Kawaji Toshiakira, who served as commissioner of foreign affairs (the office of the shogunate that handled negotiations with foreign countries), had fallen ill around Keiō 4 (1868) and withdrawn to his residence in Edo Banchō. On the night of the 15th of that 3rd month, he raised his own body, half of which could not move, and ended his life. Ninagawa Arata writes this scene based on the biography of Kawaji contained in Tsukamoto’s Hōkō.
A few hours before, the shogunate’s diplomat Mizuno Chikugo no kami had brought a notice to the residence. Its content was that he should shut himself in a room of the residence and remain under confinement. According to Ninagawa, Kawaji sank deep into despair and ground his teeth in fury. Ninagawa records that Kawaji said, “What is the meaning of surrender? Is there not a single bannerman with backbone?” and shed hot tears.
Kawaji bathed, put on formal dress, sent his household away, wrote a testament, and took the Kanesada sword in his left hand. Just as he was about to stab his belly, his wife, of the Ōgoshi family, was peering through a gap in the door. As his wife, startled, tried to rush into the room, Kawaji, his eyes closed, shouted loudly. “Do not come near, I am afraid of hurting you,” he said. Then he took up the gun beside him and died, piercing his throat with a single shot.
Ninagawa also reads in the swiftness with which he took up the gun a sign that no hesitation remained. His wife quietly entered the room, wiped away the blood, wrapped the belly and throat in white cloth, and laid the body on the floor. When dawn broke, people of the imperial army surrounded the house and cut off all contact with the outside. Here Ninagawa condemned the coldness of the imperial army in strong words. At two o’clock in the middle of the night, his wife waited until the town had fallen asleep, and alone buried her husband at Taishōji by Shinobazu Pond.
A few days before his death, Kawaji had composed a poem. Ninagawa interprets its meaning as: after 4 years confined to bed, unable to repay his lord’s kindness, he could only return his body to heaven. As one who mourned this death, Ninagawa names General Nogi, who came from Chōshū. Ninagawa wrote that every time he spoke of it, he was overcome with emotion and wept. Yasuhiro Han’ichirō, of the Chōshū faction, also wrote in his preface to Yamazaki Arinobu’s Shōgitai Senshi that Kawaji was a man who repaid his lord’s house with a single death.
Taking this up, Ninagawa considers that the faction around Katsu Kaishū, who advocated surrender, may have been abandoned even by the enemy side. Ninagawa’s conclusion is that for a samurai to surrender is an act contrary to the way, and that it must never be allowed to happen again. Ishikawa Ryōichi, in his “Biography of Foreign Minister Kawaji Toshiakira” published in Shōwa 2 (1927) in the magazine Kokuhon, wrote that Kawaji swallowed a bullet himself and fell, and added criticism of the diplomacy of that time.
From the night at Banchō to the burial by Shinobazu Pond, the reader can follow the course of events through the biography of Kawaji contained in Tsukamoto’s Hōkō and through the text of Ishikawa Ryōichi’s “Biography of Foreign Minister Kawaji Toshiakira” contributed to Kokuhon.
The Night in Banchō
On the night of the fifteenth day of the third month of Keiō 4 (1868).Original
In a residence in Edo’s Banchō, an old man rose from his bed.Original
He was paralyzed on one side of his body.Original
He bathed, put on formal dress, and sent his household away.Original
He wrote his testament and took Kanesada’s sword in his left hand.OriginalOriginal
Ninagawa Arata writes that this was a man who, as commissioner of foreign affairs, had once devised strategies for the country and exerted all his strength.Original
That man, on this night, pressed a blade to his abdomen.Original
Ninagawa records this scene based on the biography of Kawaji published in Tsukamoto’s “Hōkō.”Original
At the time of the last council at Edo Castle, Kawaji had already fallen ill and retired to Banchō.Original
For four years the old man had lain in bed—why did he choose this night?Original
The answer lies in a piece of news that had reached his residence a few hours before.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryKawaji’s Failed Attempt at Seppuku
The one who brought the news was Mizuno Chikugo no kami, a shogunate diplomat.Original
House confinement, that is, shutting himself in a room of the residence and remaining in seclusion.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryNinagawa relates that on hearing this, Kawaji, aged as he was, “grieved bitterly and gnashed his teeth in indignation.”Original
It seems he sank into sorrow and ground his teeth in anger.
Then he spoke.Original
His words continued further.Original
What is this surrender? Is there not one man of spirit among the eighty thousand bannermen? Everything is finished.Original
Hot tears fell from both his eyes, Ninagawa records.OriginalOriginal
At this Kawaji rose.Original
Bathing, formal dress, testament, sword.Original
Just as he thrust the blade into his abdomen to disembowel himself, someone was watching through a gap in the door.OriginalOriginal
“Do Not Come Close; I Fear Hurting You”
It was Kawaji’s wife, of the Ōgoshi family.Original
Ninagawa calls her a “wise wife.”Original
Greatly startled, she tried to rush into the room.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryKawaji, his eyes still closed, shouted a great cry.Original
“Do not come close; I fear hurting you.”Original
It meant: do not come near, for he was afraid he might hurt her.Original
And suddenly he took up the gun beside him, and with a thunderous report, one shot pierced his throat, killing him.OriginalOriginal
He cut his abdomen with the sword, then shot his throat with the gun.
For an old man whose one side would not move, perhaps the blade alone seemed insufficient to accomplish it.
Ninagawa does not give the reason, but one might read in the word “suddenly,” used for taking up the gun, a sign that there was no hesitation left.OriginalOriginal
His wife quietly entered the room.Original
She wiped away the blood, wrapped his abdomen and throat in white cloth, and laid his body upon the bed.Original
This much occurred within a single night.OriginalOriginal
Two in the Morning, by Shinobazu Pond
Even as dawn broke, the matter was not yet over.
Ninagawa writes that men of the government army, hearing of this, surrounded Kawaji’s house and cut off all passage to and from it.Original
His wife was troubled over how to hold the funeral.Original
Ninagawa here sharpens his pen, writing, “One should know the coldness of what is called the government army.”OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThen, at two in the morning.Original
Waiting until the townspeople had fallen asleep, the wife, alone, guarding her husband’s body, buried him at Taishōji by Shinobazu Pond.Original
Ninagawa concludes, “This was a tragic affair.”OriginalOriginal
A few days before his death, Kawaji had composed a poem.Original
Having lain ill in bed for four years now, the old man, weakened by paralysis, wept every day.Original
It probably meant that the mountain-like debt of gratitude to his lord could scarcely be repaid even in the smallest part, and that he could only return his body to heaven.Original
The number four years matches the account that he had already retired by the time of the Edo Castle council.OriginalOriginal
Before these four years, Kawaji had been active as commissioner of foreign affairs.Original
Until just before he took to his bed, he had been a man at the front lines of diplomacy.OriginalOriginal
General Nogi’s Tears, the Fishmonger’s Knife
One was General Nogi, a native of Chōshū.Original
Ninagawa writes that he praised Kawaji’s suicide, studied its details deeply, and, it is said, was always moved to tears whenever he spoke of this story.Original
Ninagawa adds, “A man of loyalty well understands a man of loyalty.”Original
This means that it is the loyal who understand the loyal.OriginalOriginal
The other was Yasuhiro Han’ichirō, of the Chōshū faction.Original
In the preface to Yamazaki Arinobu’s work, “Shōgitai Senshi,” Yasuhiro wrote as follows.Original
“Having bathed for generations in the favor and grace of the House of Tokugawa, and seeing his lord’s house on the verge of collapse, he gnashed his teeth in indignation, and concluded there was nothing left but to repay his lord’s house with a single death.”Original
The gist was that he had received the Tokugawa house’s favor for generations, and on seeing the main house about to fall, he was overcome with indignation and felt he had no choice but to repay it with his own death.Original
Yasuhiro wrote that compared with those who saw what was right but failed to act on it, the difference was “as vast as heaven and earth.”OriginalOriginal
Taking up these words, Ninagawa reads them to mean that surrender was not something a warrior of the Tokugawa side should have done, and that Katsu’s faction, who had argued for surrender, may in fact have been despised even by the enemy.Original
Ninagawa writes that, along with the “righteous tears” of the man from Chōshū on the enemy side, we too cannot help but shed tears.OriginalOriginal
And one more small scene is appended.Original
At the time, the young men of the Nihonbashi fish market sent representatives to the bannerman Asahina Kai no kami, who was known for having served as a commissioner of foreign affairs.Original
They said that they, the young men, would protect this fish market alone, that they would line up in ranks with fish knives, and that they would repay the debt of many years with body and soul.Original
“This spirit was worthy of affection,” Ninagawa writes, asking his readers how the Edo-born men of today’s fish market would feel about it.OriginalOriginal
Ninagawa further quotes the closing passage of Ishikawa Ryōichi’s “Biography of Foreign Minister Kawaji Toshiakira,” published in the January 1, Shōwa 2 (1927) issue of Kokuhon.OriginalOriginal
It seems to mean an integrity and fortitude sterner than ice or snow.Original
According to Ishikawa’s account, Kawaji looked up at Edo Castle and wept tears of blood, said that this was the moment when “if the lord is disgraced, the vassal dies,” and “swallowed the bullet himself and fell.”OriginalOriginal
Ishikawa’s piece was finished on the morning of the seventh day of the twelfth month of Taishō 15 (1926).Original
At its close is placed a criticism of the “subservient diplomacy” of the time, which watched the moods of Britain and America, ending with the call to hear the manner of the late-Tokugawa foreign minister and wake from a lazy slumber.Original
Was it not because Ninagawa wanted to make Kawaji’s death not merely a bygone anecdote but a mirror held up to Shōwa diplomacy that he quoted this passage at such length?OriginalOriginal
The Meaning of a Single Shot
“To surrender is a betrayal of virtue unbecoming a warrior.”Original
This is a declaration that surrender is conduct that betrays the warrior’s way.Original
Ninagawa says that the way of the warrior in Japan has taught this since ancient times, and that there is no precedent, other than Katsu Kaishū’s faction, of someone who preached and practiced surrender and thereby made a name for himself.Original
Ninagawa’s view is that Katsu’s faction was praised by the anti-shogunate side precisely because it was convenient for that side.Original
“The Japanese must not allow such a thing to happen again”—Ninagawa writes that such a thing must never be permitted to be repeated.OriginalOriginal
This assessment belongs to Ninagawa alone, as one author.Original
From Katsu’s side, one could take the view that his was the judgment that saved Edo from a sea of fire, and it is also possible to read Ninagawa himself as trying to add weight to his own argument by gathering testimony from “the enemy side,” such as Nogi and Yasuhiro.OriginalOriginal
Still, the details of that single night in Banchō remain apart from any such assessment.Original
The bathing and the formal robes.Original
The testament and Kanesada’s sword.Original
The single word, “Do not come near.”Original
And at two in the middle of the night, the remains carried alone to the pond’s edge.OriginalOriginal
An old man who had spent four years confined to bed chose, in the end, with his own body, not the belly but the throat.Original
Was that one shot a protest directed at the castle that had surrendered, or was it repayment for the lord’s favor that he had written in verse he could never fully repay?Original
Ninagawa read it as the former; Ishikawa read it with a stronger tinge of the latter.Original
Whichever way one reads it, one fact remains unmoved: that on the very same night Edo Castle was surrendered, one Tokugawa retainer pierced his own throat.OriginalOriginal
| Source text | Ishin zengo no seisō to Oguri Kōzuke no shi, Continued (1931). National Diet Library Digital Collections (PDM). PID 1179005 |
| Dates and names | All 2 dates in the text exist in the calendar for their year, and the Western years given alongside them agree. The 2 people named in the text were checked word for word against the source text. No matching entry was found in vol. 8. |
| English gates | 91 of 91 sentences passed the checks on the English text. |
This article is a reading of Ishin zengo no seisō to Oguri Kōzuke no shi, Continued. Ninagawa Arata’s books (1928-31) are written from the standpoint of the shogunate’s retainers. The source text is a century old and may differ from current scholarship.
