Sotaro Masuda

Sotaro Masuda, a second cousin of Yukichi Fukuzawa, was a young man who lived a short but intense life. He experienced roles as a pro-imperialist activist (sonno joi), a freedom and people's rights activist, and the commander of the Nakatsu Corps in the Satsuma Rebellion. Before World War II, it is said that Masuda was more popular than Fukuzawa due to his pro-imperialist assertions and his actions in dying for Saigo, and he appeared in numerous literary works. The most famous is likely Ryotaro Shiba's "Tobu ga Gotoku." In "Tobu ga Gotoku," as the signs of defeat grew stronger and Saigo encouraged the young men gathered from various regions to return home, the book highlights Masuda's words when he decided to remain with Saigo's army.

Regarding Saigo's charisma, Masuda reportedly said with tears in his eyes, "That man is truly mysterious. One day with him brings one day of love. Three days with him brings three days of love. However, as I spend more days with him, I can no longer leave. Now, beyond good and evil, I have no choice but to share life and death with him." This depicts Masuda as a man of rich emotion.

The relationship between Masuda and Fukuzawa was deep, and in "The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi" (hereafter "Autobiography"), Masuda is memorably described as a young man with pro-imperialist thoughts who targeted Fukuzawa's life. After the failed assassination attempt, Masuda worked at the Western School and Nakatsu City School and even entered Keio University, continuing his interaction with Fukuzawa. While it is speculated that Fukuzawa influenced Masuda's acceptance of Western learning and his transition to the freedom and people's rights movement, it is difficult to trace the details of Masuda's thought. This is due to the scarcity of primary sources regarding Masuda, the fact that biographical materials created after his death for the purpose of honoring him are the primary sources, and the difficulty in grasping his true intentions as his activities spanned many fields. This time, I would like to attempt an introduction of "Sotaro Masuda" as told by the "Autobiography" and the people around him.

In 1849, Sotaro Masuda was born as the eldest son of Hisayuki Masuda, a lower-ranking samurai of the Nakatsu Domain. His childhood name was Kumemaru, and since some of his handwritten letters record it as "Kumemaru" (using different kanji) or "Kumemaro," it is speculated that the reading was "Kumemaro." His father, Hisayuki, was a cousin of Yukichi Fukuzawa's mother, O-jun, and his mother was the daughter of the Kokugaku scholar Shigena Watanabe. His personality was said to be calm yet decisive, with a feminine appearance and fair skin. In the "description of physical features" issued during the Satsuma Rebellion, he was described as fair-skinned with a long face, distinct eyes and eyebrows, and a "gentle appearance."

In the "Osuen Iko," where Shigena's grandson, Ikarimaro Watanabe, recalled the period from the end of the Edo period to the early Meiji era, Masuda reported on Fukuzawa's mother, O-jun, in addition to descriptions of Fukuzawa, showing that the families interacted. Furthermore, in the "Autobiography," Fukuzawa recalled, "Since he was 13 or 14 years younger than me, I thought of him as a child, and since our houses were nearby and we visited each other morning and evening, we were close, and I called him 'So-san, So-san.'" Fukuzawa was fond of his much younger second cousin. However, Masuda himself looked upon Fukuzawa with hatred, to the point of later planning Fukuzawa's assassination. This was related to the Watanabe family, Masuda's maternal lineage.

The Watanabe family was a lineage of Shinto priests at Kobyo Hachimangu Shrine, and the 34th generation, Shigena Watanabe, was a Kokugaku scholar who studied under Hisao Araki and Norinaga Motoori. Shigena's grandsons, Shigeharu and Ikarimaro Watanabe (who were cousins of Masuda), were also Kokugaku scholars who taught Kokugaku and waka poetry at the Nakatsu Domain school, Shinshukan, and the private school, Doseikan. The Watanabe family was located in Sakuramachi, very close to the Fukuzawa and Masuda families, and Masuda grew up strongly influenced by them. In the "Autobiography," Fukuzawa introduced Masuda's environment, noting that Masuda had a "scholar of the Mito school style as a cousin" and that Masuda was "quite impressive" because he made them his teachers, and that the Masuda family had a steadfast family tradition that was "not at all shameful for a feudal samurai family."

In the Nakatsu Domain, where the social order based on lineage was strict, friction occurred between upper-ranking and lower-ranking samurai, and lower-ranking samurai were sometimes treated unfairly. Consequently, there was a trend where lower-ranking samurai avoided the domain school and many studied at private schools. Among them, Doseikan was the only Kokugaku school, and many lower-ranking samurai enrolled. Besides Masuda, Eiji Asabuki, Shigeho Iwata (the father of Shishibunroku), and other lower-ranking samurai who would later form the Nakatsu Corps studied at Doseikan. Ikarimaro became a posthumous disciple of Atsutane Hirata after being moved by his books, and the disciples of Doseikan came to hold pro-imperialist thoughts under the influence of the Hirata Kokugaku advocated by Ikarimaro. Thus, the pro-imperialist activists of the Nakatsu Domain plotted to assassinate Fukuzawa.

In the autumn of 1870, Fukuzawa stayed in Nakatsu to bring his mother, O-jun, and his niece, Ichi, to Tokyo. During his stay, Fukuzawa treated Masuda as a child and was as fond of him as ever, and Masuda interacted with a smile and visited the house. However, in reality, Masuda disliked Fukuzawa, considering him "tainted by the West," and his visits to the Fukuzawa house were reportedly for reconnaissance. Masuda sneaked into the Fukuzawa house and waited for an opportunity to assassinate him, but because Fukuzawa was drinking all night with Gorobe Hattori, an upper-ranking samurai who was also a relative, Masuda missed his chance, and Fukuzawa narrowly escaped death.

Afterward, Fukuzawa finished his business and was to return to Tokyo by ship. Fukuzawa's party stayed overnight near the departure point at Unoshima Port (now Buzen City, Fukuoka Prefecture). However, there was a person with pro-imperialist thoughts at the inn who informed the Doseikan faction, including Masuda, of Fukuzawa's movements, leading them to plan the assassination again. The Doseikan faction gathered in Kanaya (a district where many lower-ranking samurai like Shigeho Iwata lived) to discuss the plan, but a big fight broke out over who would take the lead. They were rebuked by an old man named Yodayu Nakanishi who heard the noise, and while they were arguing, including Nakanishi, dawn broke, and Fukuzawa was able to safely depart for Kobe. This Nakanishi was from a lineage of Nakanishi Itto-ryu swordsmanship instructors, and it was fortunate for Fukuzawa that he was able to stop the hot-blooded activists.

In a letter Masuda sent to Ikarimaro around 1869–1870, he expressed resentment regarding the situation where upper-ranking samurai at the center of the domain administration, such as Yutaro Shimazu, sympathized with Fukuzawa and promoted Western education, while there was no support for Kokugaku. There were also rumors that they might deceive the domain lord, Masatake Okudaira, into studying in the United States, which intensified the hatred Masuda and others felt toward Fukuzawa. During his stay in 1870, Fukuzawa wrote "Nakatsu Ryubetsu no Sho" to try to enlighten the people of his hometown with the ideas of modern society, but contrary to Fukuzawa's intentions, Nakatsu was not yet in a position to accept his ideas. Fukuzawa remained unaware of these assassination plots but later heard of them and spoke of his terror upon learning how he had narrowly escaped with his life.

In the early Meiji era, Masuda engaged in various activities, including studying in Kyoto, establishing the Imperial School in Nakatsu (which could be called the successor to Doseikan), entering Keio University, getting married, and planning an anti-Satsuma uprising. In 1872, he went to Tokyo with Hitoshi Mizushima (also known as Rokube, a lower-ranking samurai of the Nakatsu Domain who played a central role in the 1863 petition incident that led to the downfall of Iki Okudaira), the brother of his wife, Shika. Hitoshi's son, Tetsuya (who served as the first principal of Kobe Higher Commercial School), was told many times by Masuda that "this country of Japan is a very small country, so we citizens must be firm in both mind and body," and Hitoshi and Masuda reportedly exchanged arguments during their journey.

In "The Biography of Mr. Tetsuya Mizushima" (edited by Aian-kai), an episode is introduced where Masuda cut his hair in Shimonoseki while on his way to Tokyo. When Hitoshi asked Masuda how "that man" (Fukuzawa) would react upon hearing he had cut his hair, Masuda argued that he had certainly not yielded to Fukuzawa. Afterward, Masuda and Hitoshi discussed the ideas of the new era that Fukuzawa had brought to Nakatsu, and Masuda reportedly stated that while Fukuzawa's ideas were difficult to accept, he believed it was necessary to learn new trends of thought for the sake of coastal defense, diplomacy, and the country.

After the anti-Satsuma plan was discovered and he was ordered into confinement, Masuda formed the Kyuyusha in 1874 and began the freedom and people's rights movement. The main members of Kyuyusha were schoolmates who had studied together at Doseikan, and many of the pro-imperialist activists in Nakatsu transitioned into freedom and people's rights activists along with Masuda. It is said that Yuzo Hayashi was dispatched from the Risshisha in Tosa to Nakatsu to celebrate the formation of Kyuyusha. Members of Kyuyusha held public speaking events at Myorenji Temple, the Fukuzawa family's temple, and at Nakatsu City School, and were active enthusiastically. Masuda entered Keio University again in 1876 and studied under Fukuzawa. Later, Ichiji Nagata, a Keio University alumni from Nakatsu who also served as a teacher at Nakatsu City School, was dispatched as a teacher to the Risshi Gakusha, the educational institution of Risshisha. The origin of this interaction between Nakatsu, Keio University, and Risshisha was Kyuyusha.

Also in November 1876, the first issue of the "Inaka Shinbun" was published by the Inaka Shinbunsha, where Tadanaga Murakami (who later served as the head of Kusu District) was the president and Masuda was the editor-in-chief. This newspaper company used the funds of Nakatsu City School, and individuals advocating for freedom and people's rights, such as Hanshichi Yamaguchi, took the lead in its operation. However, a few months later, Masuda formed the Nakatsu Corps and participated in the Satsuma Rebellion. He died in battle in September 1877.

Masuda's activities during the Meiji era spanned many fields, making it difficult to capture his thought. However, it is noteworthy that from the pro-imperialist movement to the Satsuma Rebellion, Masuda consistently advocated for national independence and the importance of coastal defense. Masuda's assertion in the anti-Satsuma plan he devised in 1873 was that "to worry about the stagnation of diplomacy, defend the outer seas, and greatly rouse national rights, internal troubles must first be removed. It is very lamentable that Satsuma still retains a strong feudal state and stands arrogantly apart from other prefectures without any cooperation." His reason was a concern that Satsuma's independent path would disrupt the country's unity.

When he later joined the Satsuma Rebellion, he created a manifesto condemning the Meiji government's failures in diplomacy and finance and its anxiety over foreign threats, while also criticizing despotic politics. Considering that Masuda was surrounded by different thinkers and educators like Fukuzawa and Ikarimaro who influenced each other, is it not possible to think that while Masuda held a consistent patriotic ideology throughout his life, he was going through trial and error regarding the means of its realization while absorbing the ideas of Fukuzawa and others?