Jinzaburo Obata

Willow Grove Cemetery is located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, about an hour and a half drive from Keio Academy of New York. In a somewhat cluttered corner of the cemetery, seven gravestones of Japanese students who died in America during the early Meiji era stand in an orderly row (see photo below). In November last year, members of the school's Fukuzawa Research Club visited the site, offered flowers at the graves, and cleaned the surrounding area. Seeing the gravestones better maintained than the previous year, the club members seemed to realize that the Japanese burial site is cherished by many people. One of these seven gravestones belongs to Jinzaburo (Nizaburo) Obata, the subject of this article.

Jinzaburo was born in 1845 (Koka 2) into a high-ranking samurai family of the Nakatsu Domain with a stipend of 200 koku. Fukuzawa and Jinzaburo met in March 1864 (Genji 1). At that time, Fukuzawa was 31 years old and had returned to his hometown for the first time in six years. His previous visit was in 1858 (Ansei 5), when he returned to Nakatsu to bid farewell to his mother before heading to Edo under domain orders to teach Dutch studies, having previously studied at Tekijuku.

For Fukuzawa, those six years had been tumultuous. After being shocked by what he saw in Yokohama, he turned to English studies, traveled to the United States on the Kanrin Maru, and was hired as a translator for the Shogunate upon his return. He then traveled to various countries as a member of the Shogunate's missions to Europe and America. In 1863 (Bunkyu 3), as anti-foreign sentiment (joi) intensified within Japan, he spent his days feeling his life was in danger as a scholar of Western learning.

Returning home under such circumstances, Fukuzawa had the important goal of bringing promising talent back to Edo to carry the future of the Juku. In a climate where studying Western learning could cost one's life, his attempt to find such talent seems like an expression of Fukuzawa's own determination to carve out a future through scholarship.

Fukuzawa first earnestly recruited Jinzaburo's older brother, Tokujiro. Tokujiro was 23 at the time and would later become Fukuzawa's right-hand man, even being listed alongside Fukuzawa as an author in the first volume of Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning). However, Tokujiro, who was already in a position teaching Chinese classics at the domain school Shinshukan, initially refused Fukuzawa's invitation. Nevertheless, Fukuzawa did not give up his persuasion, and it was Jinzaburo who ended up going to Edo along with Tokujiro.

Jinzaburo was 20 years old at the time. He appears to have studied Chinese classics at Shinshukan and, like his brother, likely had no background in Western studies. It is unclear whether Jinzaburo himself wished to go to Edo or if Fukuzawa intended to take him. However, since Fukuzawa persuaded their reluctant mother and ultimately took both of them to Edo, he must have highly valued Jinzaburo's potential. Jinzaburo arrived in Edo with Tokujiro and others in June 1864.

After entering the Juku, Jinzaburo mastered English in less than two years. In December 1866 (Keio 2), he and Tokujiro began serving at the Shogunate's Kaiseijo to teach English studies. In March 1868 (Keio 4), he published "Eibun Jukugoshu," Japan's first collection of idioms and example sentences, together with Tokujiro. The following year, he assisted Fukuzawa in translating "Yohei Meikan." "Yohei Meikan" was translated for delivery to the Kumamoto Domain; Fukuzawa, who had just moved the Juku to Shinsenza and named it Keio University, used the income from this work to expand the school buildings. Furthermore, according to the daily schedules listed in the 1868 and 1869 editions of Keio Gijuku no Ki (Notes on Keio Gijuku), Jinzaburo's name can be seen alongside Fukuzawa and Tokujiro as a professor teaching history and economics.

Incidentally, for a while after Jinzaburo joined the Juku, many of the Keio students were reportedly rough and lacked dedication to their studies. For example, Tatsui Baba, who served as a professor at the Gijuku around the same time as Jinzaburo, recalled, "They were irregular and at the same time dissolute. ... They hardly studied at all" (Autobiography of Tatsui Baba). In such an environment, Jinzaburo is said to have contributed greatly to correcting the morale of the Keio students. Furthermore, there is an anecdote that well illustrates Jinzaburo's character.

In the midst of the Boshin War, the imperial army had left Kyoto and was heading for Edo. People in Edo rumored that the imperial army would surely commit great violence in the area, and many fled to Yokohama, where the foreign settlement was located, to avoid being caught up in it.

On the other hand, some Westerners were kind enough to give Japanese acquaintances certificates stating they were employees of foreign legations, suggesting they show these to the imperial army to escape trouble. Since the Juku had interactions with many Westerners, some offered to arrange certificates for the Keio students.

Upon hearing this, Jinzaburo reportedly rushed into the main hall of the Gijuku, his face flushed with anger, and spoke to the Keio students in a strong tone: "As proud Japanese citizens, rather than forgetting the great duty of serving our country and seeking refuge under the protection of foreigners, we should instead die by the blades of our own countrymen. What is the purpose of us founding this Gijuku together and studying hard together? It lies solely in reading foreign books as Japanese, seeking the independence of the individual and extending that principle to the whole nation, thereby enhancing our national prestige. To ignore this great duty now is to say we have mistaken our purpose from the beginning, and it is to say we are severing the lifeblood of our Gijuku" ("A Word from a Deceased Member Still Lives in Spirit").

These words evoke Fukuzawa's assertion that "the independence of a nation springs from the independence of the individual." The Keio students reportedly regained their composure and thereafter devoted themselves to their studies without being distracted by the various incidents of the Restoration period. It was shortly after this that Fukuzawa, unmoved by the Battle of Ueno, gave his lecture on Wayland's book of economics.

Having thus become a central figure of the Gijuku, Jinzaburo assumed the position of President in 1870. While the duties of the President in the early days are not clearly defined, it is said that when the Gijuku moved from Shinsenza to Mita in March of the following year, he took charge of directing the construction, sometimes even wearing a workman's hanten coat to work himself.

At the end of December 1871 (Meiji 4), Jinzaburo departed for America with Masayuki Okudaira, the former lord of the Nakatsu Domain. Fukuzawa had encouraged the 17-year-old Masayuki, who had just entered the Juku, to study abroad and recommended Jinzaburo as his companion. In later years, Fukuzawa stated that he chose Jinzaburo to help him perfect his scholarship and character.

Masayuki and Jinzaburo arrived in New York at the end of February 1872. In early March, they moved to Winchester, Connecticut, to study, but judging that they could not learn enough there, they returned to New York in late March to receive private lessons in Brooklyn.

Once finally settled, Jinzaburo sent two letters. One was addressed to Tokujiro, in which he frankly wrote about the pain of being in a foreign country for the first time and failing to satisfactorily perform his role as interpreter and attendant for Masayuki, his former lord.

On the other hand, in a letter the following day addressed to his mother and "everyone," he emphasized that he was no longer suffering and that there was no need to worry. He added, "By the time of the next mail, I will have become a fine 'American' boy and will send a photograph, so I earnestly pray that you will look at the photo and be at ease." He also expressed a bright outlook, saying, "Since I like all the food here, I expect I shall surely gain a little weight and become healthy." Furthermore, he jokingly introduced American customs that had puzzled him, such as table manners and washing the body with soap. In contrast to the previous day's letter, the cheerful tone of this writing makes one feel it reflects a kindness toward his mother, hiding his true hardships because he did not want to worry her from so far away.

Jinzaburo also studied at the Polytechnic Institute (now New York University Tandon School of Engineering) in the same area. Like other Japanese students of the time, or perhaps even more so, he threw himself into his studies and reportedly took almost no sleep. Perhaps because of this, from around November of that year, he began to suffer from mental instability. Life in a foreign land strengthens one's thoughts of home and sometimes induces intense loneliness. His illness was likely brought on by a combination of factors: a sense of mission to learn as much as possible to contribute to the development of the Gijuku and the independence of the nation, a sense of responsibility to meet Fukuzawa's expectations, and his feelings for his family.

Upon learning of Jinzaburo's illness, Masayuki wished for him to receive the best treatment regardless of the cost and had him admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Philadelphia, which was said to be the best in America at the time. However, his body was already significantly weakened, and there was no prospect of recovery. On January 29, 1873, Jinzaburo passed away. He was 27 years old. It was a death far too young.

The news of Jinzaburo's death reached Tokyo on April 2, and upon receiving the word, Fukuzawa rushed back to the capital from Hakone, where he had been staying for a hot spring cure. Fukuzawa's deep grief is visible in many places; for example, in a letter to Fukusei Shimazu in Nakatsu, he expressed his helpless feelings, saying that he had looked forward to accomplishing various things together with his "lifelong close friend" Jinzaburo upon his return, but that was no longer possible, and "though it be called fate, I have no means to console myself."

Fukuzawa continued to speak of Jinzaburo on various occasions thereafter. The aforementioned anecdote from the Boshin War was published in the Jiji Shinpo in March 1882 and later included in the Foreword to the Collected Works of Fukuzawa. When he gave a speech on "The Mission of Keio University" in November 1896, he named Jinzaburo as the foremost Keio University alumni to be emulated. It is said that even when writing Shūshin Yōryō: Fukuzawa's Moral Code in 1900, he lamented that if only Jinzaburo had lived, he would have been a good person to consult.

Jinzaburo, whose death Fukuzawa continued to mourn until his final years, was a rare individual who embodied the "independence," "nobility," and "wisdom and virtue" that Fukuzawa cherished. Here in New York, where Jinzaburo studied, I wish to carefully pass on the legacy of his footsteps.