Takemasa Tezuka

On October 5, 2011, an unveiling ceremony for the "Monument Honoring Takemasa Tezuka" was held in front of Susa Station on the JR San'in Main Line (Susa, Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) by an executive committee dedicated to passing his achievements on to the next generation (the monument is currently being stored in a nearby facility until the end of January 2019 due to station site redevelopment). The monument is engraved with the words "Monument Honoring Takemasa Tezuka, Father of the Timetable." Takemasa Tezuka was a native of Susa who published Japan's first monthly railway timetable.

Tezuka was born in 1853 in Susa Village, Abu District, Nagato Province, as the second son of Morihide Okabe, under the name Kosaburo, which he later changed to Yoshisuke. Although his father was a samurai of the Choshu Domain, his family was not wealthy, and he learned to read the Four Books and Five Classics through rote recitation taught by his father. Later, he studied under scholars of Japanese and Chinese classics, including Chusuke Sakagami, at the local Susa Ikueikan. He diligently hand-copied the Japanese and Chinese books he read, studying by the light of fireflies and the reflection of snow.

In 1871, at the age of 19, he was adopted by Masatsugu Tezuka, a member of the gentry from Kurokawa Village (now Fukukawa, Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) in the same district. He changed his name to Koichi and later to Takemasa. Since the Tezuka family had served as Shinto priests for generations, Tezuka followed suit and went to Yamaguchi to enter the Shinto Chukyo-in. He studied national classics under Yoshiki Kondo and others who had also taught at Susa Ikueikan, and learned Chinese classics from Kumahiko Okamura and others. He later became a teacher at the same institution and was appointed as an assistant priest (gon-negi) at Suo Ichinomiya Tamano-oya Shrine and Yamaguchi Kurokawa Hachimangu Shrine. Eventually, he served as the deputy director of the Shinto Administrative Bureau of the Chukyo-in and as a senior lecturer.

During this time, the world was undergoing the turbulent transition from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji Restoration. Inspired by predecessors from his hometown who became the driving force of the new era, Tezuka's desire not to end his life in Choshu grew stronger. Finally, entrusting his wife and beloved daughter to relatives, he decided to move to Tokyo with the goal of studying Western learning. At this time, Tezuka was 33 years old.

In 1886, he entered Keio University, where he was the oldest student within Keio. As he was still financially struggling, he worked as a teacher of Chinese classics at the Yochisha Elementary School, which was then located at Mita Hilltop Square, and used his salary to pay for his tuition. Tezuka cited Yukichi Fukuzawa's tireless dedication to helping others as the most important lesson to be learned from him, and it is evident that Fukuzawa assisted him in managing his tuition fees. Regarding an unforgettable lesson he received from Fukuzawa during his studies, he recalled being told, "You can write this in one page or even half a page without wasting five or eight pages of paper." This teaching would later be applied to the editing of timetables, which required packing the maximum amount of information into a limited space.

In 1889, Tezuka graduated from the Keio University Special Course. After graduation, he returned to his hometown during the summer break and brought his family to Tokyo to establish a base for their lives. In 1890, he founded Koin Shinshisha in Yariya-cho, Kyobashi-ku, Tokyo (now Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo), taking the name from the zodiac sign of that year. Initially, his publications were notably political, such as "Koin Shinshi," "Detailed Map of the Korean Rebellion with Comparisons of Japan, Qing, and Korea," and "Count Terajima's Essays" by Munenori Terajima (a politician). This was influenced by Tezuka's intention to enter politics following the publication of "Koin Shinshi." Shortly thereafter, he was eager to run for the House of Representatives, but he abandoned the idea due to the gap between his ambitions and reality. Other publications included works dealing with the Keio Gijuku Shachu, such as "The Academic Style of Keio University." He recalled that the combined sales of these works did not match those of the later timetables, and he was so impoverished that he had nowhere to turn.

On October 5, 1894, five days later than originally planned, "Train and Steamboat Travel Guide" (Kisha Kisen Ryoko Annai) was published. The delay was due to an increase in the manuscript and the resulting need to reset the type. In the preface, Tezuka wrote that as the network of trains and steamboats expanded across the country, he felt the acute need for an integrated and accurate timetable based on his own experiences. He stated that the idea came from the monthly railway guide (the world's first timetable) published by Bradshaw in the United Kingdom, the home of railways. While it is said that Fukuzawa provided insights to Tezuka, who had never traveled abroad, no documents have confirmed this. Congratulatory messages were provided by Seinosuke Imamura (who served as a director of Tobu Railway), Koki Watanabe (Keio University alumni), and Heigoro Shoda (Keio University alumni). Watanabe moved between industry, government, and academia, serving as the first president of the Imperial University, a member of the House of Representatives, and president of Sangu Railway. Shoda, after teaching at Keio University, held key positions in the Mitsubishi zaibatsu and later partnered with Tezuka in several businesses.

Today, the inaugural issue and several other volumes of this book can be confirmed through editions faithfully reprinted from the originals. The format was B6 size (approx. 190 mm x 127 mm), with only the cover printed in two colors, totaling 96 pages, and priced at 6 sen.

A decisive difference from today's timetables is that the format was right-bound and vertical, so Kanji numerals were used. Later, other companies published horizontal versions using Arabic numerals, and Tezuka also launched the "Horizontal Travel Guide Timetable" in 1916. The main text consisted of railway fare tables and timetables (because it was vertical, station names and times in a 12-hour format progressed from right to left; Japan Standard Time had been established in 1889), followed by steamboat timetables. Next, the times and fares for rickshaws (Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka), horse-drawn carriages (Odawara Horse-drawn Railway), and palanquins (kago) (departing from and arriving at Hakone Tonosawa) were listed, providing a sense of the era.

Following the transportation sections were travel guides for various regions and advertisements. Steamboat advertisements included fare tables, effectively supplementing the main text. Other advertisements were diverse, including inns, major companies, self-defense pistols, and English-language ads. Among them, the advertisement for Keio University stands out, with content regarding the recruitment of Keio students. It is also interesting to note that the advertisers included organizations related to Keio graduates.

It seems that the publication struggled for a while after its launch. In the preface of the 100th issue published in January 1903, Tezuka recalled the financial situation, saying, "I served at another company and returned at night to work on the editing of our company to make up for the financial shortfall." In terms of editing, the main text alone reached over 200 pages due to the expansion of the domestic railway network and international shipping routes. Nevertheless, the demand for timetables increased day by day, and the fact that similar publications were released one after another speaks to its rising popularity. Tezuka also published the "English Travel Guide" and "Travel Guide" (both monthly), which separated travel-related articles from the "Train and Steamboat Travel Guide."

In 1914, three major competing timetable publishers, including Koin Shinshisha, merged at the urging of the Railway Board of the Cabinet to establish the Ryoko Annaisha (Travel Guide Company), and Tezuka became its president. The newly designed "Official Train and Steamboat Travel Guide," which became officially recognized by the Railway Board, followed the format and volume numbering of the original "Train and Steamboat Travel Guide," which had the longest history.

When the "Railway Ministry Compiled Train Timetable with Steamboat and Bus Arrival/Departure Tables" (the current "JTB Timetable") was published by the Japan Travel Culture Association in 1925, the "Train and Steamboat Travel Guide" lost its official recognition from the Ministry of Railways and yielded its leading role. It was eventually discontinued in March 1944, with the final issue being volume 593. Just as the railway guide by Bradshaw, the pioneer of timetables, was replaced by the later Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable and went out of print, the "Train and Steamboat Travel Guide" followed the same fate.

Tezuka's name became widely known through his timetable publishing business. He served as a director of the Tokyo City Railway and Yokosuka Electric Gas Co., Ltd., and in 1906, he founded Toyo Printing Co., Ltd. and became its president. The following year, he established the Imperial Theatre Co., Ltd. with Eiichi Shibusawa as president, and he himself served as the senior managing director. Tezuka had been interested in theater since childhood, and around the time the "Train and Steamboat Travel Guide" was published, Fukuzawa encouraged him to reform the theater. Fukuzawa took Tezuka to visit the Hongo-za theater and even spoke to Yanosuke Iwasaki to help. However, just as Fukuzawa called Heigoro Shoda and Tezuka to his private residence to finalize plans, the First Sino-Japanese War broke out, and the project was put on hold.

In his later years, he was also involved in nurturing future generations. In 1929, in response to a call from Tsunetada Oikawa (Keio University alumni, Professor of the Faculty of Law at Keio University), he co-founded the Musashi Higher School of Engineering (now Tokyo City University) with Yusaku Nishimura (Keio University alumni, a wealthy individual who served as a director of Toko Senpaku Co., Ltd.). Nishimura was from Nago Village, Abu District (now Abu Town, Abu District, Yamaguchi Prefecture), which is close to Susa, and had a deep connection with Tezuka.

The railway finally reached Tezuka's hometown in 1928. Four years later, in 1932, Tezuka passed away. A late bloomer who dreamed of politics, he left his name in the business world. His remains rest in Aoyama Cemetery. The following year, the San'in Main Line was fully opened from Susa to the neighboring town of Utago, completing the total length of over 670 kilometers after 36 years. More than 80 years later, his monument still watches over the punctual operation of Japan's railways today.