Sannosuke Fukuzawa

In June of Tenpo 7 (1836), just a year and a half after Yukichi was born, a sudden change occurred in the Fukuzawa family, who had been living in Osaka. Yukichi's father, Hyakusuke, died suddenly, and the remaining mother and six children were forced to return to Nakatsu. At this time, Yukichi's older brother, Sannosuke, was only 11 years old by the traditional counting method, but he was to inherit the headship of the Fukuzawa family.

Although I wrote that they returned to Nakatsu, the children were all born in Osaka, and everything from their speech to their hairstyles and clothing was in the Osaka style, making them quite different from the children in Nakatsu. Naturally, they kept their distance from the neighborhood children and relatives, often playing only among themselves, and it is said that they never once had a sibling quarrel.

One day, Sannosuke asked his younger brother Yukichi, "What do you intend to become in the future?" (From "The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi"; hereafter, text in quotation marks is from the same source unless otherwise noted). When Yukichi replied, "Well, I think I'll try to become the richest man in Japan and spend money as I please," Sannosuke made a bitter face and scolded him. When Yukichi asked, "What do you intend to do, brother?", Sannosuke reportedly replied with total seriousness in a single phrase: "Filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, and sincerity until death."

This scene symbolically represents Sannosuke's character as he appears in "The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi" (hereafter "Autobiography") and the differences between the brothers. To the young Yukichi, Sannosuke, who was eight years older, may have seemed like a solid rock standing in the way of his free-spirited path.

According to Yukichi, his father Hyakusuke was a "Confucian scholar" of the type who felt that even looking at money was defiling. There was a calligraphy teacher at the Nakatsu Domain warehouse residence in Osaka, and when Hyakusuke heard that Sannosuke was being taught the multiplication tables along with the Iroha alphabet there, he stopped it, saying, "Teaching such outrageous things. It is out of the question to let young children know about calculation." Because the father's legacy remained in the Fukuzawa household, Sannosuke also grew up as a "pure Confucian scholar" raised on Confucianism, and in Nakatsu, he studied Confucianism under Hakukan Nomoto. Nomoto was a student of Banri Hoashi, who was known as a Confucian scholar of the Hiji Domain in Bungo and also valued the abacus, so Sannosuke also studied mathematics.

In the "Autobiography," Sannosuke is depicted as a solemn lower-ranking samurai whose very bones were soaked in Confucianism. This was the image of the older brother Sannosuke as seen by the younger brother Yukichi. An event introduced as a story from when Yukichi was 12 or 13 years old is very famous. Yukichi stomped into the room where Sannosuke was organizing used documents. Sannosuke shouted, "Wait!" and scolded him with great intensity, saying, "Are you blind? Look at this. What does it say? It says the name of Lord Okudaira Daizen-no-daibu!" Yukichi was lectured by Sannosuke on the "way of the subject and son," and although he apologized, inwardly he was dissatisfied, thinking, "It shouldn't matter if I step on a piece of paper with a name on it." From there, Yukichi's temperament of not being satisfied until he tested things himself emerged, and his experiments escalated to stepping on divine amulets, taking amulets into the washroom, and even swapping the stone that was the sacred object of the Inari deity.

Meanwhile, after returning to Nakatsu, Sannosuke had been exempted from service due to his youth, but in Tenpo 9, he was called up and ordered to be a liaison at the government office. Sannosuke performed his duties solemnly, but while he told his brother Yukichi "Filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, and sincerity until death," it seems he also felt dissatisfaction with the domain's culture, which was strict about social rank. When Sannosuke sent a letter to a high official and wrote the address in the Confucian style as "To the Sub-Steward of Mr. XX," the letter was thrust back at him with the words, "What is this 'Sub-Steward'? Rewrite it in the Japanese style as 'Liaison Group'." Yukichi says, "Seeing this, I stood by and wept with indignation on his behalf," but what Yukichi saw was likely the figure of Sannosuke, who never voiced his complaints but could not hide his resentment. Also, when a relative came to Sannosuke and complained that the domain's culture was not good, Yukichi would always stop them, saying, "Stop it, it's ridiculous. As long as you are here in Nakatsu, such foolish arguments are of no use. If you are dissatisfied, you should leave. If you don't leave, you should not complain." Was Sannosuke also voicing complaints along with the relatives? Since there is no scene in the "Autobiography" where Sannosuke rebukes Yukichi for this, the author would like to believe that Sannosuke sympathized with Yukichi in his heart. After this, Sannosuke himself adhered to "If you don't leave, do not complain," while guiding Yukichi so that he could choose the path of "If you are dissatisfied, you should leave."

It was the "Confucian scholar" Sannosuke who invited Yukichi to the path of Rangaku (Dutch Studies). At this time, Yukichi may have been at a loss, as his Confucian teacher, Shozan Shiraishi, had just been punished with expulsion from the domain for involvement in an incident. To Yukichi, who did not even know the meaning of original texts, Sannosuke recommended studying Rangaku, saying, "There are currently things called translated books in Japan that describe Western matters, but to truly investigate things, one must read the original Dutch books. Regarding that, do you not feel like reading those original texts?" Yukichi did not have a desperate desire to study Rangaku, but he thought he would try it if it was difficult and something people in general did not do. Thus, Sannosuke took advantage of an opportunity to go to Nagasaki on business to have his brother Yukichi accompany him and study there. In Nagasaki, Iki Okudaira, the "son of a high official," was studying and staying at Komei-ji Temple. It was likely Sannosuke who recommended to Iki Okudaira that Yukichi become a "dependent at the temple."

Yukichi's studies in Nagasaki had to come to an end in about a year due to a plot by Iki Okudaira's biological father. However, Yukichi, who had no intention of returning to Nakatsu, decided to go to Edo and first headed to Osaka by boat.

The Nakatsu Domain warehouse residence in Osaka was Yukichi's birthplace and also the place where his brother Sannosuke worked. After his assignment in Nagasaki, Sannosuke had been stationed in Osaka, just like his father. To Sannosuke, who was surprised that his brother, who was supposed to be studying in Nagasaki, had arrived out of the blue, Yukichi told the whole story of what happened in Nagasaki without hiding anything. Sannosuke's reply here is interesting. "You came from Nagasaki, but Nakatsu is on the way. You looked past Nakatsu and came here, avoiding our mother's place, didn't you? (Omitted) If I were to meet you here and tell you to let go and go to Edo, it would be a conspiracy between brothers. That would be truly inexcusable, wouldn't it?" While reproaching him for not greeting their mother, he did not tell him to return to Nakatsu, but instead recommended that he stay in Osaka and study at a Rangaku school. Yukichi took his brother's advice, heard that there was a teacher named Koan Ogata in Osaka, and began attending Tekijuku from Sannosuke's place. The story in the "Autobiography" ends here, but it can be imagined that after this, Sannosuke wrote a letter to their mother and proceeded with the procedures for Yukichi's stay in Osaka.

It was in Ansei 3 (1856) that misfortune befell the brothers in Osaka. Sannosuke contracted rheumatism and became unable to use his right hand. Around the same time, Yukichi also became infected with typhoid fever. Fortunately, Yukichi recovered, and as Sannosuke had finished his term in Osaka, the brothers returned to Nakatsu together. Yukichi fully recovered in two or three months and returned to Osaka, but soon an urgent report arrived from Nakatsu. It was a notice saying, "Your brother died of illness on September 3rd, so return immediately." Sannosuke's life was short, at 31 years old by the traditional counting method.

Sannosuke's attitude changed considerably between Yukichi's childhood and youth. This should be considered in conjunction with the growth of these brothers. Sannosuke, who inherited the family headship early, must have carried the responsibility of protecting the family and making his brother a full-fledged man behind the scenes. Perhaps that is why he used extreme phrases like "Filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, and sincerity until death" to teach his free-spirited brother how to live in a feudal society. A few years later, Sannosuke may have seen Yukichi's potential. At the very least, he must have sensed that his brother wanted to leave Nakatsu, which was bound by the lineage system. Previously, their father Hyakusuke had said he would make Yukichi a monk to escape the lineage system, but brother Sannosuke, at a time when Western-style gunnery research was attracting attention, surely found Rangaku as the path for Yukichi to follow. Sannosuke took Yukichi to Nagasaki and further looked after him so that he could continue studying Rangaku in Osaka. There, one can see the figure of a brotherly older brother concerned for his younger brother's future.

Upon hearing the news of Sannosuke's death, when Yukichi returned to the house in Nakatsu, "after consultation among relatives, I had unknowingly become the master of the Fukuzawa house." However, Yukichi could not bear to stay in Nakatsu, and without gaining the approval of his uncle and others around him, he was encouraged by his mother, Jun, and returned to Tekijuku in Osaka once again. At this time, of course, brother Sannosuke was gone, but while he was alive and on his sickbed, he may have discussed future matters with Jun. If it were Sannosuke, he surely would have anticipated that Yukichi would say he wanted to return to Osaka.

After Yukichi left for Osaka, his mother Jun and Sannosuke's only daughter, Ichi, were left in the house in Nakatsu. Sannosuke's wife was the second daughter of Juan Fujimoto and Hyakusuke's sister Kuni, and her name was Toshi. Because Toshi remarried Tobe Kawashima, a samurai of the Nakatsu Domain, after Sannosuke's death, Ichi was taken in by her grandmother, Jun.

Yukichi was worried about these two, and taking the opportunity when the relocation of Keio University to Mita became certain, he returned to Nakatsu and brought the two of them to Tokyo. Thus, Ichi lived in Mita for a while, but after Jun's death, she returned to Nakatsu and became the adopted daughter of her aunt (Yukichi's older sister), Kane Hattori. She later married into a farming family named Takenosuke Tajiri and died in Meiji 26 (1893). In a letter Yukichi sent to Kane the previous year, he wrote detailed instructions, worrying about the ill Ichi, such as "Let her eat not only milk and eggs, but also eel, soft-shell turtle, sea fish, or whatever she likes," and "Do not spare money for her health" ("Collected Letters of Fukuzawa Yukichi").

Later, Ichi's second daughter, Toyo, became Kane's adopted daughter, and her descendants are still alive and well. The author met with Mr. Masakazu Hattori, who is Toyo's great-grandson, and his son Yudai (a student at Keio Futsubu School). For the 2018 Keio Futsubu School Labor Exhibition, Yudai conducted a detailed investigation into his ancestor Kane Hattori and her family, exhibiting a work that explored Kane's personality. Unfortunately, there are no mementos or deathbed instructions from Sannosuke in the Hattori family, but through Yukichi's consideration and financial support, and Kane's devoted upbringing, the Hattori family and Sannosuke's lineage have been passed down to this day.