Budayu Kogure

Starting with the House of Councillors election in July of this year, the right to vote has been expanded to 18 and 19-year-olds, adding approximately 2.4 million new voters. Taking this opportunity, citizenship education at the high school level has come into the spotlight, and various initiatives have begun.

This time, we will focus on Budayu Kogure, who was elected at the age of 30—the youngest at the time—in the 1st House of Representatives election in 1890, Japan's first national election. While introducing the life of Kogure, who is not widely known to the public, I would like to clarify why he ran for election and aimed to become a member of the Diet, how Fukuzawa was involved, and what he accomplished as a legislator.

Kogure was born on February 4, 1860, in present-day Ikaho, Gunma Prefecture, to his father Takeki and mother Takuko. The Kogure family were local notables known as "Oya," who had inherited the name Budayu for generations since the Genroku era, and they extensively managed hot spring inns, pawnshops, and money-lending businesses. Kogure's childhood name was Atsushi, and his former name was Shuichi. Before inheriting the family name, he went by Atsushi or Atsutaro, and after retirement, he took the name Shuie. After studying Chinese classics and English studies, and attending Chugaku Honbu Karasugawa School, Kumagaya Prefecture Chofatsu School, and Tsukiji Rikkyo School, he entered Keio University at the age of 18 on March 4, 1878. He lived and studied in a detached building at Fukuzawa's residence along with Miki Ishikawa and others. According to the academic diligence records, he was listed in the first class of the "Adult Course" (Dajin-ka) from September to December 1878. The Adult Course was a preparatory course before entering the main curriculum.

Later, in 1880, he returned to Ikaho to take over the family business and succeeded to the name Budayu (the 24th generation). Kogure's inn was a famous establishment where prominent figures from various fields, such as Jo Niijima and Kinmochi Saionji, stayed, and he actively promoted it through newspaper advertisements. As the head of the Improvement Control Office (later the Ikaho Mineral Spring Control Office), he worked on improving the hygiene and facilities of Ikaho Onsen, establishing Ikaho as a representative summer resort for Tokyo.

He also took an interest in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement and was involved in political movements within the prefecture, such as taking the lead in the movement to abolish licensed prostitution, and he was listed as a member of the Kojunsha. He served as a member of the Ikaho Town Council for a long time and was elected to the Gunma Prefectural Assembly in 1885. After the establishment of the Imperial Diet, he was elected to the House of Representatives a total of seven times. When he married Kiyo Tsutsumi in 1887, they attracted attention by exchanging a written pledge advocating for gender equality. In 1897, he was involved in the founding of the Gunma Agricultural and Industrial Bank and served as a director, and in 1909, he became the president of the Ikaho Electric Tramway Co., Ltd., striving for the development of Gunma and Ikaho. After retiring from politics in 1924, he passed away on March 24, 1926, at the age of 66.

Shortly after entering Keio University, Kogure consulted Fukuzawa about his future career. To Kogure, who did not want to inherit the family hot spring business and wanted to become a government official to exert authority, Fukuzawa advised: "Once you have finished your studies, return to your hometown immediately and make your ancestral business flourish. If you have energy left over, buy land." He continued, "What is a government official? They are nothing more than public servants. ... If you want to exert authority that much, I will tell you something good. A thing called a 'parliament' will be created soon, so be patient until then, and when it is formed, become a member of it. Then you will be a representative of the people" (The Life of Yukichi Fukuzawa, Vol. 4, pp. 728–729).

As Fukuzawa suggested, Kogure returned to his hometown, took over the family business, and became a member of the House of Representatives by winning the first general election as the youngest candidate. Even after that, Kogure continued to meet Fukuzawa at alumni gatherings and other occasions, but at one point, he was advised again: "It is probably time for you to quit. Being a member of the Diet is trivial, so you should go home and make the hot spring business flourish" (ibid.). Estimating this conversation to have taken place around 1897, it took about ten years until 1908, when he finally quit being a member of the national Diet.

Fukuzawa had long desired the establishment of a national Diet and envisioned a British-style parliamentary system. However, after the Political Crisis of 1881, when bureaucrats from the Juku resigned along with Okuma, he stopped involving himself directly in politics and avoided becoming a member of the Diet himself. During the first general election, he looked coldly upon the sight of "country legislators" coming up to the capital, and in 1894, he satirized them in a Chinese poem: "Selling off ancestral fields and leaving / To earn 800 yen for a year" (Letters of Yukichi Fukuzawa, Vol. 7, p. 296; see photo below). Even in 1898, he viewed the House of Representatives members as follows: "Those who have received a satisfactory education and possess common sense are no more than 50 or 60 out of 300" (ibid., Vol. 9, p. 19). For Fukuzawa, the people who should become legislators were notables who had a foundation in the business world and possessed both education and assets. Representative examples were Kogure in Gunma and Yozo Ito in Shizuoka. He actively encouraged these two to run for election and become members of the Diet.

Incidentally, while Fukuzawa went to Hakone for family trips and other occasions, he never set foot in Ikaho, despite saying he wanted to go. However, his older sister, En Nakamigawa, stayed in Ikaho for about a month in the summer of 1896 for medical treatment, and it is believed she stayed at Kogure's inn.

In the 1st House of Representatives election, 26 graduates of the Juku were elected, and two more were elected in by-elections by the time the 1st Diet session opened (Osamu Terasaki, "Winners of the 1st House of Representatives Election," Mita-hyoron No. 1073). On November 17, 1890, just before the Diet was convened, 26 members of the House of Representatives and the House of Peers who were graduates of the Juku held an alumni meeting at Sumiya in Tsukiji, inviting Fukuzawa. In his greeting, Fukuzawa stated that the old bonds of being alumni were important, and appealed to the members not to let their debates turn into emotional conflicts: "Appealing to the old bonds of being alumni and setting aside political passion for the parts where you can harmonize, thereby calming the waves of the Imperial Diet, is not only being loyal to the country but also indirectly brings a reputation of loyalty to your alma mater, Keio University" (Complete Works of Yukichi Fukuzawa, Vol. 12, pp. 537–538). Kogure also attended this meeting and delivered the closing remarks as the representative of the organizers.

In the 1st general election, Kogure won 464 votes in the Gunma 4th District, defeating Otoshichi Shimada, who received 422 votes. However, Shimada filed a lawsuit claiming that Kogure's election was invalid because unqualified voters had cast ballots in Azuma Village within the district, leading to a situation where 36 people, including the village mayor, were prosecuted for election law violations (the mayor and others were eventually granted a stay of prosecution). In March 1891, the court of first instance, the Tokyo Court of Appeal, recognized 46 of Kogure's votes as being from unqualified voters, resulting in a reversal of the vote count and a ruling in favor of Shimada. Kogure's side appealed to the Great Court of Judicature. The Great Court of Judicature then sent the case back, citing problems with the original judgment. Consequently, the case was heard again at the Tokyo Court of Appeal, which in September once again ruled in favor of Shimada. The judgment recognized 415 votes for Kogure and 418 votes for Shimada, determining Shimada to be the winner. Kogure's side appealed again, and in January 1892, the Great Court of Judicature overturned the Court of Appeal's judgment. However, since the House of Representatives had already been dissolved at the end of 1891, the lawsuit itself was dismissed, reaching an unusual conclusion.

The Great Court of Judicature took issue with the Court of Appeal's decision to treat two votes as invalid based on whether they were in the voter's own handwriting on Kogure's side, and its failure to determine the validity of one vote on Shimada's side. In other words, it pointed out the possibility that if two votes were added to Kogure's 415 and one vote was subtracted from Shimada's 418 as invalid, both would have ended up with 417 votes.

Kogure was able to attend the 1st and 2nd Diet sessions without losing his seat, but because he was in the midst of this litigation turmoil, he was unable to run in the 2nd general election, which is known for large-scale election interference by the government (it was not a candidacy system, but Kogure did not receive a single vote). Regarding this point, Kogure apologized to his colleagues for his district being taken over by government supporters (the "official party"): "Unfortunately, this district has mostly turned into official territory, and I feel deeply ashamed and lose face before the political friends of the nation" (Yukio Ushiki, A Biography of Nakajiro Takatsu, p. 267).

As for his affiliation, in the 1st Diet session, he belonged to the Yayoi Club, an intra-party faction of the Liberal Party, but he sympathized with the so-called "Tosa Faction betrayal" and moved to the Jiyu Club. He later returned to the Liberal Party and, after the establishment of the Rikken Seiyukai, consistently belonged to the Seiyukai.

Kogure's true worth on the floor was demonstrated in topics such as the local system, commerce, and election laws. In the Committee on Budget, where he served for a long time, he frequently and sharply pointed out the wasteful spending of taxes. I would like to introduce one example where Kogure seems to have embodied the spirit of Fukuzawa. In the 1st Diet session, it was noticeable that when a member was giving a speech, other members would interfere by asking questions or heckling, wasting time. In response to this situation, Kogure expressed his deep regret and complained to the Speaker about the conduct of the proceedings, requesting that the Speaker not allow interference with public speaking and, if they did not comply, to take "decisive measures" based on the Law of the Houses and the Rules of the House of Representatives ("Imperial Diet Records," National Diet Library website). Because it was the early days of the Diet, the proceedings were often chaotic, and there were many instances where speakers appeared without regard for the timing. His resolute admonishment of this reflects the influence of Fukuzawa, who wished to "calm the waves of the Diet."

In 1924, Kogure, who had been suffering from kidney disease since the previous autumn, made up his mind to resign from the town council and completely retire from politics, stating, "My illness has greatly improved, and after leaving the hospital, I will enjoy the fresh greenery; I am also thinking of retiring from the political world" (A Biography of Nakajiro Takatsu, p. 604). He also spoke about his own character and the political world of the time: "As you know, I am a person of moderate character and dislike going to extremes," but "I hate the Kenseikai, and I have always said that Kato's arrogance is detestable" (ibid.). While he disliked going to extremes, he seems to have been a man of integrity who felt righteous indignation toward things that did not make sense. As a national legislator, he had already handed over his base to another candidate, but in the 15th general election in May of that year, his son Shoichi ran as his successor and was elected. Later, Shoichi succeeded to the name Budayu (the 25th generation), and after returning to politics following a purge from public office after the war, he transitioned to the House of Councillors and served as the Minister of Transport.

According to the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, which reported Kogure's death in 1926, his condition worsened due to his indignation over the increase in the annual allowance for Diet members. One could say that the "pride of a man from Joshu" (Biographies of Notables) was evident here. Coincidentally, Kogure ended his life at the age of 66, the same age as Fukuzawa. Incidentally, the inn in Ikaho has been passed down through generations and continues to operate today as "Hotel Kogure."