Draft Petitions and the Bronze Statue of Yukichi Fukuzawa: New Materials Concerning the Naganuma Incident

The true thrill of historical research lies in encountering new materials. For the Keio History Museum's Autumn Special Exhibition, "Yukichi Fukuzawa and 'Non-Violence': 150 Years of Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning)" (held until December 17, 2022), I had the opportunity to encounter several deeply impressive materials.

This exhibition focused heavily on the "Naganuma Incident," which occurred in 1872 and took 28 years to resolve. The details of the incident were described in the October issue of this magazine. It was a "non-violent" struggle by the people of Naganuma Village against the unilateral seizure of ownership rights to a marsh called "Naganuma" in Chiba Prefecture by the national government.

In the late autumn of 1874, village officials such as Buhei Ogawa, who had read Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning), visited Fukuzawa in a desperate plea to have him ghostwrite a petition to the prefecture, which set the incident in motion. However, the original ghostwritten manuscript was lost, and even the "Complete Works of Yukichi Fukuzawa" included it only as a transcription. This draft in Fukuzawa's own handwriting appeared on the antique market about five years ago. Tracing various documents, it is estimated that this manuscript left the village during the Taisho era. However, this was only part of the draft. When we asked the people of the former Naganuma Village to bring together their materials this time, another draft in Fukuzawa's own hand was discovered among them (Photo 1).

Once materials are published in print, researchers' interest tends to fade. However, there is a breath of history that only the original can convey. While it is easy to interpret the contents of historical materials inorganicly as mere data, the vividness of the brushstrokes and corrections in this manuscript deeply remind us that this was a real-life event.

Another discovery is a previously unseen Bronze Statue of Yukichi Fukuzawa (Photo 2). Perhaps it was commissioned by the Naganuma villagers who pooled their money together. Fukuzawa's expression with his arms crossed is intrepid, a quite different appearance from the mature bust at Mita (the back is marked "S.N.", but the creator and date are unknown). In the former Naganuma Village, there is a "Song Commemorating the Return of Naganuma" that tells the story of the incident and praises Fukuzawa. Until the post-war period, there was a festival where all the villagers would sing this song every year on the anniversary of the restoration of the marsh rights.

Although it has now become a small ceremony with about 10 officials, it continues steadily with a portrait of Fukuzawa displayed. Encountering these materials made me feel the importance of occasionally remembering through one's own senses that history is an accumulation of the activities of living human beings.

(Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor, Keio University Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies)