Fujita Tōko, who was living quietly in Mito, wrote a long letter on the 5th day of the 12th month of Kōka 4 (1848). The addressee was Takahashi Taichirō, but the person he wanted to read it was Tokugawa Nariaki. The title was “Traces of the Heart.” It began by saying that since human life is like the morning dew, he was entrusting it as if it were his last testament. Tokutomi Sohō writes that this was an indirect attack.
The story goes back to Tenpō. Yuuki Toraju was a talented youth from a family line, raised to page at 16 in Tenpō 4. Tokutomi Sohō relates that he was a man who was humble to others outwardly while nursing schemes within. In the first month of Tenpō 11, at 23, he became head page; in the ninth month of the same year, junior councilor; and by the third month of Tenpō 13, he stood at the center of domain government. Toraju recommended his associates for key posts, and his faction grew to rival that of Fujita and Toda.
Nariaki had originally been installed by the Fujita faction. Even so, Tokutomi Sohō observes, there was a tendency to give Toraju heavier favor. In time Nariaki was severely censured, and both Tōko and Toda Ginjirō were found guilty and confined. Toraju alone received no censure at all. Nariaki’s son Tsuruchiyo succeeded to the house at age 13, and domain government passed into the hands of Toraju’s associates.
Nariaki had his house confinement lifted in the twelfth month of the same year. However, he was not permitted to take part in politics. That same month, Nariaki sent a letter to Abe Masahiro demanding the punishment of 16 men, but Abe did not act. Takahashi himself left a record of the methods used to clear his name. Takahashi consulted with the inner physicians and others, and approached Anekōji, who was deeply trusted by Tokugawa Ieyoshi.
Nariaki warned him not to send so much as a speck of dust as a gift. Takahashi replied that there was no reason not to give medicine to a parent who was ill. Tokutomi Sohō also introduces the remark that what retainers do need not reach the lord’s ears. The letter’s five articles urged closeness with the head of the house, Yoshiatsu, and warned against growing distant from the three branch houses. It further urged winning the hearts of the old families such as Nakayama Nobumori, and warned against meddling in shogunate politics.
The fifth article urged bearing no grudge against one’s lord, blaming no one, and remaining modest. Tōko traced the origin of the conflict to the point where scholarly factions had come to be called cliques. If everyone were treated as a villain, he said, resentment would be left to one’s descendants. Tokutomi Sohō judged that Nariaki possessed strong self-confidence along with a rare degree of resentment and suspicion. Tōko died in the Ansei earthquake, and Takahashi later became a ringleader in the killing of Ii Naosuke outside Sakurada Gate.
Written at Takekuma on the fifth day of the twelfth month of Kōka 4
Fujita Tōko was living in quiet retirement at Takekuma in Mito.OriginalOriginal
In the autumn of that year, his comrade Kanai Kin’emon had died of illness.OriginalOriginal
He must have thought that he himself would not last much longer.OriginalOriginal
On the fifth day of the twelfth month, he sent a long letter to Takahashi Taichirō.Original
Its title was “Traces of the Heart.”Original
It began as follows.Original
“Since human life from the outset is like the morning dew” ── a person’s life is like the morning dew, he wrote; should anything happen to him, he would have no chance to pour out what was in his heart, and this would go against his true intent, so he was setting it down here and entrusting it to his friend with the same feeling as a testament.OriginalOriginal
Please consult the original page images for this source.
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThough it was addressed to Takahashi, the one he truly wished to have read it was someone else.Original
It was a piece of writing meant to be presented to Tokugawa Nariaki through Takahashi.Original
“It was, so to speak, an indirect shot,” Tokutomi Sohō writes.OriginalOriginal
The Sixteen-Year-Old Page, the Twenty-Three-Year-Old Junior Councilor
The story goes back to the Tenpō era.OriginalOriginal
Yuuki Toraju.Original
In Tenpō 4, at the age of sixteen, he was summoned as a page, a brilliant youth of a house of hereditary rank.Original
Tokutomi Sohō relates that outwardly he was humble and deferential toward others, while inwardly he harbored resourceful schemes of every kind.Original
Nariaki’s trust in him was no ordinary matter.OriginalOriginal
或時惣太夫(戶村)、杉山邦之介にいへるは、東湖人材の名世に高けれど、おのれは左は思はず、たとへば、結城寅壽姦惡の業ありとも、東湖もまた樞要の地にありながら、君上の禍を救ひ得ることもせで、今となりて寅壽をば罪したりとて、東湖も又善を盡したりとは言ふべからず、といひしに、杉山、東湖にいたりて、戶村は姦黨たること疑ひなし、その故はかゝる論ありし、といへば、東湖それ故にこそ偏頗の事をないひそ、と常にいふなれ
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryIn the first month of Tenpō 11, at twenty-three, he became head of the pages.Original
In the ninth month of the same year, he became junior councilor.Original
In the fourth month of the eleventh year, he was appointed to the office in charge of financial reform.Original
In the third month of Tenpō 13, he advanced to the seat above the head of the great assembly, was ordered to serve as chief steward, and was assigned a constable in attendance.Original
In one leap, he had become a chief administrator.OriginalOriginal
Toraju recommended his comrade Yoshino Hideomi as steward, and Yokoyama Chūbei and Tomobe Shōsuke as heads of the pages.Original
At the same time, he drew to his side the discontented retainers of the old established houses.Original
He is said to have stood in silent opposition to the Fujita and Toda faction, and to have very nearly overpowered them.OriginalOriginal
Nariaki was originally a man raised to his position by the Fujita faction.Original
And yet, in this period, he inclined rather to favor Toraju more heavily, as Tokutomi Sohō sees it.OriginalOriginal
Nariaki’s Confinement and the Turn in Domain Politics
Thereupon Nariaki received severe censure.Original
Fujita Tōko, of course, and Toda Ginjirō and Imai Kin’emon as well, were found guilty and placed under confinement.Original
Yet Yuuki Toraju alone received no censure whatsoever.Original
The situation in Mito changed completely.Original
Nariaki’s son Tsuruchiyo, at thirteen, succeeded to the domain.Original
The three collateral houses of Takamatsu, Moriyama, and Fuchū were ordered to serve as guardians.Original
Toraju, as a gesture to the world, was relieved of his post as chief administrator and given a lesser outward post, but domain government fell into the hands of his faction.Original
The young Yoshiatsu, too, was held in their grasp.Original
Nariaki was released from confinement in the twelfth month of that same year.Original
However, he was not permitted to take part in domain government.Original
From his residence at Komagome, he could only look on from the sidelines.Original
Toraju remained behind the scenes as the mastermind, while his ally Okitsu Kurōdo stood in front as chief administrator.Original
Yatabe Unpachi, Obane Heizō, and other members of the faction occupied the key positions.Original
In the twelfth month of that year, Nariaki sent a letter to Abe Masahiro, requesting the punishment of Okitsu and the fifteen others he called the “wicked faction” ── as seen through Nariaki’s eyes, at least.Original
Abe did not act at once.OriginalOriginal
同年十二月、書を閣老阿部正弘に送りて、結城興津、其他十六人の奸黨-齊昭の目から見て-を黜罰せんことを請うたが
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryBribery, and Words That Rejected Bribery
In the second month of Kōka 3, Matsudaira Shinnosuke, a member of the Mito lord’s house and lord of the Nagakura fief, went up to Edo and, at the Kishū residence, pleaded the injustice done to Nariaki.Original
But this was turned against him.Original
The Fujita faction was regarded as instigators or accomplices, and many were confined at Nakamachi in Mito.Original
By what means the campaign to clear Nariaki’s name proceeded is recorded by Takahashi himself.Original
Takahashi conspired with the inner physicians Saka Yūgen and his son Gen’eki, with Itō Sōeki, with Motoyasu Sōen, and with the inner secretary Nagano Ijūrō, and approached Anekōji, the senior lady-in-waiting who held the undivided trust and favor of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi.Original
Anekōji was the daughter of the middle counselor Hashimoto Saneomi, and the younger sister of Hana no i, a senior lady-in-waiting of Mito.Original
Tokutomi Sohō writes that bribery must certainly have come before all else.Original
And Takahashi’s own record of it is vivid.Original
Nariaki, hearing of this, is said to have admonished them.Original
“See that not even a speck of dust is sent” ── do not send so much as a speck of dust as a gift.Original
It is a bitter thing, he said, to plead by bribery for those who have suffered unjust punishment through the shogunate’s lack of discernment; even if we are ordered generation after generation into early retirement, our true wish remains only to serve loyally the Imperial Court and the shogunate.Original
To this Takahashi replied.Original
“When father or mother falls ill, there is no reasoning by which one withholds medicine” ── when a parent is ill, there is no principle by which one refrains from giving medicine.Original
If there is any medicine that might help even a little, he wished to treat the illness by whatever embellishment was needed.Original
This, he said, was simply the feeling of a loyal retainer, and could not be helped.Original
Therefore, he said, what he as a retainer would do “shall not be allowed to reach your ears at all” ── he would keep it entirely from Nariaki’s hearing, so that it would not cause him bitterness of heart.Original
Sohō declares flatly: “This is the true intention behind the Mito lord and retainers’ campaign.”Original
And he adds that this campaign apparently proved unexpectedly effective.OriginalOriginal
幕の御不明にて寃罪蒙之儀、右を賄賂にて歎願抔申は、苦々敷事也。ちり一本たり共遣し不申樣致度、此上此通り眼もなき世の中にては、代々若隱居被仰付候共、我等の素願は、天朝公邊への忠節を勵申之故、對天地一毫も恥不申事故、我家あらん限りは、此心得たるべし
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThe Five Articles of “Traces of the Heart”
The eldest son, Tanenori, was granted five hundred koku and admitted to the middle rank of the yoriai.Original
By this the Yuuki faction suffered a great blow.Original
What was written at the end of that year was “Traces of the Heart.”Original
There are five articles.Original
The first was to be intimate with the current head, Tokugawa Yoshiatsu.Original
In noble houses, since residences are separate and attendants are separate, respect tends to outweigh affection, and estrangement easily follows.Original
He says that cases in which lowly men and women exploit this to sow discord are not few, in past and present.Original
He hears that Nariaki has not been going to Koishikawa of late, and argues that “there is no greater calamity for the domain than this.”Original
The second was not to grow distant from the three branch houses.Original
The third was to win over the hearts of the old families, beginning with Nakayama Nobumori.Original
Here Fujita Tōko diagnoses the origin of Mito’s disturbances as stemming from “the naming of factions as parties from the academic schools.”Original
He says it was brewed from the point where the schools of learning were labeled as parties.OriginalOriginal
Please consult the original page images for this source.
Open the original page at the National Diet Library“Are There Not Only Many Petty Men?”
The argument of that third article is thought to be the core of this testament.OriginalOriginal
Tōko lists the names of Sakakibara Awaji no kami and Akabayashi Hachirōzaemon, who incurred guilt in Bunsei 12, and Nukata Kyūbei, Koyama Koshirō, Itō Tonomo, and Okazaki Jirōbei, who incurred guilt in Tenpō 10.Original
If one investigates in detail the houses of hoi rank and above, “eight or nine out of ten are relatives,” connected in spirit.Original
Worse still, it came to the point of demanding severe punishment for Takeda Hikokurō and Yoshinari Mataemon, who had appealed against the injustice, he says.OriginalOriginal
Concerning Yuuki Toraju, he judges thus.OriginalOriginal
Sohō adds that one of the chief figures behind this “et cetera” was Tōko himself.Original
In a letter Nariaki gave to Kuki Hisataka, it is written that Toraju had four or five times declared that “Tōko” — meaning Fujita Tōko — was no different from Fujii Montayū.OriginalOriginal
そは齊昭が、其臣久木久敬に與へたる書翰中に、昨年冬秋(天保十四年?)の頃、用席にて、しては、申候は、『藤虎』は用心可致、我等(齊昭)を駒込へ押込申候て、自分執政に成り、自分の派を引立候、藤井同斷(紋太夫)の者のよし、四五度咄有之候得共、右樣の人とも不存候故、可然挨拶致居候へども、外にて承り候へば、二十四儀、我等を駒込へ押こめ、目上の人を却、我等申付候役人を退け、自分派に入かへ、舊家の人に無之候ては、重役に不罷成儀
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryAnd Tōko rejected the very division into righteous and treacherous.Original
Zealous youths, in their indignation, lump the officials together and call them all treacherous, but to attach such labels within the same house is “in no way to be permitted, even in jest.”Original
In his own eyes there were not so many who deserved to be called treacherous men; “are there not, rather, as Confucius said, only many petty men?” — meaning the lowly small men that Confucius spoke of.Original
Those who scheme out of regard for office and stipend are no different from dogs and rats that bite people out of concern for their own hides — a mind both pitiable and laughable, he says.OriginalOriginal
If this one and that one are each labeled treacherous, the ranks of petty men only grow.Original
Not only the person himself but his children and grandchildren will split into factions and form parties, becoming “a great harm to the state for generations to come.”OriginalOriginal
In China, once one leaves office people scatter, but in our country generations of ancestors have lived on the same land, served the same lord, and through marriage relatives dwell in the same place.Original
If one makes a great fuss over distinguishing right from wrong, the resentment will remain with descendants and never vanish — Sohō reports that Tōko always used to say this.OriginalOriginal
A Medicine That Did Not Take Effect as Intended
The fourth article is an admonition not to meddle in the affairs of the shogunate’s government.OriginalOriginal
Nariaki had corresponded with the senior councilors and had even submitted proposals about physicians wearing their hair loose, about firing cannons within residences, and about changing the place for receiving Korean envoys to Tsushima.Original
He says that Nariaki was kept at a distance because he blamed Mizuno Tadakuni too much, and that Abe Masahiro, though not as cruel as Tadakuni, was not heard of as a man of great virtue either.OriginalOriginal
The fifth article.Original
“If you do not resent your lord, do not blame others, and keep to humility” — do not resent your lord, do not blame others, hold to humility.Original
Leave the clearing of injustice to the efforts of loyal men on both sides, and reflect upon yourself, he says.OriginalOriginal
Further, Tōko touches even upon the temperament of the bannermen.Original
“If you argue while invoking the authority of the shogunate to the utmost, they change their attitude in an instant” — both Kawaji Toshiakira and Egawa Hidetatsu are the same, he says.OriginalOriginal
As for the affair of the kōshin year, he reflected on himself as well.Original
He writes that Nariaki’s wife Yoshiko’s request to return home “touched upon the foremost rule of the shogunate,” touching the fundamental law of the shogunate; that even in later ages this would be called excessive; and that his own guilt, as the one who handled the matter at the time, cannot be escaped.OriginalOriginal
一體甲辰(齊昭幕譴を得たる一件)之事、幕府御無理は不及申候へ共、今更相考候得ば、先年の御政事向も、種々手順相違仕り、本末緩急之次第、取失ひ候事も有之、是は皆役人どもの不行屆にて、實に奉恐入候儀、尤外の事は手順等相違仕候と申迄に候へ共、君夫人(齊昭夫人吉子)御下向御願の一條に至候而は、幕府第一の規格に觸候事にて、其節は五六年の御暇、押付に被仰出候を殘念に存じ、且は北地(蝦夷地經營請願の一件)御成就の御手順と申所に泥み、御願に取計候へ共、此一條のみは、天下後世に至り候而も、あまり成事と可奉存、愚臣の罪無所遁、扨々恐入候仕合に奉存候
Open the original page at the National Diet LibrarySohō remarked that if one reads this testament, the circumstances between the shogunate and Mito, the friction between Mito’s two factions, and the strengths and weaknesses of the man Nariaki all become as clear as looking at a fingerprint.OriginalOriginal
He then continues as follows.
Nariaki possessed a self-confidence that might be called an utterly excessive conceit, and a bias and suspicion rare even among men of noble birth.Original
He had his complaints, and he had his affectations too.Original
Far from lacking the breadth of spirit to repay resentment with virtue, he repaid resentment with double resentment.Original
Sohō surmises that having spent until the age of thirty living in seclusion as the young lord Keisaburō may have nurtured this character.OriginalOriginal
The Medicine That Worked Too Well, and the Medicine That Did Not Work
Tōko judged that the medicine worked too well and brought Nariaki down — this is how he assessed Yuuki Toraju.OriginalOriginal
然も東湖は結城の心事は、只だ藤田、戶田の一輩を傾け去るにあつて未だ必らずしも齊昭の身邊に及ぶ可き積りではなかつた。然るに其の結果は案外にも、齊昭致仕となつたから、彼も藥が利き過きたのに驚いたであらう
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryHow effective, then, was the medicine that Tōko himself prescribed for Nariaki?Original
Be close to Yoshiatsu, invite the three branch houses, win over the hearts of the old families, do not meddle in shogunal politics, do not resent, do not blame.Original
Sohō repeatedly writes that all five “hit precisely at Nariaki’s affliction.”Original
Yet it can also be read that although the medicine hit the mark, it was never actually taken.Original
Tomura Sōdayū is said to have been told by Tōko that forming parties and grinding against one another does no good for the domain, and that in the end all must become one.Original
Sōdayū sensed that Tōko had intended to send him to Yuuki to persuade him, and resolved in his heart that if things went against his will he would fight to the death.Original
But Tōko died in the Ansei earthquake.Original
“Even the effort to break the evil of factional parties came to nothing,” Sōdayū said.OriginalOriginal
What of Takahashi Taichirō?Original
Sohō adds that the very man who, by linking the inner physicians, the inner secretaries, and the senior ladies-in-waiting of the Ōoku, resolved Nariaki’s injustice, later became the mastermind who struck down Ii Naosuke outside Sakurada Gate.OriginalOriginal
There was the lord who said not even a speck of dust should be sent, and the retainer who moved without heeding him, saying that medicine was needed for a parent’s illness.OriginalOriginal
Between those two statements, perhaps, lie forty years of Mito.
| Source text | Kinsei Nihon kokuminshi, The Situation before Perry’s Arrival (1929). National Diet Library Digital Collections (PDM). PID 3431221 |
| Checked against | Ishin shiryō kōyō, vol. 1 (1937). PID 1046665 |
| Dates and names | All 2 dates in the text exist in the calendar for their year, and the Western years given alongside them agree. Of the 11 people named in the text, 8 also appear in Ishin shiryō kōyō, vol. 1. |
| English gates | 122 of 122 sentences passed the checks on the English text. |
This article is a reading of Kinsei Nihon kokuminshi, The Situation before Perry’s Arrival. Tokutomi Sohō’s views are those of the 1920s and 1930s and may differ from current scholarship. The source text is a century old and may differ from current scholarship.
