of a modern Japan.

Yoshida Shōin was born Toranosuke, in the village of

Matsumoto, which lies in the hilly countryside that surrounds the

castle town of Hagi, the center of the feudal domain of Chōshū

Province, on September 20, 1830. He was the son of Sugi

Yurinosuke, a low-ranked samurai with only a small stipend of sixty-

two koku6 per year. Sugi was a teacher of military tactics but found it

3

necessary to divide his time between teaching and farming in order to

support his family: his wife Kodama Taki, his daughter Chiyo, and

Shōin. He was devoted to both learning and literature; indeed, even

as he labored in the fields he could often be found reading as he

worked. This man of learning and of the earth had a great influence

on the young Shōin who would remain all his life a peasant at heart:

sincere, unpretentious, and attached to the earth and nature. As one

of his students recalled after his death, “He knew nothing of anger.

He was kind to others and had a polite manner and speech.”

Physically frail, the young man was indeed soft-spoken as well as

a master of self-control, with exceptionally strong willpower. Like his

father, the son was an avid scholar who would often deny himself

sleep in order to study. He was even known to stand or walk in the

snow in order to keep himself awake; and one story has it that in the

summer, he would put mosquitoes into the sleeves of his yukata in

order to stay alert.

As a child of four or five, Shōin was adopted into the family of

his uncle, Yoshida Daisuki Kenryō, a slightly higher-ranked samurai

than his father, and assumed the name Yoshida Daijirō. Yoshida

Daisuki was an ambitious man, yet one who also possessed a love of

knowledge and learning. A student of the Chinese classics, he hoped

someday to establish himself as a scholar. Unfortunately, he died at

the age of twenty-nine and never realized his dream. Daisuki had a

great influence on the boy, who already at the age of five, had shown

signs of being a prodigy, and early on began the boy’s education in

both military tactics and classical Chinese literature.

Daisuki was profoundly loyal to the Emperor and a student of

Yamaga-ryū, a style of kenjutsu7 and jujutsu8 founded by Yamaga Sokō9;

thus, young Shōin developed a deep devotion to Yamaga as well, and

particularly to his teachings on Confucian thought and the ethics of

Bushidō10. He also acquired a close affinity for the principles of

military science laid down by Sun-Tsu11 in his Art of War: something

that would often be expressed in his writings as an adult:

From the beginning of the year to the end, day and night, morning

4

and evening, in action and repose, in speech and in silence, the warrior

must keep death constantly before him and always have in mind that

the one death [that a person has to offer] should not be suffered in

vain. In other words, he must have control over his own death just as

if he were holding an unruly horse in check. Only he who truly keeps

death in mind in this way can understand what is meant by vigilance.

If a general and his men fear death and are apprehensive about

possible defeat, then they will unavoidably suffer defeat and death. But

if they make up their minds, from the general on down to the last

soldier, not to think of living but only of standing their ground and

facing death together; then although they may have no other thought

than to meet death, they will instead hold onto life and win victory.

If the body dies, it does no harm to the mind, but if the mind

dies, one can no longer act as a man should, even though the body

survives.

It wasn’t long before the boy-genius came to the attention of the

local daimyō who ordered that several teachers of military science,

Watanabe Rokubei, Hayashi Shinjin, Tamaki Bunnonshin13, and

Ishizu Heishichi, were to act as Shōin’s tutors. Because of this special

attention, at the age of eight the boy entered the Meirinkan, or clan

“college” in Chōshū where he studied the Confucian philosophy of

Mencius14 (Meng-tsu). Incredibly, the following year he actually

taught at the school. By the age of ten, he had won high praise from

the daimyō of Chōshū for a series of lectures he delivered on military

tactics.

By the time he had reached fifteen, Shōin had amazed almost

everyone who had come into contact with him, with his advanced

knowledge and constant thirst for learning. Not only did he attend

college, he regularly taught there, and when he had time, he also

studied at the rural school established by his father, the Shoka

Sonjuku (Village School under the Pines), at which his uncle Tamaki

was head master.

5

In 1848, Shōin became a full-time, independent teacher at the

Meirinkan, and at the same time studied and worked at several posts

within the castle of the daimyō, who was intent on grooming the

young man for a high administrative position. Yet Yoshida had

become aware of what was happening beyond the confines of

Chōshū as well as in the world beyond Japan’s borders. At eighteen,

he authored a bold kempaku, or critical essay (the first of many), that

urged reforms in Japanese education, particularly at the college level.

He described his views regarding punishments, rewards, school rules,

etiquette, and how examinations and elections should be held. He

also expressed his thoughts on reform within the nation, while

showing himself to be a strong advocate for the teaching of both

military and literary sciences.

Those who take up the science of war must not fail to master the

classics. The reason is that arms are dangerous instruments and not

necessarily forces for good. How can we safely entrust them to any but

those who have been schooled in the classics and use these weapons for

the realization of humanity and rightness? To put down violence and

disorder, to repel the barbarians and bandits, to rescue living souls

6

from agony and torture, to save the nation from imminent downfall:

these are the true ends of humanity and rightness. If on the contrary,

arms are taken up in a selfish struggle to win land, goods, people and

weapons of war, is it not the worst of all evils, the most heinous of all

offenses? Further, if the study of offensive and defensive warfare, of

the way to certain victory in all encounters is not based on those

principles that should govern their employment, who can say that such

an endeavor would not result in just such a calamity? I say, therefore,

that those who take up the science of war must not fail to master the

classics.

In the same vein, he also wrote:

What I mean by the “pursuit of learning” is not the ability to

read classical texts and to study ancient history, but to be fully

acquainted with the conditions that exist all over the world and to have

an acute awareness of what is going on around us. Now from what I

can see, world trends and conditions are still unsettled, and as long as

they remain so, there is still a chance that something can be done. First,

therefore, we must rectify conditions in our own domain [Chōshū], after

which conditions in other domains can be corrected. This having been

done, conditions at Court can be set right, and finally conditions

throughout the whole world can be rectified. First, one must set oneself

as an example and then it can be gradually extended to others. This is

what I mean by the “pursuit of learning.”

Shōin often credited Bushidō, the strict “Way of the Warrior,”

with being responsible for saving Japan from the fate that China had

suffered at the hands of foreigners. To his thinking, the nation

needed to be brought back to the simple ways of samurai ethics.

In its most simple definition, Bushidō was a set of ethics, that is,

a way of life that called for strict obedience to one’s superiors and

care and protection of one’s subordinates. One served by being

honest, courageous, polite, and by obeying one’s parents. A samurai

served his lord (the daimyō), who in turn obeyed the Shōgun, who

served the Emperor. It was regarded as the correct behavior, one that

guaranteed peace and tranquility. Everyone from Bakufu bureaucrat,

7

to general, to daimyō, to samurai, to merchant, craftsman, artist, or

farmer, was responsible for carrying it out.

Still, Yoshida saw flaws in this system, even before the arrival of

Commodore Perry on Japan’s shores. He and other samurai felt that

some of the lords and samurai in the upper echelons of government

had turned their backs on Bushidō, and instead, had grown vane and

self-indulgent. He felt that they led luxurious lives “...wearing silk

brocades, eating costly foods, keeping company with beautiful

women...” Such a life-style was particularly distressing to Shōin in

view of natural disasters, including wide famine that too often had

gone unaided or unrelieved by the Tokugawa government. He wrote:

Nowadays all people live selfishly and seek only leisure time in which to indulge their

own desires. They look upon all the beauties of nature, the rivers and mountains, the

wind and the moon, as if it was their own to enjoy and forget what the shrine of the Sun

Goddess stands for. The common man thinks of his life as his own and refuses to

perform his duty to his lord. The samurai regards his household as his own private

possession and refuses to sacrifice his life for his state. The feudal lords regard their

domains as their own and refuse to serve the Emperor and nation, and at home, they

cherish only the objects of their desire, while abroad they willingly yield to the foreign

barbarians, inviting defeat and destruction. Thus, the scenic beauties they enjoy will not

long remain in their possession.

As things stand now, the daimyō are content to look on while the Shōgunate carries

on in a cavalier way. Neither the lords nor the Shōgun can be depended on, and so our

only hope lies in heroes from the masses.

When I consider the state of things in our fief, I find that those who hold official

positions and receive official stipends are incapable of the highest loyalty and patriotic

service. Loyalty of the unusual sort, perhaps, but if it is true loyalty and service one

seeks, then one must abandon this fief and plan an uprising of the common man.

Ever curious, young Shōin developed wanderlust and his

twentieth year found him on the move. He visited many cities in the

western part of Japan including Nagasaki. It was there that he met

the Dutch traders who were based on the island of Dejima15. There

he actually managed to go on board one of their vessels and made

8

notes of every detail he possibly could. He also had the opportunity

to study Chinese with an interpreter named Cheng Kan-Chieh and

frequently visited the homes of both Chinese and Dutch residents.

Later, another trip took him to the north of Japan; first to Edo

and then to Mito, where he visited a school that was already loudly

proclaiming the view that Japan had a “divine mission” to turn back

the West and to establish its own world empire under the legitimate

rule of the Emperor. Things were beginning to change within Japan.

Unfortunately for Yoshida, there were very strong regulations

regarding domestic travel, which he, in what he called his “first

audacious act,” had violated. Indeed, he had been reckless in his

behavior; yet, he had already come to regard himself as a person with

unique foresight that required him to act outside of the accepted

norms of society. For his uniqueness, he was ordered back to Hagi

where the provincial government stripped him of his samurai rank

and income. He did, however, have a “guardian angel” in the person

9

of the daimyō, who not only reversed the decision but also give Shōin

ten years in which to travel and study.

Now free, he headed back to Edo where he encountered two

extremely strong influences on his life and thinking: Sakuma Shōzan16

and Yokoi Shōnan17. From Yokoi, Yoshida learned that “lately the

foreign countries have made great headway and they have invaded

many countries of the east; soon, the foreign poison will reach Japan

and the whole country is greatly worried and confused.” Sakuma

encouraged Yoshida and his other students of Western learning to go

abroad and study, despite an edict to the contrary.

Yoshida was present in Edo in 1853 when Commodore Matthew

Calbraith Perry18 arrived in Uraga Harbor19 (now Tokyō Bay). This

was not the first time, however, that Japan had seen Americans or

American ships. Between 1797 and 1809 numerous American vessels

had traded in Nagasaki under the flag of the Dutch, who were by

decree, the only foreigners allowed direct trade with the Japanese,

with the exception of China. This occurred when the Dutch were

unable to send their own ships due to their conflict with Britain

during the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1837 an American businessman from Canton named Charles

10

W. King sought to open trade with Japan by attempting to return

three Japanese sailors, one of them a man named Otokichi20, who

had been shipwrecked several years earlier on the coast of the State

of Washington. Unfortunately for King, and perhaps fortunately for

Otokichi (who probably would have been executed upon his return

to Japan), the ship they traveled in was attacked in the Uraga Channel

and sailed away without completing King’s intended mission.

In 1846, Commander James Biddle, who was sent by the United

States government to open trade, anchored his two ships (including a

warship armed with seventy-two cannons) in Uraga Bay. His nu-

merous requests for meetings with the Tokugawa Shōgunate and

discussion of a trade agreement were denied and he too left Japan.

Again, two years later, Captain James Glynn sailed to Dejima in

Nagasaki where he was at last able to begin what could be termed the

first successful negotiations with Japan. Upon his return home,

Glynn recommended to Congress that negotiations to open Japan

should be backed by a demonstration of force. This became Perry’s

mission.

11

Perry arrived on July 8, 1853 backed by an armada of heavily

armed warships. He had not come unprepared for his mission,

having readied himself by studying records and accounts of previous

contacts with Japan by Western ships, as well as everything that could

be learned about the Japanese government and its hierarchy. Perry

did meet with representatives of the Tokugawa government, who

directed him to go to Nagasaki where there was limited trade with the

Dutch. He, however, refused to leave and instead demanded

permission to deliver personally a letter to the Shōgun from then

President Millard Fillmore, at the same time, threatening a naval

bombardment if he was denied. The Bakufu found that they were in

no military position to resist the weapons that the Commodore had

brought with him (what later came to be known as the “Black

Ships”). Perry landed at Kurihama (Yokosuka) on July 14th and

presented his letter to the Japanese delegates present there. Thus

satisfied, Perry left for China with the promise to return soon for the

Japanese reply.

12

Yoshida was again present in February of 1854 when Com-

modore Perry returned, this time with twice as many ships, beginning

fifteen years of bloody turbulence for Japan. Shōin had learned from

Shōzan of the absolute futility in challenging the modern military

power of the West with Japan’s great, but comparatively ancient arts

and tools of war. He had adopted as his own the belief that one must

know the enemy in order to control the barbarians through their own

technology, and refused to remain idle as matters unfolded. On

March 31, 1854, under what could only be considered military

blackmail, the representatives of the Shōgun concluded negotiations

with Perry and signed the Convention of Kanagawa21. A few days

later Perry’s ships lay in the harbor of Shimoda22, one of two ports

that, under the terms of the new treaty, were now open to American

ships. Yoshida and another samurai friend from Chōshū, Kaneko

Shigenosuke (1831 - 1855), quickly made their way there and sought

to get on board one of the vessels. Because he was a proper Japanese

gentleman, Shōin first presented a letter to some American officers

on land, asking to be let on board. Perry himself described the

encounter:

13

[Shōin and his companion] were observed to be men of some

position and rank, as each wore the two swords characteristic of

distinction and were dressed in wide but short trousers of rich silk

brocade. Their manners showed the usual courtly refinement of the

better classes, but they exhibited the embarrassment of men who

evidently were not perfectly at their ease, and were about doing

something of dubious propriety. They cast their eyes stealthily about as

if to assure themselves that none of their countrymen were at hand to

observe their proceedings, and then approaching one of the officers, and

pretending to admire his watch chain, slipped a piece of folded paper

into the breast pocket of his coat.

The letter (actually two letters), titled Tō-i sho (A Letter to the

Barbarians) was written in Mandarin with a high level of fluency and

elegance. It was subsequently taken to Perry’s interpreter and found

to be both humble in its nature and at the same time compelling:

Two scholars from Edo, in Japan, present this letter for the

inspection of the “high officers and those who manage affairs.” Our

accomplishments are few and petty, as we ourselves are small and

unimportant, so that we are embarrassed in coming before you; we are

neither skilled in the use of arms, nor are we able to speak on the

rules of strategy and military discipline, in petty pursuits and idle

pastimes our years and months have slipped away. We have, however,

read books and learned a little by report, what the customs and

education in Europe and America are, and we have been for many

years desirous of going over the “five great continents,” but the laws of

our country in all maritime points are very strict; for foreigners to come

into the country and for natives to go abroad, are both immutably

forbidden. Our wish to visit other regions has consequently only ‘gone to

and fro in our breasts in continual agitation,’ like one’s breathing being

impeded or his walking cramped. Happily, the arrival of so many of

your ships in these waters, and stay for so many days, which has given

us opportunity to make a pleasing acquaintance and careful exam-

ination, so that we are fully assured of the kindness and generosity of

your excellence’s, and your regard for others, has also revived the

thoughts of many years, and they are urgent for a release.

14

This, then, is the time to carry the plan into execution, and we

now secretly send you this private request, that you will take us on

board your ships as they go out to sea; we can thus visit around the five

great continents, even if we do this in violation of the prohibitions of

our own country. Lest those who have the management of affairs may

feel some dismay at this, in order to affect our desire, we are willing to

serve in any way we can on board of the ships, and obey the orders

given us. For doubtless it is, that when a lame man sees others

walking, he wishes to walk too; but how shall the pedestrian gratify his

desires when he sees another riding? We have all our lives been going

hither and yon, unable to get more than thirty degrees east and west, or

twenty-five degrees north and south; but now, when we see how you sail

on the winds and cleave the huge waves, going lightning speed thousands

and innumerable miles, skirting along the five great continents, can it

not be likened to the lame finding a plan for walking, and the

pedestrian seeing a mode by which he can ride? If you who manage

affairs will give our request your consideration, we will retain the sense

of the favor; but the prohibitions of our country are still existent, and

if this matter should become known, we should uselessly see ourselves

pursued and brought back for immediate execution without fail, and

such a result would greatly grieve the deep humanity and kindness you

all bear towards others. If you are willing to agree to this request, keep

15

“wrapped in silence our error in making it” until you are about to

leave, in order to avoid all risk of such serious danger to life; for when,

bye-and-bye, we come back, our countrymen will never think it

worthwhile to investigate bygone doings. Although our words have only

loosely let our thoughts leak out, yet truly they are sincere; and if your

excellences are pleased to regard them kindly, do not doubt them nor

oppose our wishes. We together pay our respects in handing this in.

April 11 (March 8, 1854 for the lunar calendar)

The second note, which restated the Japanese prohibition against

foreign travel and its consequences, also contained a plan of sorts,

for accomplishing their goal:

We two would like to see the world. Please allow us to board your

ship in secret. However, going to foreign countries is strictly forbidden

in Japan and we would be in extreme trouble if you inform the

16

Japanese officials about this. If your admiral will consent to our goal,

it is our hope that you will send a boat to the shore of Kakizaki

Village at midnight tomorrow to meet us.

April 18, 1854 (Kinoetora, March 22)

ICHIGI KŌDA [Kaneko Shigenosuke],

KWANOUCHI MANJI [Yoshida]

Access to the American ships was graciously denied the young

Japanese; however, not to be dissuaded or ignored, the pair hid on

the shore in a cave and later ventured out to the fleet in a boat.

Commodore Perry never knew the name Yoshida Shōin, his identity,

and fate; yet, he was impressed by the young man’s daring attempt to

defy Japanese law enough to write about it:

...the officer of the mid-watch on board the steamer Mississippi

was aroused by a voice from a boat alongside, and upon going to the

gangway, found a couple of Japanese, who had mounted the ladder at

17

the ship's side, and being confronted, made signs expressive of a desire

to be admitted on board. They seemed very eager to be allowed to

remain and showed a very strong determination not to return to the

shore.

Turned back by Perry's sailors, the pair was shortly thereafter

arrested by Bakufu troops and literally caged.

[They were] immured in one of the usual places of confinement, a

kind of cage, barred in front and very restricted in capacity. They

seemed to bear their misfortune with great equanimity, and were greatly

pleased apparently with the visit of the American officers, in whose

eyes they evidently were desirous of appearing to advantage. On one of

the visitors approaching the cage, the Japanese wrote on a piece of

board that was handed to them the following, which, as a remarkable

specimen of philosophical resignation under circumstances which would

have tried the stoicism of Cato, deserves a recored.23

18

“When a hero fails in his purpose, his acts are then regarded as

those of a villain or robber. In public have we been seized, bound, and

caged for many days. The village elders and head men treat us with

disdain and their oppression has been grievous indeed. Therefore

looking up while yet we have nothing wherewith to reproach ourselves,

it must now be seen whether a hero will prove himself to be one indeed.

Regarding the liberty of going through the sixty States are not enough

for our desires, we wished to make the circuit of the five great

continents. This was our hearts’ wish for a long time. Suddenly our

plans are defeated, and we find ourselves in a half-sized house, where

eating, resting, sitting, and sleeping are difficult. How can we find our

exit from this place? Weeping, we seem like fools; laughing like rogues.

Alas! For us, silent we can only be.”

It is unknown if Perry ever personally received the note although

his translator did. Perry did attempt to intercede on behalf of

Yoshida and Kaneko and received assurances from the Bakufu that

the young men did not warrant a “serious termination” [execution].

For his effort, the Bakufu sent Shōin and Kaneko to jail. Yoshida was

sent first to Demma-cho prison in Edo for a term of 150 days and

later was placed under house arrest at the Edo home of his daimyō.

That December, Shōin and his friend were sent to Hagi: Yoshida to

Noyama prison for another year and Kaneko to Iwakura. Sadly,

Kaneko would never taste freedom again and died in March of the

following year.

While in jail in Edo and later in Hagi, Yoshida actually ran a

school within the prison. His was a new way of teaching. According

to accounts, he would go around the jail and interview each man in

order to discover what his talents were. Then Yoshida would arrange

to have that man give classes to the others. One man was a master of

haiku, another Chinese philosophy, and another military tactics. By

doing this, Shōin was able to restore the personal pride of the

prisoners and to alter the mood of the prison itself. Accounts also

say that while imprisoned in Edo, Shōin read as many as 618 books.

Even prison walls could not stifle his quest for knowledge.

19

Ultimately, Yoshida was released from confinement and again

placed under house arrest: to remain within the confines of the city.

He took over the operation of his father’s small school, the Shoka

Sonjuku, and transformed it into a highly successful, although un-

orthodox, academy. While in prison Shōin had written that in order

for Japan to remain a free nation, it must itself be stronger and must

recruit men of talent and ability, without regard to class distinction.

Among the reforms, he advocated and put into effect in his school

was the acceptance of students on the basis of achievement rather

than by hereditary rank as was the custom. At the Shoka Sonjuku, he

lectured in the traditional ways only occasionally, preferring to instead

to instruct by the Socratic Method. He would often give out different

texts to different students, including philosophy, literature, and

novels. Sometimes Yoshida would teach out in the fields with his

students pulling weeds at the same time; thus, helping him with his

farming chores. Among his students were Takasugi Shinsaku24 and

Itō Hirobumi25.

Despite his humanity, Shōin continued fervently to warn of the

threats that faced Japan. With that in mind, he would also drill his

students and local farmers in close-order military drills, often using

sticks in place of rifles. This drilling of both common people and

samurai as a unit was a preview of the mixed shotai rifle companies

that would later prove so effective against the Shōgun’s troops.

From within his school Yoshida also laid the foundations of a

political organization that would lead to rebellion. He started his own

newspaper called Flying Ears, Long Eyes, partly in reference to his news

sources. Confined to Hagi, Yoshida sent his students out to travel

Japan and gain information about what was happening throughout

the country. Call them reporters, investigators or spies, his students

were quite happy and most effective in keeping their esteemed

teacher well informed.

In the summer of 1865, the American Envoy, Townsend Harris26,

established the first American Consulate in Japan at a Buddhist

temple in Shimoda with the mission of negotiating the first

20

diplomatic/commercial/maritime treaty between the United States

and Japan. Political protocols dictated that the Tokugawa Shōgunate

could only sign a treaty after receiving permission from the Emperor

in Kyoto. As negotiations between Townsend and the Japanese

progressed, albeit slowly, opposition began to spread rapidly among

the proponents of the sonnō-jōi27 movement, bent on expelling the so-

called barbarians and rally together in favor of Imperial rule, calling

themselves “Imperial Loyalists.” The “Imperial Loyalists” claimed

that the Tokugawa Shōgun was merely an agent of the Emperor and

whose function, as decreed early in the 17th century, was to protect

Japan from foreign invasion, with the true political base resting with

the Emperor. They maintained that the only way Tokugawa Iemochi

could justify his rule was to expel the foreigners and argued further

that, because the Shōgun was obviously no longer capable of

fulfilling his ancient duty, the Emperor and his court had to be

restored to power in order to save the nation. In direct opposition to

sonnō-jōi or “Imperial Loyalists” were the advocates of opening the

country, led by the powerful Lord Ii Naosuke28 of Hikone.

21

The overall effect was that the government of Japan took on a de

facto, two-fold configuration: while the Shōgun continued to rule

from Edo, the Imperial Court was undergoing a political renaissance

in Kyoto, increasing its own power and influence. When the Shōgun

and Bakufu submitted their petition to the Emperor to approve the

treaty that had been negotiated with Townsend Harris, it was flatly

denied.

In April of 1858, Ii Naosuke was appointed to the position of

Regent to the Shōgun, Tokugawa Iesada; thus, making him in effect

not just the Shōgun’s head councilor but also the real head of the

military government. In June, Naosuke unilaterally sanctioned the

treaty with the United States, starting into motion events that could

neither be stopped nor reversed: events that would have a profound

effect on both Japan and Yoshida Shōin.

As samurai throughout Japan began to unify and call for the

killing of the “traitors” who had opened the country to the bar-

barians, Shōin ever a samurai yet one of the brush rather than the

22

sword, maintained a clear head and encouraged moderation. He

advocated “Imperial Loyalism” to the young men of Chōshū,

professing that the Emperor was the true ruler of Japan, and opening

his student’s minds to the dangerous situation the outside world

posed to their country. On the other hand, Yoshida continued to

support the Shōgun and favored opening the country in order to

enhance the nation and develop a strong military. He, in fact,

advocated a union between the Emperor in Kyōto and the Tokugawa

Shōgunate in Edo, to protect Japan from the threat of foreign

domination.

When word reached Shōin that Ii Naosuke had completed the

treaty with the United States, he made a complete turnaround in his

political posture and became one of Japan’s most radical supports of

sonnō-jōi: “Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians.” He felt that it

had now become his mission to correct and gain atonement for what

he saw as Naosuke’s crime against the Emperor. He made the

decision to become involved in a plot with samurai from other clans,

to kill Naosuke; but previous to that, to assassinate a Tokugawa

councilor who had been sent to Kyōto in order to gain Imperial

approval for the American treaty. Shōin’s plans were never to be

realized.

He did lead the beginnings of a revolt and called upon local

ronin29 to help him:

If the plan is to be carried out, it can be done only with the men

from the grassroots. Wearing silk brocades, eating posh foods, carrying

on with beautiful women and fondling children are the only things

hereditary officials care about. To revere the Emperor and expel the

barbarians is of no concern to them. If this time it is my misfortune to

die, then may my death inspire at least one or two men of strong will

to rise up and uphold this principle after my death.

In the end, he received very little support. Not to be deterred,

Shōin and a small band of students attacked and attempted to kill

Manobé Norikatsu, Naosuke’s envoy to Kyōto without success. That

was the end of his revolt. Now regarded by the Chōshū authorities as

23

a threat and a dangerous radical, he was again imprisoned in Hagi.

Though behind bars, he refused to compromise his ideals and instead

grew increasingly defiant. To a friend he wrote, “I am sorry to say,

but that I have no use for the Imperial Court, the Shōgunate, or our

clan. The only thing I now need is my own meager body.”

At the same time, Ii Naosuke had begun a dragnet of sonnō-jōi

members throughout Japan. In May of 1859, the daimyō of Chōshū

received orders from Edo that he was to send his most dangerous

insurgent, Yoshida Shōin, to the capitol. Yoshida was transported in a

small cage to prison in Edo, with many of his students following

along the way. During a stop for rest he wrote:

This is the journey

From which probably

For me there shall be no return,

Wholly drenched

Is the pine tree of tears.

Shōin arrived at Edo in June and was immediately locked away.

Repeatedly questioned by the Bakufu authorities, he was defiant of

their authority and readily confessed to the charges made against him.

He openly expressed his contempt for the rule of Naosuke and the

suppression of “Imperial Loyalists.” Yoshida even went so far as to

divulge openly his assassination plans. His fate was sealed.

Even then, he did not expect to die. He continued to occupy

himself with planning the revolution to come. Perhaps a bit smugly

he wrote, “I don’t know what my punishment will be but I don’t

think it will be execution.” After all, his assassination plans had never

been carried out and he had voluntarily confessed. Reality struck in

mid-October when three of his comrades were indeed put to death.

Shōin realized his end was also close at hand. On October 15, he

wrote a poem as a testament to his students and Japan:

24

Kaku sureba

Kaku naru mono to

Shiri nagara

Yamu ni yamarenu

Yamato-damashii

That such an act

Would have such a result

I knew well enough.

What made me do it anyhow

Was the spirit of Yamato.30

As was the custom, he also wrote two death poems, the first for

his parents:

Oya wo omō

Kokoro ni masaru

Oyagokoro

Kyō no otozure

Ika ni kikuran?

The son’s solicitude for his mother

Is surpassed by

Her solicitude for him.

When she hears what befell me today,

How will she take it?

25

For the world and history he wrote:

“Mi wa tatoi

Musashi no nobe ni

Kuchinu tomo

Todome okamashi

Yamato-damashii”

“Though my corpse rot

Beneath the ground

Of Musashi

My soul remains forever

Japanese”

Yoshida was executed almost ten years before the Sonjuku32

leadership was able to complete the rebellion that Yoshida had called

for. Though referred to as the Meiji Restoration, it was much more

than that. The years following Shōin’s death were bloody and costly:

Japan lost many of its best and brightest, many from among

Yoshida’s own students. Ultimately rifle units, like those he drilled

with sticks in the fields by the Shoka Sonjuku, and led by his student

Shinsaku Takasuei, proved successful. Consisting of samurai fighting

alongside farmer, merchants and craftsmen, and using secretly

obtained weapons from the American Civil War, the militia won their

civil war in Chōshū and then marched on to fight against the samurai

of the Shōgun.

In the end, almost all of the survivors of the Sonjuku army

became officials of the new Meiji government. Today, one hundred

and fifty years later, their names are still both familiar and honored by

Japanese: men such as Itō Hirobumi who became the nation’s first

Prime Minister, and who wrote a constitution that ended feudalism

and guaranteed many individual rights; men such as Yamagata

26

Aritomo who created a modern army, or Maebara Issei who became

a Minister of Defense. Japan was forever changed. The new govern-

ment adopted a Western-style parliamentary system of governing;

Western science provided railroads, telegraphs, a postal system and

modern weapons. The feudal domains were turned into prefectures,

governors replaced the daimyō, and the age of the samurai forever

came to an end. As the Emperor Meiji wrote:

May our country,

Taking what is good,

And rejecting what is bad,

Be not inferior to any other.

27

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

KAKEMONO OF YOSHIDA SHŌIN .................................................................. Cover

PHOTOGRAPH OF SHŌIN SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEATH ................... Frontpiece

THE SHOKA SONJUKU (VILLAGE SCHOOL UNDER THE PINES) ....................... 3

DEJIMA, NAGASAKI C. 1800 ..................................................................................... 8

SAKUMA SHŌZAN AND YOKOI SHŌNAN .............................................................. 9

YAMAMOTO OTOKICHI, C. 1846 ........................................................................... 10

COMMODORE PERRY,C. 1854 ................................................................................ 11

PERRY’S JAPANESE FLEET (1853) .......................................................................... 12

YOSHIDA SHŌIN’S FIRST LETTER TO PERRY ...................................................... 14

YOSHIDA SHŌIN’S SECOND LETTER TO PERRY ................................................ 15

THE CAVE WHERE SHŌIN AND HIS COMPANION HID .................................... 16

COPY OF THE NOTE WRITTEN BY SHŌIN ON A PIECE OF WOOD ................ 17

LORD II NAOSUKE .................................................................................................. 20

TOWNSEND HARRIS ................................................................................................ 21

28

29

NOTES 1 The katana is the longer of the two swords normally carried by a samurai, commonly referred to simply as a “samurai sword” in the West.

2 Bakufu (幕府) refers to the government of the Shōgun; the actual governmental apparatus or bureaucracy.

3 Tokugawa Ieyasu seized power and established a government at Edo (now Tokyō) in 1600. He received the title sei-i taishōgun (Commander of Armies) in 1603 after he forged a family tree to show he was of Minamoto descent. The Tokugawa Shōgunate lasted until 1867, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned as Shōgun and abdicated his authority to Emperor Meiji. During the Edo period, effective power rested with the Shōgun, not the Emperor in Kyōto, even though the former ostensibly owed his position to the latter. The Shōgun controlled foreign policy, the military, and feudal patronage. The role of the Emperor was ceremonial, similar to the position of the Japanese monarchy after the Second World War.

4 Ishin Shishi (志士; sometimes known as 維新志士, shin-shishi) was a term used to describe Japanese political activists of the late Edo period. The term shishi literally translates as “men of high purpose.” While it is usually applied to the anti-Shōgunate, pro-sonnō jōi (尊王攘夷) samurai, primarily from the southwestern clans of Satsuma, Chōshū, and Tosa, the term shishi is also used by some with reference to supporters of the Shōgunate who held similar sonnō-jōi views. There were many different varieties of shishi. Some, such as the assassins Kawakami Gensai, Nakamura Hanjiro, Okada Izo, and Tanaka Shinbei, opted for a more violent approach in asserting their views. Kawakami Gensai, in particular, is remembered as the assassin of Sakuma Shōzan, a renowned pro-Western thinker of the time. Other more radical shishi, such as Miyabe Teizō, plotted large-scale attacks with little regard for public safety. Miyabe himself was one of the ringleaders of the plot, foiled by the Shinsengumi at the Ikeda-ya Incident, to burn Kyōto at the height of the Gion Festival. Shishi from Mito were responsible for the death of Grand Councilor Ii Naosuke, who was a signatory to treaties that favored foreign nations, and who had placed an underage boy on the shōgunal throne.

5 The Meiji Restoration (明治維新) or Meiji Ishin, was a chain of events the culminated in vast changes within both the Japanese political and social structures, which occurred in the in the second half of the nineteenth century from 1862 to 1869. This historic episode included the late Edo period (Bakumatsu (幕末)), and the end of the Tokugawa Shōgunate, as well as the return to full power of the Emperor and the beginning of the Meiji era.

6 The koku (石/石高) was a Japanese unit of volume equal to ten cubic shaku. 3.5937 koku are equal to one cubic meter. As originally defined, the koku was the amount

30

of rice necessary to feed one person for one year.

7 Kenjutsu (剣術), meaning “the art of the sword,” is a term for classical Japanese sword arts, in particular those which predate the Meiji Restoration. It is sometimes used more generally to describe any martial art that makes use of the Japanese sword.

8 Jujutsu (柔術) literally means the “art of softness,” or “way of yielding.” It is a collective name for Japanese martial art styles including unarmed and armed techniques. Jujutsu evolved among the samurai of feudal Japan as a method for defeating an armed and armored opponent without weapons. Due to the ineffectiveness of striking against an armored opponent, the most efficient methods for neutralizing an enemy took the form of pins, joint locks, and throws, developed around the principle of using an attacker’s own energy against him, rather than directly opposing it.

9 Yamaga Sokō (山鹿素行) (September 21, 1622 – October 23, 1685) was a Japanese strategist and philosopher during the late Edo Period. He was an ardent Confucian and is noted for applying Confucius’ concept of the “superior man” to the samurai class. This was an important factor in samurai life and Bushidō. By adapting Confucian principles to their own needs, scholars of the late Tokugawa period professed a rejection of the Shōgun’s authority. Sokō was the first major figure of that time to break from official orthodox thought. He wrote a series of papers on “the warrior’s creed” or bukyō and “the way of the gentleman”, shidō, which address the lofty mission of the warrior class as well as its obligations. His view of Bushidō was a rewording and codification of past historical works, holding the Emperor as the focal point of all loyalty.

10 For more information on Bushidō refer to The Annotated Bushido, by Nitobe Inazō, Edited by H. Tokugawa, 2009, Shisei-Dō Publications.

11 Sun Tzu (孫子) is considered to be the author of The Art of War, an ancient and highly influential book on military strategy and a primary example of Taoist thought. Tradition says that he lived in China during the Spring and Autumn Period (722 – 481 BC).

13 Tamaki Bunnonshin was Yoshida’s uncle, a samurai and teacher, who had a direct influence on the boy’s development.

14 Mencius (孟子) (372 - 289 BC) was a Chinese philosopher who is widely considered the most famous Confucian philosopher after Confucius himself. He was an itinerant sage, and one of the principal interpreters of Confucianism. Like Confucius, according to legend, he travelled China for forty years to offer advice to rulers for reform. Menciu’' interpretation of Confucianism was generally con- sidered to be the orthodox version by subsequent Chinese philosophers, especially the Neo-Confucians of the Song dynasty. The Mencius (Mengzi or Meng-tzu), a book of

31

his conversations with kings of the time, is one of the Four Books that Zhu Xi grouped as the core of orthodox Neo-Confucian thought. In contrast to the sayings of Confucius, which are short and self-contained, the Mencius consists of long dialogues, including arguments, with broad text. While Confucius himself did not explicitly focus on the subject of human nature, Mencius stressed the innate goodness of the individual, believing that it was society’s influence (its lack of a positive cultivating influence) that caused bad moral integrity. “He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature and the way of learning is none other than finding the lost mind.”

15 Dejima (出島) was a fan-shaped artificial island in the Bay of Nagasaki used as a Dutch trading port during Japan’s sakoku or self-imposed isolation in the Edo Period.

16 Sakuma Shōzan (佐久間象山) (March 22, 1811 – August 12, 1864) was a Japanese politician and scholar of the Edo period. Beginning in 1842, following the defeat of China by the British in the Opium War, and the spread of Western influence in Asia, he actively proposed the study and introduction of Western military methods to the Bakufu. His writing brought him wide notoriety and he became the teacher of future leaders in the transformation of Japan: Yoshida Shōin, Katsu Kaishū and Sakamoto Ryōma. When Shōin was convicted of attempting to board one of Perry’s warships, Sakuma was also arrested and sentenced to house arrest by way of association. Nine years later, upon his release, Sakuma continued to advocate the opening of Japanese ports to foreign trade as well as the strengthening of the Shōgunate through collaboration with the Emperor. He was assassinated for his views in 1864.

17 Yokoi Shōnan (横井小楠) (September 22, 1809 – February 15, 1869) was a scholar and political reformer of the late Edo period and early Meiji period, who called for a complete reform of the Tokugawa government including a reconciliation between the Shōgun and the Emperor. He called for the complete opening of Japan to foreign trade, economic reforms, and the establishing of a modern military based on Western weaponry and techniques. He also called for a national assembly of the major daimyō, with the Shōgun becoming something similar to a Prime Minister. Japanese conservatives were both outraged and astounded by these radical ideas and the Bakufu quickly acted to strip Yokoi of his government posts and status as a samurai. In addition, he was placed under house arrest, which lasted until the Meiji Restoration, when he was freed by the new government and honored with the title and position of a san’yo or councilor. He was assassinated in 1869 by a conservative samurai who suspected him of being a Christian and of being secretly in favor of the establishment of a republic in Japan.

18 Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was the naval commodore and emissary from the United States, who by means of military threat and intimidation, compelled the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention

32

of Kanagawa in 1854. He died in New York City in 1858 of cirrhosis of the liver due to chronic alcoholism.

19 Uraga (浦賀) is a town as well as a harbor at the entrance to Tokyō Bay, located on the eastern side of the Miura Peninsula at the northern end of the Uraga Channel. Due to its strategic location at the entrance of Edo Bay, Uraga was often the first point of contact between visiting foreign ships and Japan. On July 14, 1853, Commodore Perry dropped anchor in front of the town. Now a modern municipality, the town of Uraga in Kanagawa Prefecture, was merged with Yokosuka in 1943 and now is regarded as a “bedroom community” for people working in Yokohama and Tokyō.

20 Yamamoto Otokichi (山本 音吉) (1818 – January 1867) was a Japanese castaway shipwrecked on the coast of Washington in 1834, who is regarded by many as being the first Japanese American. He is known to have returned to Japan three times primarily as a translator, in 1837, 1849, and again in 1854 were he was a member of the British Fleet which docked at Nagasaki and negotiated and signed the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty.

21 On March 31, 1854, Commodore Matthew C. Perry and Japan agreed to the Convention of Kanagawa or Kanagawa Treaty. The treaty opened the Japanese ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade, guaranteed the safety of shipwrecked U.S. sailors, and established the presence of a permanent American consulate.

22 Shimoda (下田市) is a city and port in Shizuoka Prefecture, which played an important part in the opening of Japan to the outside world in the 1850s. The city is located at the southern tip of the Izu peninsula about 60 miles southwest of Tokyō.

23 Samuel Wells Williams (September 22, 1812−February 16, 1884), First Interpreter for the Perry expedition, was an inveterate record keeper throughout his life. In his later years, he served Professor of Chinese language and literature at Yale, a position newly created to turn his decades-long experience in China as a missionary journalist and diplomat to advantage.

24 Takasugi Shinsaku (高杉 晋作) (September 12, 1839 – May 17, 1867) was a samurai from Chōshū who made significant contributions to the Meiji Restoration. He was well known for his military talents and his skill as a politician who put all of his effort into opening the way for the modernization and reform of Japan. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the results of his efforts, dying of tuberculosis in 1867.

25 Prince Itō Hirobumi (伊藤 博文) (October 16, 1841 – October 26, 1909) was a Japanese statesman, Resident-General of Korea, and four-time Prime Minister of Japan (the first, fifth, seventh, and tenth) as well as an honored Elder Statesman or

33

genrō. He was assassinated by An Jung-Geun, a Korean Nationalist who was against the annexation of Korea by Japan.

26 Townsend Harris (October 3, 1804 – 1878) was a merchant and minor politician from New York City. He was the first United States Consul General to Japan, first in Shimoda and then in Edo. He successfully negotiated the Harris Treaty between American and Japan and is credited with being the diplomat who first opened the Japanese Empire to foreign trade and culture. While living in Japan, he gained the respect and affection of many of the Japanese people and is still honored in Japan. He is also noted for his romance with a Japanese woman, possibly a geisha named Okichi, that has become the subject of numerous stories and a romanticized 1958 film by John Huston, The Barbarian and the Geisha, staring John Wayne. It is said that after Townsend's return to the United States she committed suicide.

27 Sonnō-jōi (尊皇攘夷), “Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians”, was a Japanese political philosophy and social movement with its roots in Neo-Confucianism. It became the political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s of the principal movement to overthrow the Tokugawa Bakufu. After the Meiji Restoration, the slogan was dropped and replaced by Fukoku Kyōhei (富国強兵) or “Rich Country, Strong Military.”

28 Ii Naosuke (井伊直弼) (November 29, 1815 – March 24, 1860) was the daimyō of Hikone from 1850 to 1860 and also Regent of the Tokugawa Shōgunate from April 23, 1858 until his death. He is most noted for his signing of the Harris Treaty with the United States. He was also an enthusiastic and accomplished student and practitioner of the Sekishū-ryū school of the Japanese tea ceremony and penned two books on the subject. He was assassinated on March 24, 1860.

29 A ronin (浪人,) was a samurai with no lord or master. During the late Edo period, many samurai abandoned their daimyō to follow the Sōnnō-jōi movement and were thus regarded as ronin.

30 Yamato or Yamato-damashii (大和魂) or “The Japanese Spirit” is a historical and cultural term in the Japanese language. The phrase was coined in the Heian period for an indigenous “spirit” which was shown to best light when polished by education in Chinese classic literature and arts. Edo period writers and samurai used it to denote the Bushidō concept of valor. English translations of Yamato-damashii include the “Japanese spirit,” “Japanese soul,” “Yamato spirit,” and “The Soul of Old Japan.” Lafcadio Hearn mentions the latter in connection with Shintō: “For this national type of moral character was invented the name Yamato-damashii (or Yamato-gokoro), — the Soul of Yamato (or Heart of Yamato), — the appellation of the old province of Yamato, seat of the early Emperors, being figuratively used for the entire country. We might correctly, though less literally, interpret the expression Yamato-damashii as ‘The Soul of Old Japan’”.

32 The sonjuku were soldier/citizen armies that fought against the Tokugawa

34

Shōgunate at the end of the Edo period, helping to bring about the Meiji Restoration.