town until he was twenty-nine years old, when he set out for Yedo, as the
capital of the Shogun,—now Tokio—was then called, to seek his fortune.
There he studied diligently, under such celebrated professors as Hayashi
Jussai and Sato Issai, the then much-prized Chinese literature, and
enjoyed the close friendship of those profound scholars Yanagawa Seigan,
Watanabe Kazan, and Tsuboi Shindo. All these men won for themselves
enduring fame as exponents of the writings of the Chinese sages, and
under their guidance Sakuma became deeply versed in the teachings
of Mencius and Confucius, and many of the lesser lights of Chinese
philosophy. Japan’s rigid seclusion from the outer world, which had at
that time already lasted over two centuries, had had the result, for
one thing, of elevating Chinese learning to a position, in the eyes
of the average Japanese, scarcely less exalted than that of Greek or
Latin in England in the Middle Ages, although in Japan some knowledge
of Chinese was found among all classes. But Sakuma’s studies were by no
means confined to Chinese literature. He set himself to glean all that he
could from the works of the Hollanders, then almost the only Occidental
writings available to the Japanese in their search for information, and
having acquired a fair knowledge of the Dutch language, he embarked
resolutely on an investigation of the arts and sciences of the West,
including the manufacture of firearms, the construction of vessels of
war, of fortifications, and the casting of heavy guns. The immediate
effect of his researches was to imbue his mind with a conviction of
the paramount necessity of strengthening the national defences, and
providing against the contingency of an attack by some hostile Western
power. His studies in musketry led him to invent a new weapon, in the
shape of a musket capable of far greater rapidity of fire than that
which at the time was in use, the pattern of which had been brought
from Europe. Sakuma was groping in the dark, by comparison with those of
his fellow-countrymen who, at a later date, followed in his footsteps
along the path which led to substantial reforms, but he was on the right
track, as his unerring judgment assured him, though it was not his fate
to live until the dawn of the Meiji era, still less to be able to form a
true conception of the success that would attend his country’s efforts
and the phenomenal progress that would be achieved under the beneficent
auspices of the Emperor Mutsuhito’s reign. In 1842, which was the
thirteenth year of the Tempo period, while the Emperor Ninko was on the
throne, the feudal chieftain of Shinano, Sakuma’s native province, was
given high office under the Tokugawa Government—that is to say, under
the administration at Yedo of the Shogun, or as he was better known to
Europeans, the “Tycoon.” The Shinano _dai-mio_, as the feudal chiefs in
those days were styled, raised Sakuma to the rank of private adviser to
the State on matters concerning coast defence. In the execution of his
duties in this capacity Sakuma prepared a memorandum on the nature of the
measures to be adopted for adequate protection, and the document is not
without historical value, when considered in the light of the more recent
events of Japanese history. The report, it will be remembered was made in
the year 1842. Roughly speaking, Sakuma’s ideas of national defence were,—
(_a_) To fortify all points of strategical importance on the
coast territories.
(_b_) To prohibit the export of copper to Holland, and to
undertake the manufacture of a large number of cannon. (The
impression conveyed is that many thousands of such guns were to
be cast, and that the material was to be bronze.)
(_c_) To build powerful men-of-war, on the Western model.
(_d_) To promote the trade with foreign countries, by every
means at command, external commerce being essential to the
national development, and at the same time to put a check on
the self-seeking ambitions of the Dutch merchants at Nagasaki,
and induce them to abandon their evil ways.
(_e_) To strengthen the navy. (Considering that Japan was
not supposed to have had a navy until quite recent years,
this provision would at first sight appear to be somewhat
superfluous, but the reference is, of course, to the very few
sailing vessels fit to carry guns which had been built in the
days of the Tokugawa regime, on lines that had been handed down
to the native shipbuilders from the time of Will Adams, the
sailor and shipwright of London, who, after his vessel’s wreck
on the Japanese coast, at the dawn of the seventeenth century,
entered the employ of the then Shogun, and for the remainder of
his life devoted himself to the service of his adopted country.)
(_f_) To establish schools and in every way spread a knowledge
of the benefits of a liberal education.
(_g_) To familiarise people with the principles of sound
government, by the introduction of beneficent regulations, and
to lead them to appreciate its advantages by the establishment
of organised rule on enlightened methods.
(_h_) To employ only the more intelligent persons in offices of
higher rank.
It will readily be comprehended that these recommendations, had they been
adopted, would at the outset have involved such sweeping reforms in the
methods of administration as would have procured for Sakuma in any case a
whole host of enemies, for there were vested interests to be considered
in those times as in every age, and it is not at all surprising to learn
that his proposals were not received with any degree of favour: admirable
as they were in conception, they struck at the very root of the system
on which the Tokugawa rule was based, after the closing of the country
to foreign intercourse in 1638, which was that of complete seclusion
from the rest of the world, and the memorandum was, as might be said,
pigeon-holed for future reference.
To fully appreciate the risk that Sakuma ran in putting forward
proposals so entirely subversive of the existing order of things, it
must be brought to mind for an instant that early in the seventeenth
century of the Christian era, at a time when the over-sea trade of
Japan had attained to some importance, the Tokugawa Government sternly
suppressed all trade with foreign nations on account of the attempts of
the Jesuit missionaries, it was said, to obtain for their order that
political influence in Japan that they had succeeded in securing at the
time in China. The construction of large vessels was prohibited under
very severe penalties, and a maritime trade that bade fair to prove
eminently advantageous to Japan was strangled at the outset. As far as
can be gleaned from the records of that period, Japan had in 1620 about
200 ocean-going ships, fit to brave the storms that were usually to be
encountered in the course of a voyage to India, Mexico, or the islands
of the South Seas, where the Japanese flag was in those days by no means
rarely to be seen. The order that thenceforward Japanese ships were to
have but one mast struck at the root of naval expansion, and Japan was
still suffering the consequences of this drastic regulation when Sakuma
penned his remarkable essay on needed measures of defence.
When his feudal chief, at a later date, returned to his own province
Sakuma went back also, being no longer in the employ of the Shogun,
though of course the clan administration was still conducted in full
accord with the prevailing system, under which the Shogun, as the
Emperor’s deputy, managed the nation’s secular affairs and controlled
its foreign policy. It was not long, however, before Sakuma was again
in Yedo, this time occupying himself in teaching Dutch, of which he had
acquired a competent knowledge, to a group of pupils whose ideas tended
to coincide with his own. It was at this period that he wished to publish
a Dutch-Japanese dictionary, but the Shogun’s officials, so strict were
still the laws on this point, could not grant the desired permission.
And in the fifth year of the Ka-yei era, corresponding to 1852, the
year before Commodore Perry made his appearance off the shores of Idzu
province, Sakuma sought to issue a handbook on gunnery, but this right
was likewise denied him. The work was entirely from his own pen, and it
is to be regretted that it has not, so far as is known, been translated.
The next year eight American warships arrived at the little bay of Uraga,
close to the entrance of the gulf of Yedo, and it was freely stated that
they had brought a message to the effect that unless the Japanese were
prepared to open their ports to trade with all nations these “black
ships” would find their way to Yedo itself and bombard the castle of
the Shogun. The prospect filled the minds of the people of the locality
with horror. Japan had no naval or military strength to oppose to these
invaders. It was mournfully recognised that the coast forts then in
existence had no armaments that would enable them for an instant to
cope with the powerful guns on board the American ships. Japan had in
secluding herself failed to keep pace with the march of progress, and
was wholly at the mercy of the powers of the Occident. China had had,
as in Japan they well knew, to endure in 1841 the intrusion of foreign
troops, and the forcible entry of Western vessels into the waters of
the Yang-tse-kiang, and now Japan, though she had secluded herself for
centuries from the unwelcome attentions of foreign nations, was destined
to undergo, as it seemed, the forcible encroachment on her dominions
of Western barbarians with whom she had no sort of sympathy, and whose
acquaintance she had absolutely no desire whatever to make.
Sakuma was stirred to action. Mounting his horse, he set off alone to
Uraga, riding at full speed, resolved to see for himself, as a first
step, what manner of men these visitors were, and to gather, if he
could, from their attitude to the local inhabitants, what were the
real intentions of the intruders. He saw sufficient, as he judged,
to form an opinion, and speedily returned to Yedo in order that he
might make a report to his feudal chief, who was then staying in the
capital. Soon afterwards Sakuma was appointed a member of the general
staff, and given the command of the military forces. While enjoying
the opportunities which his position afforded him, he frequently at
this period advocated the adoption of a new and more complete system
of training, as being requisite if Japan desired not merely to protect
herself from the aggression of those foreign powers which had already
worked their will upon China, but to be in a position some day to choose
her own friends should a recourse to Occidental methods suggest itself
as politically advantageous to his countrymen. But his aspirations met
with no favourable response at headquarters. His ideas were pronounced
to be crude and altogether needlessly alarmist in their tendency. He was
compelled, therefore, to bury his hopes for the time being, trusting that
in the chapter of accidents something might arise to add force to his own
respectful but solemn warnings of the danger of delay.
The following year, being the first of An-Sei era,—at this time it was
the custom in Japan to change the name of the era to commemorate some
auspicious or notable event, irrespective of the sovereign’s reign, but
now the eras are co-extensive with the monarch’s tenure of the throne—the
American cruisers reappeared at Uraga, having as arranged on their
previous visit, returned to receive an answer to President Fillmore’s
despatch, in which he had saluted the ruler of Japan with obvious good
will and had expressed with a heartiness that could not be misinterpreted
America’s wish to be on cordial terms with the subjects of the Ten-shi.
On this occasion the squadron of Commodore Perry permitted itself the
freedom of entering the Bay of Yedo, an act that came perilously near
wrecking the negotiations altogether. As it was, the Tokugawa Government
directed two prominent _dai-mios_, the feudal barons of Kokura and
Matsushiro respectively, to prepare for the defence of the approaches
to the Sho-gun’s chief city. Kokura is a castle town in the straits of
Shimonoseki, afterwards so famous for a fierce fight between the combined
foreign squadrons and the forts of the _dai-mio_ of Choshiu province,
facing the Buzen province to which Kokura belongs, and Matsushiro is
in the Shinano province, and was the place of Sakuma’s birth, and the
seat of that feudal chief to whom he owed allegiance. It is situated
west-north-west of the Japanese metropolis, towards the west coast, close
to that mighty river the Shinano, which there pours its waters into
the Sea of Japan. By his chieftain Sakuma was immediately directed to
attend and advise the military council, and from that time forth he so
ardently devoted himself to the elaboration of a scheme of defence as to
allow himself no proper time, it is said, for rest, night or day, until
he had completed his task. A week after the advent for a second time of
the American warships in Uraga Bay Sakuma took up his position in the
vicinity of what is now Yokohama in command of his small force, all being
resolved to prevent, as far as their limited powers would permit them to
do, the landing of what were then regarded as hostile visitors.
The Tokugawa government had it in mind at that time to open the port
of Shimoda to foreign trade in response to the American proposal, the
situation of this place, near the extremity of the peninsula of Idzu, and
bathed by the waves of the Pacific, being such as to afford reasonable
security from too close intimacy with the strangers. But Sakuma was
averse to this, on the ground that Shimoda was strategically far too
valuable to be relinquished for the purposes of trade, and the free
entry and egress of aliens and their ships, and he suggested instead
the opening of a trading centre at some spot within the bay of Yedo,
not wholly, it may be surmised, without an eye to the practicability of
closing the entrance to the bay, should such a course become necessary,
by fortifications at Kannon-saki. Ultimately Kanagawa was selected as
the port to be opened, the actual site for the foreign settlement being
laid out at the village of Yokohama, the “beach over the way,” as its
name implies, from the town of Kanagawa. Parenthetically it may be
mentioned that as long as the Treaties with foreign powers remained in
force Kanagawa was the official designation of the port commonly known as
Yokohama. The result of Sakuma’s remonstrances was that the opening of
Shimoda was postponed _sine die_, and Kanagawa was finally chosen to be
the first of the ports at which foreign trade and intercourse should be
allowed.
In 1851, three years before the treaty of peace and amity with the United
States of America was concluded, Sakuma had received into his entire
friendship one who was like himself to occupy a niche in the annals of
his country. This was Yoshida Torajiro, better known now by his literary
name of Sho-in. Yoshida, as Sakuma’s pupil, had become imbued with his
mentor’s ideas on the subject of national defence, and acting on Sakuma’s
suggestion, which was that every man ought to examine for himself how
other countries provided for their own security from attack, Yoshida
endeavoured to procure a passage in an American warship, though it was at
that time against the law for a Japanese to quit his native land, and in
this endeavour he was supported by the conviction that Sakuma approved
of his plan, but unfortunately the attempt was foredoomed to failure, as
Commodore Perry would not countenance a breach of Japanese law. Sakuma
perceived that Yoshida contemplated running the risk of detection,
with the object of seeing for himself the condition of people under an
enlightened government, and gaining experience which should fit him to
continue the good work which the elder man had begun, and the pupil
received at the hands of his master a treasured letter stimulating him to
yet greater efforts in his search for knowledge, and designed to comfort
him amid the inevitable trials and difficulties of the career that he
had mapped out for himself. That composition was to be historic, for it
decided the fate of Sakuma too, but it shows the clearsightedness of its
writer, and it was subsequently an incentive to many to prove constant
amid the storm and stress of a period of transition and revolution. An
attempt is here made to translate Sakuma’s stirring exhortation into
English, but the result is by no means satisfactory, for it is very
difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce faithfully the force of the
original.
Rendered into English it might perhaps be read as:—
“He has journeyed a thousand leagues, and though he has not
yet disclosed to me the trend of his thoughts, I perceive
that he is meditating some exploit out of the ordinary. As
I watch him move away from my cottage gate I see in fancy a
solitary stork outstretched on the wing in the autumn sky. The
ocean lies beneath, and the five continents seem to be the
bird’s close neighbours. So in a tour of the globe one takes
in the situation at a glance, and the benefit exceeds that
of a hundred lectures. An intelligent person would not fail
to profit hugely by the opportunities presented of acquiring
expansive views of men and things. Unless a man achieves
something wonderful in life he cannot hope to bear a high
reputation after his death.”
The letter brought trouble to Sakuma’s door because it happened to fall
into the hands of his political foes, who promptly denounced him to the
Government as having instigated a Japanese subject to transgress the
laws, and his arrest and imprisonment speedily followed. He was permitted
to return to his native province, but was there confined to his own
house, on pain of immediate punishment if he ventured to quit it. For
nine years he endured this captivity, and then was set free, receiving
thereupon invitations from the feudal lords of both Nagato and Tosa to
settle in their territories and act in each case as adviser upon matters
of coast defence. Nagato is the Japanese title of the province otherwise
known as Cho-shiu, and Tosa is one of the four baronies of the Shikoku
(_lit._: four states) island, the third largest of the group forming
the Japanese empire. Sakuma’s fame as an ardent reformer had already
spread to the south, in which the two chieftains named held sway, and
they thus early evinced their antagonism to the Tokugawa regime, and
their recognition of the purity and self-sacrificing character of those
ambitions for which Sakuma had already suffered imprisonment. Both
_dai-mios_, in inviting Sakuma to make his home within their borders
had it in mind, beyond doubt, to protect him from the dangers that were
fast accumulating above his head, and had he been willing to become
the protege of either he would have been comparatively safe, for they
were all-powerful within their own fiefs, and might have secured for
him perfect freedom for the elaboration of his plans of reform. But for
reasons with which the present age has little concern, and were they
even fully comprehended might scarcely, perhaps, be appreciated, Sakuma
respectfully declined the flattering offers thus made to him and clung to
his home in Yedo to the last.
Japan was now on the verge of experiencing a crisis in her affairs which
threatened to end in one of those sanguinary internecine struggles for
supremacy between rival factions to which in her long and exceedingly
diversified history, not only under the Tokugawa dynasty but for
centuries antecedent thereto, she had been no stranger.
In the third year of the Bunkio era, which was that corresponding to A.D.
1863, Sakuma was invited to visit Kioto, then the centre of learning, as
indeed it had ever been, and the city in which dwelt the absolute monarch
of Japan, the Ten-shi himself, but again he rejected all overtures to
change permanently his place of abode. The following year the title of
the era was altered to Genji, so often from one cause and another was
it desirable at that period to change these era names. Once more Sakuma
was urged to go south, and this time he consented to make the journey
to the ancient capital, arriving there in the spring of 1864. It was at
that epoch that the latent animosity to foreigners, begotten of racial
prejudice and ill report combined, reached its height, and attacks
on strangers were not at all infrequent, both in the capital and the
provinces. “Loyalty to our Emperor, and expulsion of foreigners” was the
cry that animated the masses of the people, who were totally incapable,
no doubt, of judging for themselves, and were urged to deeds of violence
by the specious arguments of skilled agitators, unable to form any
conception of the ignominy that a policy of deliberate persecution was
certain to entail for their country. Kioto became infested with men of
the “ro-nin” class, outlaws by choice, having obtained from their feudal
lords permission to detach themselves from their masters’ service and
to become free-lances prepared to undertake deeds of violence for which
the barons to whom they ordinarily owed allegiance should not be held
responsible to the State. It mattered little whether the “ro-nin” had
been dismissed from his lord’s employ for some personal shortcoming or
had sought temporary or permanent leave of absence. His lord was no
longer liable for what might occur. And it was not in Kioto alone that
these men had assembled, for Yedo was almost equally in favour with them
as a convenient lurking-place, and the persons and property of foreigners
were often assailed, to the extent that life became most insecure.
Within a brief space of time a whole series of assassinations took
place, including the killing of Mr Richardson on the Tokaido seven miles
from Yokohama the slaughter of Dankichi, an interpreter to the American
Embassy, of Mr Heusken, attached to the British Embassy in a similar
capacity, and of several others. The chapter is so painful a one in
Japanese history, and Japan so long ago repented in sackcloth and ashes
for the crimes of which her people were then guilty, that it is needless
to offer, and would perhaps be ungenerous in an English-reading public
to demand, a detailed account to-day of these deplorable occurrences.
Suffice it to say that Sakuma himself, for the ostensible reason that he
firmly adhered to his opinion,—despite the opposition of a numerous and
powerful body of his fellow-countrymen who advocated the abrogation of
the treaties and the return to a policy of complete isolation,—that the
other ports designated as the emporiums of general foreign trade should
be forthwith opened, as well as Yokohama, incurred the censure of the
anti-foreign clique and was stabbed to death by “ro-nins” on the 11th of
July 1864, he being then in the fifty-fourth year of his age.
Of the character of Sakuma Shozan it is impossible to write in terms
of too high praise. By his countrymen he is universally esteemed a
martyr to the sacred cause of enlightened progress. He was unselfish
in the extreme, ever willing to aid others with his learning, a man of
lofty ideals, of unrivalled ability to forecast the future and prepare
himself, as he strove to prepare others, for its inevitable changes
and transformations. His was patriotism of the purest type, for he had
everything to lose and absolutely naught to gain by seeking to popularise
in Japan the institutions of the West. He was in advance of his age,
and shared the fate of many a reformer in other lands. He realised, at
a time when it was fatal to entertain views so heretical, that the days
of Japan’s complete liberty to choose a course for herself had passed,
and that she would be driven to consort with the other nations of the
earth if she would avoid the fate which was seen to have overtaken some
other Asiatic peoples and potentates. He suffered for his boldness in
criticising the then existing order of things, and a perusal of his later
poems will serve to indicate the extent to which he was willing that the
nation should go forward in its adoption of Western ideas and appliances,
for they are eminently inspiring and resolute in tone, encouraging in
every line the pursuit of knowledge with the single purpose of providing
for the national defence and the retention of the independence of the
land for which he prophesied the most brilliant future. Sakuma was the
great forerunner of that distinguished band of patriots who, in some
cases at the sacrifice of their lives, and always by the whole-souled
devotion of their best energies, helped to make Modern Japan.
V
YOSHIDA TORAJIRO (OTHERWISE SHO-IN)