The person Ninagawa Arata defended in his book Ishin zengo no seisō to Oguri Kōzuke no shi was Oguri Tadamasa, who was beheaded on the bank of the Karasugawa River in Jōshū. In September of Taishō 4 (1915), Kuroi Teijirō, head of the Yokosuka naval arsenal, set down a record of the arsenal’s origins. This was written for the ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of its founding. Ninagawa placed that passage at the head of his chapter, and went on to quote directly from Kurimoto Jōn’s memoir Yokohama Hantoshiyo.
The story began with a full set of steam-powered ship repair machinery that Saga had presented to the shogunate some years earlier. It had been offered up because installing it cost money and there was no one able to handle it. Two-thirds of the machinery was already in a coal warehouse in Yokohama, and the rest was at Nagasaki harbor. The previous year’s plan to build a dock and ironworks at Mujinagaya Bay in Sōshū had come to nothing, since there was no one experienced in such work. Oguri, saying the machinery could not be left to rust and Kansō’s goodwill could not be wasted, asked Kurimoto to lead the Frenchmen there to inspect the site.
Kurimoto, who was hearing the very word “dock” for the first time, held off giving an immediate answer. That evening the two of them went to the French legation. Minister Rosesu could not decide either, so Commodore Jōraisu was summoned. The commodore’s answer was cautious, saying that Dorōtoru was young and that building something new was uncertain work. Later, first engineer Jinsorai, who had returned from Shanghai, also examined the machinery and judged that it could not withstand major work.
When consulted in Edo, Oguri argued that without a repair facility a warship would become useless after breaking down just once. All foreign countries were teachers, but the other countries only sought to profit by taking advantage of Japan’s inexperience. France’s word, Oguri believed, was still to be trusted. To Kurimoto, who worried about the cost, Oguri replied that even if it passed into others’ hands once completed, the honor of a “house for sale with its storehouse” would remain. Kurimoto noted that this was no joke, adding that he had long since judged the shogunate would not last much longer.
All the machinery still remaining at Nagasaki was also brought to Yokohama. It was overhauled and a trial assembly made, and it was decided to reclaim and fill in the marshland along the Ōtagawa River to install it there. Sugiura Seisuke and the interpreter Kitamura Motoshirō, among others, were assigned to oversee the work.
In time, orders came down from the elder Mizuno Izumi no kami and the councilor Sakai Hida no kami. Verny, a French steam engineer, was invited from Shanghai and made director. The site was Yokosuka Bay in Sōshū. The design followed the Toulon ironworks reduced to two-thirds scale, with costs of about 600,000 dollars a year, totaling 2,400,000 dollars over 4 years. Ninagawa declares that Oguri, who had committed no act of treason, was killed out of personal grudge, and that his name was left buried for 60 years.
Yokohama Hantoshiyo, as quoted by Ninagawa Arata, traces the course by which rusting machinery grew into a great four-year undertaking.
Some years before, a complete set of steam ship-repair machinery had been presented to the shogunate by Saga.Original
The proposal was that someone should use it and take on the trouble of the work.OriginalOriginal
In Ishin zengo no seisō to Oguri Kōzuke no shi, Ninagawa Arata quotes this scene directly from Kurimoto Jōn’s memoir Yokohama Hantoshiyo.Original
This article will read that excerpt together with Ninagawa’s conclusion.OriginalOriginal
The Machinery Sleeping in Yokohama’s Coal Warehouse
Kurimoto writes that Oguri’s account went as follows.Original
However, the cost of installation had mounted, and there was no one who could operate it.Original
So the offer was to present it to the shogunate and have it put to use.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryTwo-thirds of the machinery had already been brought into the coal warehouse at Yokohama.Original
The remaining portion was still at Nagasaki port.Original
The previous year, there had been an attempt to build a dock and an ironworks at Mujinagaya Bay in Sōshū; officials in charge had even been appointed and surveys carried out, but since no one was experienced in the work, the plan had quietly died out.Original
“I cannot bear to let so much machinery rust away and let Kansō’s kind intention come to nothing.”Original
Oguri’s argument was that it would be unbearable to let so much machinery rust and waste Kansō’s good will.OriginalOriginal
So Oguri asked Kurimoto to take the Frenchman Dorōtoru, who was then engaged in ship repairs, and others, and go to Mujinagaya.Original
Kurimoto’s response was honest.Original
“For my part, this was the first time I had even heard the word ‘dock.'”Original
Moreover, even if the Frenchman himself agreed to be employed, the intentions of the commodore and the minister were unknown.Original
Kurimoto avoided giving an immediate answer, saying he would consult at the French legation that evening.OriginalOriginal
An Evening at the Legation, Waiting for Jinsorai
Oguri sent an attendant running to Kanagawa station to secure lodging, and went with Kurimoto to the legation.Original
Minister Rosesu was also unfamiliar with shipbuilding work and could not judge whether Dorōtoru was capable of the task.Original
A messenger was sent to summon the naval commodore Jōraisu; on learning that Oguri had come, the commodore came to the legation with the messenger.OriginalOriginal
Kurimoto reports that the commodore’s reply was a cautious one.Original
Dorōtoru was still young and his learning was not deep.Original
He could maintain something already built, but building something new was uncertain.Original
On the warship Semiramīsu there was a first-class steam engineer named Jinsorai.Original
He was presently in Shanghai on private business, but as soon as he returned he would be made to inspect the machinery, and then a definite answer would be given.Original
The discussion that day ended there.OriginalOriginal
In time Jinsorai returned from Shanghai and examined the machinery donated by Saga in detail.Original
The assessment the commodore conveyed through the minister denied Oguri’s original plan.Original
The machinery’s hull was small and its horsepower was not strong.Original
It was enough for small repairs of iron fittings, but “it is not the sort of thing that could possibly accomplish the great task of building a dock.”Original
In other words, it was in no way capable of bearing the great task of building a dock.Original
A great enterprise such as a dock or shipbuilding could not be accomplished with their own learning, so there was nothing for it but to hire a separate person suited to the task.Original
He also added that it would be convenient to install this machinery near Yokohama in preparation for small repairs.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet Library“Only France Is Exceptionally Compliant”
Kurimoto went to Edo and consulted with Oguri.Original
Kurimoto recorded Oguri’s judgment at this time by tracing its main points.OriginalOriginal
Once one possessed warships, damage was inevitable, and there had to be a place to repair them.Original
As before, even if one bought secondhand ships from foreign countries or commissioned new ones, without a ship repair yard, once damaged they would immediately become unusable.Original
If every time a ship broke down it had to be sailed to a foreign country, the round-trip costs alone would be extraordinary.OriginalOriginal
Which country should be entrusted with this?
Kurimoto writes that Oguri’s view was as follows.Original
“All foreign countries are our teachers, but the other countries are arrogant and insolent, threatening us, deceiving our unfamiliarity, and seeking only to gorge themselves on profit to the utmost.”Original
In other words, all foreign countries were teachers, but the other countries were arrogant, threatened Japan, and sought only to deceive its inexperience and gorge themselves on profit.Original
“Only France is exceptionally compliant, and compared to the others its statements are somewhat more worthy of trust.”OriginalOriginal
From Kurimoto’s account alone the grounds for this judgment are hard to see, but considering that Oguri had already gone through repeated negotiations with the commodore and the minister, these words may have come from experience.
A Household Living Hand to Mouth and a House for Sale, Storehouse Included
Kurimoto still had a worry.Original
It was the cost.Original
Kurimoto pressed Oguri on the point.Original
“At present, whether to do it or not lies with us, but once it has been entrusted, there will be no undoing it.”Original
For now, whether to go through with it or not was in their own hands, but once it was entrusted, there would be no recovering it, he said.OriginalOriginal
“Our finances at present are truly what is called a household living hand to mouth.”Original
And he continued.Original
“Once it is finally completed, even if we dye a gift mark onto our banner and hand it over, the honor of a house for sale, storehouse included, will still remain.”Original
In other words, once it was completed, even if the banner were dyed with a gift mark and handed over to others, the honor of being a house for sale, storehouse included, would remain.OriginalOriginal
Kurimoto inserted a parenthetical note here.Original
These words were “not a passing jest; there is truly something endlessly pitiable in them.”Original
It was not a joke of the moment, he said, but something limitlessly painful.Original
Oguri had long since judged in his heart that “the government could no longer endure for long”—that is, that the shogunate would not continue much longer.Original
Even so, he had resolved that “as long as it exists, one must not fail to fulfill the duties of government for even a single day”—that as long as the shogunate lasted, its duties of government must be carried out to the fullest, even for a single day.Original
Even when speaking with close friends, Oguri never departed from this tone, Kurimoto writes.OriginalOriginal
Was it not because Ninagawa saw the core of Oguri’s character in this passage that he quoted it as it stood?Original
Knowing the house would be sold, he still built a storehouse.Original
That storehouse became the later Yokosuka.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryFrom the marsh along the Ōtagawa to Toulon
Kurimoto also left a concrete record of what happened after the decision.Original
The machinery donated by Saga that remained in Nagasaki was all brought to Yokohama as well.Original
After inspection by Jinsorai, the rusted parts were repaired and polished, and a trial assembly was carried out.Original
On that basis, the marshland along the Ōtagawa in Yokohama was reclaimed, and it was decided to build there.OriginalOriginal
For the task, Kurimoto’s subordinate Sugiura Seisuke, one man from the naval affairs office, and the interpreter Kitamura Motoshirō, among others, were assigned.Original
Kurimoto himself notes that he does not record the name of the man from the naval affairs office.Original
On the French side were Jinsorai, Dorōtoru, Ede, and others, who together with additional men undertook the construction of the small Yokohama ironworks.OriginalOriginal
But the matter grew far larger.
Since it was, after all, a great undertaking, by order of the elder Mizuno Izumi no kami and the councilor Sakai Hida no kami, consultations were held with the French minister and the naval commodore, and on their recommendation the French steam engineer Verny was summoned from Shanghai.Original
After repeated negotiations, Verny was engaged and made director.OriginalOriginal
The site was Yokosuka Bay in Sōshū.Original
Following the model of the Toulon ironworks on the Mediterranean, the scale was reduced to two-thirds.Original
One ironworks, two docks large and small, three shipbuilding yards, and an arsenal storehouse.Original
The cost was pledged at about six hundred thousand dollars per year, totaling two million four hundred thousand dollars over four years, Kurimoto records.Original
And thus, “for the first time in the Great Japanese Empire, the great undertaking of shipbuilding, ironworking, and dock construction was begun.”OriginalOriginal
Seen this way, machinery that had at first been rusting away in a storehouse turned, after an evening’s discussion at the legation, into a four-year plan to bring in a director from France.Original
Though it is a story connected by a single thread, one can see that the scale of the undertaking changed by several degrees along the way.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryA defense sixty years later, a celebration in the fiftieth year
Ninagawa places a “conclusion” after this excerpt.Original
He also writes that Oguri was a man who sought to break down old, entrenched customs and reform the nation and society, and that to call him “a pioneer of Japan’s reform” is no exaggeration.Original
That same Oguri was beheaded on the banks of the Karasugawa in Jōshū.Original
Although Oguri had neither the intention nor the fact of rebellion, his opponents proclaimed to the world that he was a traitor, beheaded him, and displayed his head.Original
This, Ninagawa declares, was an act that ignored “the public way of heaven and earth” and killed a capable official out of private grudge.Original
He goes on to say that after Meiji, along with his unfortunate violent death, Oguri’s name was buried.Original
In a history written from the standpoint of Satsuma and Chōshū, everything that should have been honored on the Tokugawa side remained buried for sixty years—this is Ninagawa’s view.Original
“By this work, I mean to defend the unfortunate great man Oguri Kōzuke no suke, who met an unhappy death”—thus Ninagawa declares that he writes this work to defend Oguri.Original
It was likely for material toward that defense that Kurimoto’s memoir was chosen.Original
Here I would like to return to the beginning.Original
Ninagawa places at the head of this chapter a passage written by Kuroi Teijirō, director of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, on the twenty-seventh day of the ninth month of Taishō 4 (1915).Original
It briefly records the origins of the arsenal on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of its founding, so as to transmit them forever.Original
Counting back fifty years, the starting point falls around Keiō 1 (1865).Original
Meanwhile, according to Ninagawa, the name of the man who built it had lain buried for sixty years.Original
Might not Kurimoto’s remark, appended as a note, that “there is one infinitely to be pitied,” have foretold not only the fate of the undertaking but also his own fate?Original
In this chapter, Ninagawa has set before the reader the figure of a man who, at the official residence in Yokohama, spoke of it casually to a friend who did not even know the name of a dock.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 (1928). National Diet Library Digital Collections (PDM). PID 1876405 |
| Dates and names | The text has 1 dates, but they have not been checked against the calendar. None of them gives a Japanese era year in the text, so there is no year to check them against. The 3 people named in the text were checked word for word against the source text. No entries have been prepared yet for vol. 6, so no comparison with it was made. |
| English gates | 101 of 101 sentences passed the checks on the English text. |
This article is a reading of Ishin zengo no seisō to Oguri Kōzuke no shi. 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.
