Yae Ogata

Image: Portrait of Yae Ogata (Painted by Yoshimatsu Goseda: Collection of the Tekijuku Commemoration Center, Osaka University)

Yae Ogata (1822–1886) is widely known as the wife of Koan Ogata. The Tekijuku, which produced many talented individuals including Yukichi Fukuzawa, is said to have had over 1,000 students. It was none other than Yae who supported the Tekijuku behind the scenes.

Yae was born on January 1, 1822, in Najio, Settsu Province (present-day Najio, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture), as the eldest daughter of her father, Hyakki Okukawa, and her mother, Shiu. Najio was a production center for papermaking, and the Okukawa family was originally a family of papermakers. Najio washi paper, made with a unique technique of mixing clay into ganpi fibers, was resistant to discoloration, fire, and insect damage, and thus became widely used throughout Japan as paper for clan notes during the Edo period. At that time, it was known as "Najio Senken" (Najio of a Thousand Houses) and flourished as a "village of papermaking." However, Hyakki had long aspired to become a doctor. Taking the opportunity of a visit to Osaka, he entered the Shishisai Juku, a private school run by the Rangaku (Western medicine) physician Tenyu Naka. After diligent study, he opened a medical practice in his hometown of Najio, fulfilling his long-held dream, and also engaged in the manufacture and sale of medicine.

From a young age, Yae was said to have a gentle and sharp personality and was also skilled at waka poetry. Hyakki doted on Yae so much that she was the apple of his eye.

Even after becoming a doctor, Hyakki frequently visited Tenyu's Juku to receive guidance. The young man who entered Tenyu's Juku at that time was Koan Ogata. Later, having heard words of praise for Koan from Tenyu, Hyakki saw Koan and thought, "He is truly my son-in-law" (from the epitaph written by Tsunetami Sano at the grave of Mrs. Koan Ogata at Kobun-ji Temple). Koan, who became engaged to Yae, studied in Nagasaki for about two years with Hyakki's support before returning to his hometown. In 1838, he moved to Kawaramachi, Osaka, and opened a medical practice. That same year, Koan and Yae held their wedding ceremony. Koan was 29, and Yae was 17.

Koan did not just open a clinic in Kawaramachi; he also had many students studying Rangaku live with him, taking care of their food and lodging. This was the origin of the "Tekijuku." In other words, from the beginning of her marriage, Yae also took on the role of a dormitory mother for the students. Meanwhile, Yae was blessed with 13 children with Koan. Although four of them died at a young age, she also fulfilled her role as a mother to them.

When Koan first opened his practice in Kawaramachi, he had no reputation yet, and life was difficult. Yae recalled in her later years that when Koan was bedridden for a long time, she sold her own obi (sash) to buy a bathtub and surrounded it with wooden boards so Koan could bathe. However, Koan and Yae's daily life remained simple but warm even after Koan gained fame. It is said that they did not buy new clothes for nearly ten years, and their meals consisted of just one soup and one side dish, but Yae took great care and used her ingenuity to ensure the children were satisfied.

Yae's kindness toward her husband, Koan, extended to his parents as well. Every year at the end of the year, she sent winter greetings such as herring roe, dried cod, kelp, and money for New Year's rice cakes. She also sent gifts to celebrate Koan's father's recovery from illness, as well as gifts and clothing selections for Koan's nieces. Of course, her detailed kindness toward her own parents in Najio was the same. Above all, the fact that Koan's family and Yae's family got along well was a blessing for both Yae and Koan.

Setsuzo Okukawa (to whom Yae was a great-aunt) later said that she was a mother who constantly held Koan up as an example to her children, encouraging them by telling them about his struggles during his studies.

However, there were times when she was troubled. For example, Koan, who believed that one must master Chinese classics as a foundation for Rangaku research, had his son Heizo study Chinese classics from the age of seven. When Heizo turned 12, Koan admonished him to master Chinese classics until he turned 20 and sent him, along with 11-year-old Shiro, to study under his disciple Usuburo Watanabe.

However, after more than two years of studying at Usuburo's Juku, Heizo and Shiro heard that the Ono Domain in Echizen had opened the Ono Yogakkan, inviting Shinzo Ito, a Rangaku scholar who had served as the head of the Tekijuku. The two left without permission and took refuge at Shinzo Ito's Juku. When Koan learned of this, he disowned the two of them. Yae's father, Hyakki, who heard about this secretly from Yae, even went to Ono to see how they were doing.

What must Yae have thought of Koan's actions toward his own children, who were about the age of upper elementary school students today? Yae let her children study far away from home at the age of ten or so and later sent them to study in Nagasaki. While she was sometimes troubled, she wished for her children to succeed in the future. Perhaps, while looking at the students of the Tekijuku, she saw the parents standing behind each of them.

In December 1845, the Tekijuku moved to its current location in Kasho-machi.

The Juku was a two-story building with a long depth. Beyond the inner courtyard on the ground floor were the rooms for Koan and his family, while the students lived in the rooms facing the street and a 40-tatami mat room on the second floor. Since these living quarters also served as classrooms, dozens of students were constantly living in these two rooms.

When the students obtained original books, they spared no time for sleep, taking turns copying and translating them, and were extremely dedicated to their studies. Students interested in physics and chemistry read original books and attempted experiments in their own way to satisfy their academic curiosity. Although the Tekijuku was a Juku for Rangaku physicians, it was actually like a Research Centers and Institutes for deciphering Rangaku books. The students included not only doctors but also military scientists and those like Yukichi Fukuzawa who devoted themselves to "study without a specific purpose." Fukuzawa later stated in "The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa" that "when it came to academic study, there were probably no people in the world at that time who could surpass the Ogata students."

However, the students did not only release such energy toward their studies. Many episodes of these hot-blooded young men in their early 20s outside of their studies can be found in "The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa." The students pawned their swords to pay for drinking and lived literally naked in the summer. They were completely indifferent to hygiene, using the same tub for washing their bodies as for washing vegetables, and sometimes even using it to boil and eat somen noodles.

Furthermore, the students' rowdiness did not stop within the Tekijuku; they would go out and cause various problems before returning. While Koan faced such students with a sincere, earnest, and tolerant attitude to guide and discipline them, the hardship and effort Yae put into assisting him must have been extraordinary.

Koan took a strict stance toward students who went too far in order to maintain order in the Juku, sometimes resolutely ordering their expulsion. Each time, Yae would soothe him or protect the students herself. For this reason, it is said that Yae would look after those who broke the Juku rules and returned late at night drunk and singing loudly so that Koan would not notice, quietly taking them to their beds. There were also countless times when she personally went to settle matters regarding their misconduct outside.

Yae was also a person who did not discriminate against poor non-paying students like Fukuzawa, taking good care of them and encouraging them. It is also said that she was compassionate and kind to servants and employees, recognizing each person's personality and never getting angry or blaming them for their mistakes.

In this way, Yae was adored like a benevolent mother by the many disciples who gathered at the Tekijuku. She loved everyone without discrimination, was a good advisor, disciplined them where they needed to be disciplined, and guided them so they would not lose their way in the future.

Eventually, Koan, who became the Shogunate's personal physician and the head of the Western Science Institute, headed to Edo in 1862, but he died suddenly the following June at the age of 54. Even after that, Yae raised her nine children and sent three of her sons abroad as Shogunate students to Russia, the Netherlands, and France.

Five years after Koan's death, Yae returned to Osaka in 1868 and lived in the former vaccination center as her retirement home, ending her life in 1886 at the age of 65. It is said that the funeral procession for Yae, who was adored by the students as being "like a mother" ("The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa"), numbered 2,000 people.

For Fukuzawa, just as Koan Ogata was like a father figure, Yae was also like his own mother.

After Yae passed away, Fukuzawa immediately visited her grave. In March 1886, Fukuzawa visited Ryukai-ji Temple in Osaka to pay his respects at the graves of Mr. and Mrs. Koan Ogata. At this time, when Yoshiaki Sakai, a Keio University alumni who was accompanying him, tried to help, Fukuzawa said, "This is my job," and tied up his sleeves, tucked up his hem, used a rope as a scrub brush, and washed the gravestones of the Ogata couple clean.

After visiting the graves, Fukuzawa visited Koan's adopted son, Shujiro Ogata, at the former Tekijuku building. According to the companions, two women, believed to be Koan's daughter Yachiyo (Shujiro's wife) and Kokonoe, were also there. The sight of these two women and Fukuzawa quietly talking about Yae's life was like that of true siblings, and even those nearby wiped away tears at the sight.

Even after Koan's death, Fukuzawa never failed to visit the Ogata house whenever he went to Osaka. As he said in "The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa," it was because "even though the late professor is gone, his widow loves me like a child."