Sawa Shigekichi

Image: Collection of the Urakawa Town Local History Museum

"I am most pleased to hear that you continue to study as always and that your business is gradually progressing. To speak of independence in life is easy, but to achieve it in practice is difficult. Your twenty long years of perseverance are like a single day. I have nothing but the deepest admiration for you."

This is a passage from a letter by Fukuzawa Yukichi dated January 25, 1896. It was addressed to Sawa Shigekichi. Sawa was the local leader of a group that developed the former Ogifushi Village, located about 50 kilometers from Cape Erimo in Hokkaido. Fukuzawa wrote that while it is easy to talk about "independence in life," he had nothing but admiration for Sawa's long years of effort in building a new town and establishing industries in the wilderness of Hokkaido. Among Fukuzawa's many letters, it is rare to find a message of appreciation so filled with such poignant emotion.

Sawa Shigekichi (formerly known as Katsuya) was born in 1853 as the eldest son of Sawa Jinzaemon, a samurai of the Settsu Sanda Domain. It is said that he went to Tokyo around 1869 to study at Keio University, but returned home before completing his studies for the sake of his mother, Sai. According to his mother's tombstone, his father died in 1865, and it is thought that he and his mother lived a difficult life together. While no record of his enrollment at Keio University remains, there are cases of students who lived and studied at Fukuzawa's residence without formal records, and Sawa may have been one such case.

The last lord of the Sanda Domain, where Sawa was from, was Kuki Takayoshi, known as an enlightened figure. The relationship between Fukuzawa and the Sanda Domain was very deep, beginning when Fukuzawa met Kawamoto Komin, also from the same domain, at the Bansho Shirabesho (Institute for the Study of Barbarian Books) at the end of the Edo period. Komin was 25 years older than Fukuzawa but was a scholar with deep knowledge of the natural sciences; it is believed that Komin introduced Takayoshi to Fukuzawa. Fukuzawa was captivated by Takayoshi's proactive personality and willingness to take on new challenges, and the two deepened their friendship. In "Fukuo Jiden" (The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa), there is an anecdote about how Fukuzawa actually visited Sanda because they were "long-time close acquaintances and he was told to come play in Sanda once."

The Kuki family was progressive even before the Meiji Restoration, introducing Western-style military training and opening English schools. After the Restoration, they were among the first to adopt Western clothing and food and to promote the spread of Western learning. They also showed a deep understanding of Christianity from an early stage.

Serving as a sort of treasurer for Takayoshi was Shirasu Taizo, who supported Takayoshi as a senior official (daisanji) of the domain at the end of the Edo period. His grandson was Shirasu Jiro, who demonstrated great skill in restoring Japan's independence after World War II. While receiving advice from Fukuzawa, Taizo worked hard to ensure that the lord's assets were soundly maintained and expanded, and he struggled to use them for businesses that would contribute to the public good. These efforts included the establishment of the trading company Shimasan Shokai, the founding of Kobe Home (the predecessor of Kobe College), and involvement in urban development projects in Kobe. In the land registry maps of the Sannomiya area of Kobe from the early Meiji era, Fukuzawa Yukichi's name can be seen alongside Shimasan Shokai and Kotera Taijiro (whose son, Kotera Kenkichi, served as Mayor of Kobe), who was also from Sanda and participated in the company. It is said that Fukuzawa also profited from land speculation in Kobe.

Returning to Sawa Shigekichi. After leaving the Juku, he studied cattle raising and condensed milk production under a Dutch studies scholar in Nara, and around 1874, he opened a cooperative milk production business in Kobe. Around the same time, in 1875, the Settsu Sanda Church (initially the Settsu Third Christian Church; the first was in Kobe, the second in Osaka) was established in the great hall of the Sanda Jinya (Sanda Castle). Among the 16 people baptized in the first baptismal ceremony were the names of Sawa Shigekichi and his mother, Sai.

Sawa's business later stalled due to an outbreak of cattle plague, and he appears to have been in poverty. There is a letter from 1877 in which Fukuzawa wrote to Shirasu Taizo, mentioning Shigekichi's name as "someone I have known since he was a boy," expressing concern for his situation and requesting help in finding him a job. It is unclear if it is related, but from that same year until 1879, he reportedly taught mathematics and classical Chinese at the aforementioned Kobe Home.

The turning point in his life was joining the Sekishinsha in April 1882. This was a Hokkaido development association formed by Christians, primarily former Sanda Domain samurai, which made its founding principles and alliance rules public in April 1880. It held the ideal that "poor people without capital" could achieve great things by pooling small amounts of money; for this reason, it took the form of a joint-stock company and received approval from the Kaitakushi (Hokkaido Development Commission) in August. Suzuki Kiyoshi, a former Sanda Domain samurai who was the first to manufacture canned beef in Japan, became president, and at the general meeting of shareholders in January 1881, Kuki Takayoshi and Shirasu Taizo became committee members. Once the shares reached 600, the first group of over 50 immigrants was sent out in May. The company had received the privilege of free land grants for reclaimed land until 1890. However, the plan to settle in Nishicha, Urakawa via Hakodate was hit by stormy weather, leaving them stranded in Hakodate and quickly running out of funds. Although they eventually reached the site on a ship they managed to arrange, the huts that were supposed to be finished were incomplete. Furthermore, a separate shipment carrying tools drifted toward the Kuril Islands. Dark clouds hung over the project from the start, and with a succession of immigrants deserting, the business fell into a state of collapse.

Recognizing the importance of local leadership, President Suzuki selected Sawa Shigekichi. In May 1882, Sawa, as the Second Colonization Director, settled in the Motourakawa basin of Ogifushi, Urakawa District, Sapporo Prefecture (now Ogifushi-cho, Urakawa Town) with a second group of 83 immigrants, including his mother Sai, his wife Tei, and his eldest son Ryo. The following year, Sawa became the Vice President of Sekishinsha, and from then on, he would devote his life to the development of this land and the lives of the immigrants.

However, the hardships continued. In the spring of 1883, blizzards damaged houses, and in the summer, a massive locust outbreak devoured crops. This was followed by rainstorms in the autumn, and in the following year, 1884, the Matsukata Deflation caused agricultural and land prices to crash. Business capital decreased due to the cancellation of shares, and on top of that, a major crop failure occurred—all sorts of difficulties overlapped. The "History of Urakawa Town" records that this "indescribable" poverty was a "moment of life or death."

Even in such circumstances, Sawa sought a Puritan ideal of living based on faith. Therefore, alongside reclamation work, he focused on community building and the spread of learning to emphasize the independence of the immigrants, providing opportunities to deepen friendships and teaching agricultural practices, economics, ethics, and morality on Sundays. In 1884, he established the private Sekishin School using donations as a combined school and meeting hall. It was a grass hut of only about 40 square meters that was a school in name only, where Sawa himself provided instruction. This was the only educational facility until the Ogifushi branch of Urakawa Elementary School was established in 1891. Additionally, the Motourakawa Church (now the Urakawa Church of the United Church of Christ in Japan) was established in 1886, serving as a spiritual support for the settlers.

The initial poverty of the Sekishinsha reached the Sapporo Prefectural Office, and in 1885, a special relief fund of 860 yen was paid to the company. President Suzuki distributed half of that amount to the 43 immigrant shareholders, which is said to have stopped the desertion of immigrants and become the driving force for a recovery. At that time, 21 people offered to use their distributed funds as a foundation and utilize the interest for moral education, leading to the establishment of the Tokuyokai (Moral Education Society). In the existing charter of that society, Sawa Shigekichi's signature and seal appear at the top of the list of signatories.

Shigekichi noticed that the climate of the area was suitable for grazing horses, and in 1886, he selected grazing land and began a livestock business. He worked on improving horse breeds and producing dairy products. In the same year, he opened a store; in 1888, he began sericulture; in 1893, fruit gardening; and in 1894, he began brewing soy sauce from locally produced soybeans and wheat. He successfully put various diversified businesses on track one after another. While many Hokkaido development projects at the time suffered repeated failures, the case of Ogifushi is evaluated as a model example.

The "History of Urakawa Town" records Shigekichi's achievements as follows:

When Shigekichi faced the reality that the company's immigrants—who had left their familiar hometowns, said goodbye to relatives and friends, and come to the cold lands of the North with a different climate—were living in thatched huts in the middle of a vast, barren wilderness, tasting the hardships of development with single-minded devotion while enduring the elements, he felt a deep sense of unbearable human emotion. However, because he constantly comforted and encouraged the immigrant families with a proper balance of kindness and strictness, the immigrants did not let their tragic circumstances bother them; they hid their sorrow and were filled with the power of renewed determination. ... Regarding the creation of village property, the completion of schools, hospitals, post offices, and various other necessary facilities, the cutting of roads, flood control work on rivers, and the construction of bridges, he was always active, throwing himself into public works for the village without a day of rest. He was truly an unparalleled benefactor of the development of Ogifushi Village, and it is no exaggeration to say that the Ogifushi Village of today is the crystallization of Shigekichi's efforts and contributions.

The author visited Ogifushi in the late autumn of 2009. That year, as part of the 150th anniversary project of the founding of Keio University, a Fukuzawa Yukichi exhibition was held, traveling to three locations across the country. In it, rather than the well-known businessmen among Fukuzawa's disciples, many minor disciples were featured under the title "Another Fukuzawa Mountain Range." At that time, materials regarding Sawa Shigekichi were borrowed from his descendants. I visited to return them.

Sawa's name is still remembered in that land as a benefactor of the Ogifushi development. In front of the Ogifushi Branch of the Urakawa Town Hall, a bust of Sawa (created by Shin Hongo) is installed alongside Suzuki Kiyoshi, the former Sanda Domain samurai who served as President of Sekishinsha, and Nishi Tadayoshi, from Aizu, who realized the establishment of a stud farm and solidified the foundation of the area as a horse-breeding region.

And surprisingly, even today, Sekishin Co., Ltd. continues to exist at 1 Ogifushi-cho, Urakawa Town, as a store selling daily necessities and sake (it was destroyed by fire in 2018 but has since been rebuilt). It was impressive that his relatives still affectionately call him "Grandpa Shigekichi." At that time, I asked and was taken to Sawa Shigekichi's grave in the town-run Mizuho Communal Cemetery.

The epitaph written by Nishi Tadayoshi had faded over years of wind and snow and was in a state where it was almost impossible to read, but it seemed to briefly record Shigekichi's biography and achievements in classical Chinese. Tracing it with my finger, I followed from the beginning: "The subject's name is Shigekichi, the eldest son of Sawa Jinzaemon, a samurai of the Sanda Domain in Settsu Province..." At the end, there was an inscription summarizing his achievements in four-character phrases. Mixed in with phrases like "Throwing oneself into the Northern Seas" and "Ten years like a single day," there were the four characters for "independence and self-respect." The awareness that he had studied under Fukuzawa certainly pulsed throughout the life of Sawa Shigekichi, who settled in the harsh winds of the northern land and led his comrades. I can still never forget the shivering shock I felt when I noticed these four characters carved on a small tombstone in a cemetery visited by few.

Sawa Shigekichi ended his life on September 15, 1909, at the age of 56.