Oguri Tadamasa was a man who served the shogunate as inspector. In the first month of Ansei 7 (1860), that is, the first year of Man’en, Oguri galloped his horse in the middle of the night and knocked on the gate of a house in Shitaya, Edo, that had the look of a hidden retreat. The person he was calling on was his sword teacher, Fujikawa Seisai.
The scene of that night was recorded in an essay by Ryūsen Shōshi, “Secret Tales of a Sword Master,” and Ninagawa Arata included the full text in Ishin zengo no seisō to Oguri Kōzuke no shi, Continued. Ninagawa called this an indispensable piece of material for understanding the man Oguri. The exact date is not clear. It may have been the night two nights before the 18th of the first month, when the envoy departed from the waters off Shinagawa, or the night before that. The chief envoy was Shinmi Buzen no kami Masaoki, the deputy envoy was Muragaki Awaji no kami Norimasa, and together with their attendants, 71 people in all were to board the Powhatan.
As to whom Oguri learned swordsmanship from, Ryūsen Shōshi lays out 3 theories. According to the theory of a certain deceased baron who had been a Privy Councillor, Oguri received his first instruction from Shimada Toranosuke and later entered the school of Fujikawa Seisai. According to an account left by Oka Senjin, his first teacher was Yokogawa Shichirō, and through his introduction Oguri spent 10 years at Fujikawa’s school before attaining full mastery. The theory of the old man Kageyu, Ryūsen Shōshi’s father, differs further still: it says that on the very day he entered Shimada’s school, Oguri argued with him, left his seat, and moved to Fujikawa’s school that same day.
The promise of full transmission itself had been made long before. But whenever a date was set, some obstacle arose, and it was postponed 2 or 3 times, dragging on. Then, when the trip to America was decided, Oguri, thinking of the possibility that he might not return, asked that the earlier promise be fulfilled. Seisai answered that there was no need for many words, drew from his robes the Three Scrolls of Heaven, Earth, and Man, the ultimate secrets of sword, spear, and unarmed combat, and bestowed all of it upon him. Ryūsen Shōshi writes that the source for this is the old man Kageyu’s own memoir, Tōō Yabu Sekijikki.
The same passage also cites a record left by Yoda Hyakusen. Against the trend of abandoning set forms in favor of nothing but bamboo-sword sparring, Oguri offered a pointed remark to Nakajō Kinnosuke, an instructor at the Kōbusho, and it is said that Nakajō had no answer. Ryūsen Shōshi relates that Seisai, known as a stubborn man who acknowledged no one else, allowed that Oguri alone was worthy to inherit his own school.
On the 29th day of the 2nd month of Keiō 4 (1868), Oguri’s proposal to fight was rejected at the final council held within Edo Castle, and that same day he withdrew to his domain at Gonda in Jōshū. There, a force of 1,000 troops from the three domains of Takasaki, Annaka, and Obata descended on him, claiming there was evidence of treason. The defenses that Ryūsen Shōshi counted amounted to one 10-pound cannon and about 21 Snider rifles fit for actual use. Knowing it to be his enemies’ scheme, Oguri allowed himself to be captured; the next day his son Mataichi Tadamichi was cut down, and at dawn on the 6th, father and child were hanged, the greatest disgrace a warrior could suffer. Ryūsen Shōshi laments that although Oguri was present on the day the shogunate fell, he never once had the chance to actually use his sword.
What was bestowed on that single night just before his departure for America can be traced through Ryūsen Shōshi’s “Secret Tales of a Sword Master,” included by Ninagawa Arata in Ishin zengo no seisō to Oguri Kōzuke no shi, Continued, and through the old man Kageyu’s memoir Tōō Yabu Sekijikki quoted within it.
Midnight in Shitaya
The first month of Man’en 1 (1860).Original
In Edo’s Shitaya, someone knocked at the gate of a secluded residence at midnight.Original
The visitor was the inspector Oguri Bungo no kami Tadamasa, who had come galloping on horseback.OriginalOriginal
This scene appears in Ryūsen Shōshi’s essay “Secret Tales of a Sword Master,” which Ninagawa Arata presents in Ishin zengo no seisō to Oguri Kōzuke no shi, Continued, “while paying his respects.”Original
Ninagawa calls this piece “material necessary for understanding Oguri’s character,” and included the full text in his own book.OriginalOriginal
Even in that text, the exact date is not clear.Original
Was it two nights before the eighteenth day of the first month, when the envoy to America cast off from the waters off Shinagawa, or was it the night before that?Original
The chief envoy was Shinmi Buzen no kami Masaoki, and the deputy envoy was Muragaki Awaji no kami Norimasa.Original
Including attendants, seventy-one men in all were to board the Powhatan, borrowed through the goodwill of the United States.Original
He was thirty-two years old.Original
“A man now at the height of favor as the shogunate’s representative” was visiting, in the middle of the night, the house of a mere old swordsman living among the townspeople.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThe Gate of Otani, the Gate of Fujikawa
From whom did Oguri learn swordsmanship?Original
Ryūsen Shōshi sets out three theories here.OriginalOriginal
According to the theory of a certain deceased baron who had been a privy councillor, Oguri’s first instruction came from Shimada Toranosuke, a leading disciple of the “sword sage” Otani Nobutomo.Original
Later, for some reason, he left Shimada’s school, took Fujikawa Seisai as his teacher, and received the full transmission, it is said.Original
According to a story left by Oka Senjin, known as Rokumon, the first teacher was not Shimada but Yokogawa Shichirō, another skilled swordsman from the same Otani lineage.Original
On Yokogawa’s introduction, he knocked at Fujikawa’s gate, and after ten years of diligent study received the full transmission, this account holds.OriginalOriginal
The third is the theory of Ryūsen Shōshi’s father, the old man Kageyu.Original
Oguri first knocked at Yokogawa’s gate, but Yokogawa declined and introduced him to Shimada.Original
But on the day of his formal enrollment, Oguri argued fiercely with Shimada and stormed off in anger.Original
He is said to have declared, “His arguments derive at root from the dregs of Buddhist teaching, and amount to nothing more than scolding others with a demon’s mask.”Original
And that very day, he entered Fujikawa’s school.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThe three accounts each differ.Original
The same text also tells how Otani Nobutomo, who later crossed swords with him at the Kōbusho, is said to have exclaimed in admiration, “Who would have thought that this man’s sword would reach such a wondrous realm?”Original
It was an expression of astonishment that this man’s swordsmanship had reached such a level.Original
The Three Scrolls of Heaven, Earth, and Man
The intention to grant the full transmission had in fact been conveyed long before.Original
Seisai had set a date to bestow the innermost secrets, and Oguri, deeply moved, counted the days until it came.Original
But the appointed day could not be kept, and though a new day was chosen two or three times afterward, each time some obstacle arose and it fell through.Original
Meanwhile, this time an obstacle arose on Oguri’s side.Original
The understanding that the transmission was to be given, and to be received, had simply dragged on and on.OriginalOriginal
Then, out of nowhere, came the voyage to America.Original
Oguri differed from his colleagues, who exchanged farewell cups of water with relatives and old friends, composing verses saying “return alive cannot be expected beforehand,” as though setting off for the island of demons.Original
If one sought to fulfill a mission as envoy to an unknown country, the risk of “the unlikely event” would only grow greater.Original
If so, he wished to ask his teacher, on this occasion, to fulfill the promise made earlier, so as to leave nothing undone.Original
This, the text says, was the gist of his midnight visit.OriginalOriginal
Seisai’s reply was recorded in classical Chinese by the old man Kageyu.Original
“You need not spend so many words, my son.”Original
This meant: you need say no more; even an old man like me knows the resolve of one who has spent years at this gate.
Seisai reached into his robe and brought out the Three Scrolls of Heaven, Earth, and Man, the innermost secrets of sword, spear, and grappling that formed the deepest mysteries of his school, and gave them all to Oguri.Original
The full certification of mastery, a matter pending for many years, was thus accomplished within this single night.Original
The source is said to be a passage from the old man Kageyu’s own record, the Tōō Yabu Sekijikki.OriginalOriginal
Ryūsen Shōshi remarks that this resembles the old story of Shinra Saburō transmitting the secret melody of the shō flute by moonlight on Ashigarayama, but adds firmly that his father would have had no reason to embellish the story for Oguri’s sake.Original
It was probably not the kind of prodigy’s swordsmanship where one gets a certificate of the first level in one year, an inventory in two years, and full transmission in three.Original
He concludes that it should be fair to see him as having passed as a swordsman of unquestionable standing, fully qualified in his own right.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThe Bamboo Swords of the Kōbusho
As another piece of material concerning Oguri’s swordsmanship, this text cites a record left by Yoda Hyakusen, known as Gakkai Kyoshi.OriginalOriginal
At the time, there was a trend among young swordsmen of various schools to reject set forms and paired sword exercises, replacing them with the free clashing of bamboo swords.Original
The shogunate’s own Kōbusho showed a marked tendency to follow this trend as well.Original
One day, Oguri met Nakajō Kinnosuke, an instructor at the Kōbusho, and voicing his long-held thoughts, offered him a piece of blunt criticism.Original
“When a single sword contends for victory or defeat with life and death at stake, do you truly think one could manage something like the free clashing of bamboo swords?”Original
This was a question asking whether, when a blade leaves its scabbard and life and death hang in the balance, one could really do something like the free clashing of bamboo swords.Original
Nakajō is said to have had no answer.OriginalOriginal
At the time, Fujikawa Seisai was seen as a representative of the conservative school of swordsmanship, a stubborn man who did not easily approve of others.Original
Yet this same Seisai had acknowledged Oguri’s swordsmanship as belonging to “the one man truly worthy of receiving the transmission of the robe and bowl.”Original
Ryūsen Shōshi surmises that this may have been because both men were devoted believers in the old schools of swordsmanship, unswayed by the trends of the times.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryA Weapon Worth Two Thousand Five Hundred Koku
The twenty-ninth day of the second month of Keiō 4 (1868).Original
Oguri’s argument for war was rejected at the final council within Edo Castle, and that very day he resigned his post and retired to his fief at Gonda in Jōshū.OriginalOriginal
There, a thousand troops from the three domains of Takasaki, Annaka, and Obata descended upon him.Original
The stated grounds were: “He has secretly repaired the encampment and the like, has strictly fortified outworks and other defenses, and moreover has built gun batteries at more than one key point within his domain—clear and living proof of rebellion.”Original
He had secretly repaired the encampment, built outworks, and constructed gun batteries at key points within the domain—this, it was claimed, was living proof of rebellion.OriginalOriginal
Ryūsen Shōshi lists the actual state of this “armament” from the public and private records of the time.Original
One bronze ten-kin cannon and one hundred kin of gunpowder.Original
Twenty-one Snider muzzle-loading single-shot rifles, two thousand rounds of small-arms ammunition, and five hundred kin of gunpowder.Original
About fifty long and short swords.Original
About twenty long-shafted spears.Original
About twenty naginata.OriginalOriginal
The ten-kin cannon had been displayed beside the entrance of his official residence right up until the day he resigned his post, and it seems he took it along merely as a “scarecrow’s bow and arrow” to intimidate roving bandits and unruly mobs.Original
The only truly usable weapons were the twenty-one Snider rifles.Original
Moreover, under the shogunate’s military service system it was standard for three men to be levied per hundred koku in wartime, so Oguri, with two thousand five hundred koku, was qualified to command as many as seventy-five mounted men.Original
Ryūsen Shōshi writes that even preparations equal to that entitlement gave no grounds to call it a plot of rebellion.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryTen Small Boats
There is another anecdote attached to this story.Original
It happened on the night of the final council, or thereabouts.Original
After some idle talk, what Oguri raised was a request to borrow ten navy-attached cargo boats or bateiras, along with Katsu’s personal shihan flags, one for each boat.Original
Katsu, who had expected to be pressed with arguments for war, is said to have looked utterly taken aback.Original
“I am thinking of retiring to Gonda village,” Oguri said, adding that unless he took along at least his household goods, he would be in trouble from the next day on.Original
Katsu stared at his face for a while, then answered, “Understood,” and told him that space outside the Yaesu riverbank and at the Honjo Otakegura storehouse was available.Original
Ryūsen Shōshi writes that the old man Kageyu, who had never once praised Katsu, singled out this one incident as evidence of Katsu’s “quick mind.”Original
Thus, in small boats flying Katsu’s flags, the treasures hidden within Edo Castle were moved to the Honjo Otakegura storehouse over the course of two nights.Original
The head of the transport was Fujisawa Kōhei, a subordinate of Oguri who had risen from houseman rank.Original
On the fourth day of the fourth month, the surrender of Edo Castle was decided.Original
On the eleventh day of the fourth month, host and guest changed places.Original
The twelve treasure houses within the castle were sealed; two folding-screen storehouses were left to the Tokugawa, and the remaining ten were confiscated by the imperial army.Original
But there were signs that people had recently entered those treasure houses, and not a trace of the hidden treasures remained.Original
Katsu answered calmly.Original
“If Oguri Kōzuke no suke were still in the capital, it would be best to ask him, but now that he has withdrawn to his fief, that cannot be done.”Original
If Oguri were in Edo, it would be best to ask him, he said, but since he had withdrawn to his domain, that too was impossible.Original
It is said that a mocking smile even played upon his lips.Original
The old man Kageyu’s memoir says that the massacre of Oguri was the result of “a sleeping child being shaken awake.”Original
Ryūsen Shōshi adds that Kurimoto Jōn and Fukuchi Ōchi also affirm the same fact.Original
However, nine or ten parts in ten were due to what Ninagawa calls the “political strife before and after the Restoration,” and this anecdote is placed as something that might be fit into the remaining one part, or one and a half parts, of the gap.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryA Swordsman by the Karasugawa
Those who captured Oguri were Toyonaga Kan’ichirō, army inspector of the Tōsandō vanguard governor-general’s headquarters, his subordinate army inspector Hara Yasutarō, and Ōno Yaonosuke, captain of the Takasaki domain.Original
Oguri, though aware it was their scheme, willingly went forth and let himself be taken captive as they demanded.Original
The next day, his son Mataichi Tadamichi, who carried no weapon at all, was seized and beheaded without being allowed a single word in his own defense.Original
At dawn on the sixth day, by the banks of the Karasugawa that ran through the fief held for two hundred and fifty years, master and follower were subjected to the utmost disgrace for a warrior—bound and beheaded—and their heads were hung on a gibbet.Original
Regarding this death, Ninagawa writes that even among those who vanished at the execution grounds during the Ansei Purge, he has never heard of anyone as “composed in a manner befitting a warrior” as Oguri.Original
People of the Annaka domain relate that he left a death poem, but Ninagawa also writes that no such poem survives.Original
Ninagawa also sees Oguri as a man who used no scheme to win the trust of his subordinates, no pretense to appear well to others, and offered not the slightest excuse for himself—”a man who possessed the true essence of an Edo warrior.”Original
There is only one point that Ryūsen Shōshi’s writing regrets.Original
Though he faced the very day of the shogunate’s collapse, this man never once had “the chance to put his sword to actual use.”Original
What comes to mind is the Three Scrolls of Heaven, Earth, and Man, taken from his breast at Shitaya in the first month of Man’en 1 (1860).Original
Perhaps the reason Ninagawa dared to include this passage in full was that he wished to add a night of the sword to a book about political strife.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet Library| 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 3 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 entries have been prepared yet for vol. 3, so no comparison with it was made. |
| English gates | 107 of 107 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.
