The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 3

  V

  YOSHIDA-TORAJIRO

  The name at the head of this page is probably unknown to the Englishreader, and yet I think it should become a household word like that ofGaribaldi or John Brown. Some day soon, we may expect to hear more fullythe details of Yoshida's history, and the degree of his influence in thetransformation of Japan; even now there must be Englishmen acquaintedwith the subject, and perhaps the appearance of this sketch may elicitsomething more complete and exact. I wish to say that I am not, rightlyspeaking, the author of the present paper: I tell the story on theauthority of an intelligent Japanese gentleman, Mr. Taiso Masaki, whotold it me with an emotion that does honour to his heart; and though Ihave taken some pains, and sent my notes to him to be corrected, thiscan be no more than an imperfect outline.

  Yoshida-Torajiro was son to the hereditary military instructor of thehouse of Choshu. The name you are to pronounce with an equality ofaccent on the different syllables, almost as in French, the vowels as inItalian, but the consonants in the English manner--except the _j_, whichhas the French sound, or, as it has been cleverly proposed to write it,the sound of _zh_. Yoshida was very learned in Chinese letters, or, aswe might say, in the classics, and in his father's subject;fortification was among his favourite studies, and he was a poet fromhis boyhood. He was born to a lively and intelligent patriotism; thecondition of Japan was his great concern; and while he projected abetter future, he lost no opportunity of improving his knowledge of herpresent state. With this end he was continually travelling in his youth,going on foot and sometimes with three days' provisions on his back, inthe brave, self-helpful manner of all heroes. He kept a full diary whilehe was thus upon his journeys, but it is feared that these notes havebeen destroyed. If their value were in any respect such as we havereason to expect from the man's character, this would be a loss not easyto exaggerate. It is still wonderful to the Japanese how far hecontrived to push these explorations; a cultured gentleman of that landand period would leave a complimentary poem where-ever he had beenhospitably entertained; and a friend of Mr. Masaki, who was likewise agreat wanderer, has found such traces of Yoshida's passage in veryremote regions of Japan.

  Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation isthought necessary; but Yoshida considered otherwise, and he studied themiseries of his fellow-countrymen with as much attention and research asthough he had been going to write a book, instead of merely to propose aremedy. To a man of his intensity and singleness, there is no questionbut that this survey was melancholy in the extreme. His dissatisfactionis proved by the eagerness with which he threw himself into the cause ofreform; and what would have discouraged another braced Yoshida for histask. As he professed the theory of arms, it was firstly the defences ofJapan that occupied his mind. The external feebleness of that countrywas then illustrated by the manners of overriding barbarians, and thevisits of big barbarian warships: she was a country beleaguered. Thusthe patriotism of Yoshida took a form which may be said to have defeateditself: he had it upon him to keep out these all-powerful foreigners,whom it is now one of his chief merits to have helped to introduce; buta man who follows his own virtuous heart will be always found in the endto have been fighting for the best. One thing leads naturally to anotherin an awakened mind, and that with an upward progress from effect tocause. The power and knowledge of these foreigners were thingsinseparable; by envying them their military strength, Yoshida came toenvy them their culture; from the desire to equal them in the first,sprang his desire to share with them in the second; and thus he is foundtreating in the same book of a new scheme to strengthen the defences ofKioto and of the establishment, in the same city, of a university offoreign teachers. He hoped, perhaps, to get the good of other landswithout their evil; to enable Japan to profit by the knowledge of thebarbarians, and still keep her inviolate with her own arts and virtues.But whatever was the precise nature of his hope, the means by which itwas to be accomplished were both difficult and obvious. Some one witheyes and understanding must break through the official cordon, escapeinto the new world, and study this other civilisation on the spot. Andwho could be better suited for the business? It was not without danger,but he was without fear. It needed preparation and insight; and what hadhe done since he was a child but prepare himself with the best cultureof Japan, and acquire in his excursions the power and habit ofobserving?

  He was but twenty-two, and already all this was clear in his mind, whennews reached Choshu that Commodore Perry was lying near to Yeddo. Here,then, was the patriot's opportunity. Among the Samurai of Choshu, and inparticular among the councillors of the Daimio, his general culture, hisviews, which the enlightened were eager to accept, and, above all, theprophetic charm, the radiant persuasion of the man, had gained him manyand sincere disciples. He had thus a strong influence at the provincialCourt; and so he obtained leave to quit the district, and, by way of apretext, a privilege to follow his profession in Yeddo. Thither hehurried, and arrived in time to be too late: Perry had weighed anchor,and his sails had vanished from the waters of Japan. But Yoshida, havingput his hand to the plough, was not the man to go back; he had enteredupon this business, and, please God, he would carry it through; and sohe gave up his professional career and remained in Yeddo to be at handagainst the next opportunity. By this behaviour he put himself into anattitude towards his superior, the Daimio of Choshu, which I cannotthoroughly explain. Certainly, he became a _Ronyin_, a broken man, afeudal outlaw; certainly he was liable to be arrested if he set footupon his native province; yet I am cautioned that "he did not reallybreak his allegiance," but only so far separated himself as that theprince could no longer be held accountable for his late vassal'sconduct. There is some nicety of feudal custom here that escapes mycomprehension.

  In Yeddo, with this nondescript political status, and cut off from anymeans of livelihood, he was joyfully supported by those who sympathisedwith his design. One was Sakuma-Shozan, hereditary retainer of one ofthe Shogun's councillors, and from him he got more than money or thanmoney's worth. A steady, respectable man, with an eye to the world'sopinion, Sakuma was one of those who, if they cannot do great deeds intheir own person, have yet an ardour of admiration for those who can,that recommends them to the gratitude of history. They aid and abetgreatness more, perhaps, than we imagine. One thinks of them inconnection with Nicodemus, who visited our Lord by night. And Sakuma wasin a position to help Yoshida more practically than by simplecountenance; for he could read Dutch, and was eager to communicate whathe knew.

  While the young Ronyin thus lay studying in Yeddo, news came of aRussian ship at Nangasaki. No time was to be lost. Sakuma contributed "along copy of encouraging verses"; and off set Yoshida on foot forNangasaki. His way lay through his own province of Choshu; but, as thehigh-road to the south lay apart from the capital, he was able to avoidarrest. He supported himself, like a _trouvere_, by his proficiency inverse. He carried his works along with him, to serve as anintroduction. When he reached a town he would inquire for the house ofany one celebrated for swordsmanship, or poetry, or some of the otheracknowledged forms of culture; and there, on giving a taste of hisskill, he would be received and entertained, and leave behind him, whenhe went away, a compliment in verse. Thus he travelled through theMiddle Ages on his voyage of discovery into the nineteenth century. Whenhe reached Nangasaki he was once more too late. The Russians were gone.But he made a profit on his journey in spite of fate, and stayed awhileto pick up scraps of knowledge from the Dutch interpreters--a low classof men--but one that had opportunities; and then, still full of purpose,returned to Yeddo on foot, as he had come.

  It was not only his youth and courage that supported him under thesesuccessive disappointments, but the continual affluence of newdisciples. The man had the tenacity of a Bruce or a Columbus, with apliability that was all his own. He did not fight for what the worldwould call success; but for "the wages of going on." Check him off in adozen directions, he would find another outlet and break forth. Hemissed one vessel after anothe
r, and the main work still halted; but solong as he had a single Japanese to enlighten and prepare for the betterfuture, he could still feel that he was working for Japan. Now, he hadscarce returned from Nangasaki, when he was sought out by a newinquirer, the most promising of all. This was a common soldier, of theHemming class, a dyer by birth, who had heard vaguely[4] of Yoshida'smovements, and had become filled with wonder as to their design. Thiswas a far different inquirer from Sakuma-Shozan, or the councillors ofthe Daimio of Choshu. This was no two-sworded gentleman, but the commonstuff of the country, born in low traditions and unimproved by books;and yet that influence, that radiant persuasion that never failedYoshida in any circumstance of his short life, enchanted, enthralled,and converted the common soldier, as it had done already with theelegant and learned. The man instantly burned up into a true enthusiasm;his mind had been only waiting for a teacher; he grasped in a moment theprofit of these new ideas; he, too, would go to foreign, outlandishparts, and bring back the knowledge that was to strengthen and renewJapan; and in the meantime, that he might be the better prepared,Yoshida set himself to teach, and he to learn, the Chinese literature.It is an episode most honourable to Yoshida, and yet more honourablestill to the soldier, and to the capacity and virtue of the commonpeople of Japan.

  And now, at length, Commodore Perry returned to Simoda. Friends crowdedround Yoshida with help, counsels, and encouragement. One presented himwith a great sword, three feet long and very heavy, which, in theexultation of the hour, he swore to carry throughout all his wanderings,and to bring back--a far-travelled weapon--to Japan. A long letter wasprepared in Chinese for the American officers; it was revised andcorrected by Sakuma, and signed by Yoshida, under the name ofUrinaki-Manji, and by the soldier under that of Ichigi-Koda. Yoshida hadsupplied himself with a profusion of materials for writing; his dresswas literally stuffed with paper which was to come back again enrichedwith his observations, and make a great and happy kingdom of Japan. Thusequipped, this pair of emigrants set forward on foot from Yeddo, andreached Simoda about nightfall. At no period within history can travelhave presented to any European creature the same face of awe and terroras to these courageous Japanese. The descent of Ulysses into hell is aparallel more near the case than the boldest expedition in the Polarcircles. For their act was unprecedented; it was criminal; and it was totake them beyond the pale of humanity into a land of devils. It is notto be wondered at if they were thrilled by the thought of their unusualsituation; and perhaps the soldier gave utterance to the sentiment ofboth when he sang, "in Chinese singing" (so that we see he had alreadyprofited by his lessons), these two appropriate verses:

  "We do not know where we are to sleep to-night, In a thousand miles of desert where we can see no human smoke."

  In a little temple, hard by the sea-shore, they lay down to repose;sleep overtook them as they lay; and when they awoke, "the east wasalready white" for their last morning in Japan. They seized afisherman's boat and rowed out--Perry lying far to sea because of thetwo tides. Their very manner of boarding was significant ofdetermination; for they had no sooner caught hold upon the ship thanthey kicked away their boat to make return impossible. And now you wouldhave thought that all was over. But the Commodore was already in treatywith the Shogun's Government; it was one of the stipulations that noJapanese was to be aided in escaping from Japan; and Yoshida and hisfollowers were handed over as prisoners to the authorities at Simoda.That night he who had been to explore the secrets of the barbarian,slept, if he might sleep at all, in a cell too short for lying down atfull length, and too low for standing upright. There are somedisappointments too great for commentary.

  Sakuma, implicated by his handwriting, was sent into his own province inconfinement, from which he was soon released. Yoshida and the soldiersuffered a long and miserable period of captivity, and the latter,indeed, died, while yet in prison, of a skin disease. But such a spiritas that of Yoshida-Torajiro is not easily made or kept a captive; andthat which cannot be broken by misfortune you shall seek in vain toconfine in a bastille. He was indefatigably active, writing reports toGovernment and treatises for dissemination. These latter werecontraband; and yet he found no difficulty in their distribution, for healways had the jailer on his side. It was in vain that they keptchanging him from one prison to another; Government by that plan onlyhastened the spread of new ideas; for Yoshida had only to arrive to makea convert. Thus, though he himself was laid by the heels, he confirmedand extended his party in the State.

  At last, after many lesser transferences, he was given over from theprisons of the Shogun to those of his own superior, the Daimio ofChoshu. I conceive it possible that he may then have served out his timefor the attempt to leave Japan, and was now resigned to the provincialGovernment on a lesser count, as a Ronyin or feudal rebel. But, howeverthat may be, the change was of great importance to Yoshida; for by theinfluence of his admirers in the Daimio's council, he was allowed theprivilege, underhand, of dwelling in his own house. And there, as wellto keep up communication with his fellow-reformers as to pursue his workof education, he received boys to teach. It must not be supposed that hewas free; he was too marked a man for that; he was probably assigned tosome small circle, and lived, as we should say, under policesurveillance; but to him, who had done so much from under lock and key,this would seem a large and profitable liberty.

  It was at this period that Mr. Masaki was brought into personal contactwith Yoshida; and hence, through the eyes of a boy of thirteen, we getone good look at the character and habits of the hero. He was ugly andlaughably disfigured with the small-pox; and while nature had been soniggardly with him from the first, his personal habits were evensluttish. His clothes were wretched; when he ate or washed he wiped hishands upon his sleeves; and as his hair was not tied more than once inthe two months it was often disgusting to behold. With such a picture,it is easy to believe that he never married. A good teacher, gentle inact, although violent and abusive in speech, his lessons were apt to goover the heads of his scholars, and to leave them gaping, or more oftenlaughing. Such was his passion for study that he even grudged himselfnatural repose; and when he grew drowsy over his books he would, if itwas summer, put mosquitoes up his sleeve; and, if it was winter, takeoff his shoes and run barefoot on the snow. His handwriting wasexceptionally villainous; poet though he was, he had no taste for whatwas elegant; and in a country where to write beautifully was not themark of a scrivener but an admired accomplishment for gentlemen, hesuffered his letters to be jolted out of him by the press of matter andthe heat of his convictions. He would not tolerate even the appearanceof a bribe; for bribery lay at the root of much that was evil in Japan,as well as in countries nearer home; and once when a merchant broughthim his son to educate, and added, as was customary[5], a little privatesweetener, Yoshida dashed the money in the giver's face, and launchedinto such an outbreak of indignation as made the matter public in theschool. He was still, when Masaki knew him, much weakened by hishardships in prison; and the presentation-sword, three feet long, wastoo heavy for him to wear without distress; yet he would always gird iton when he went to dig in his garden. That is a touch which qualifiesthe man. A weaker nature would have shrunk from the sight of what onlycommemorated a failure. But he was of Thoreau's mind, that if you can"make your failure tragical by courage, it will not differ fromsuccess." He could look back without confusion to his enthusiasticpromise. If events had been contrary, and he found himself unable tocarry out that purpose--well, there was but the more reason to be braveand constant in another; if he could not carry the sword into barbarianlands, it should at least be witness to a life spent entirely for Japan.

  This is the sight we have of him as he appeared to schoolboys, but notrelated in the schoolboy spirit. A man so careless of the graces must beout of court with boys and women. And, indeed, as we have all been moreor less to school, it will astonish no one that Yoshida was regarded byhis scholars as a laughing-stock. The schoolboy has a keen sense ofhumour. Heroes he learns to understand and t
o admire in books; but he isnot forward to recognise the heroic under the traits of any contemporaryman, and least of all in a brawling, dirty, and eccentric teacher. Butas the years went by, and the scholars of Yoshida continued in vain tolook around them for the abstractly perfect, and began more and more tounderstand the drift of his instructions, they learned to look back upontheir comic schoolmaster as upon the noblest of mankind.

  The last act of this brief and full existence was already near at hand.Some of his work was done; for already there had been Dutch teachersadmitted into Nangasaki, and the country at large was keen for the newlearning. But though the renaissance had begun, it was impeded anddangerously threatened by the power of the Shogun. His minister--thesame who was afterwards assassinated in the snow in the very midst ofhis bodyguard--not only held back pupils from going to the Dutchmen, butby spies and detectives, by imprisonment and death, kept thinning out ofJapan the most intelligent and active spirits. It is the old story of apower upon its last legs--learning to the bastille, and courage to theblock; when there are none left but sheep and donkeys, the State willhave been saved. But a man must not think to cope with a revolution; nora minister, however fortified with guards, to hold in check a countrythat had given birth to such men as Yoshida and his soldier-follower.The violence of the ministerial Tarquin only served to direct attentionto the illegality of his master's rule; and people began to turn theirallegiance from Yeddo and the Shogun to the long-forgotten Mikado in hisseclusion at Kioto. At this juncture, whether in consequence or not, therelations between these two rulers became strained; and the Shogun'sminister set forth for Kioto to put another affront upon the rightfulsovereign. The circumstance was well fitted to precipitate events. Itwas a piece of religion to defend the Mikado; it was a plain piece ofpolitical righteousness to oppose a tyrannical and bloody usurpation. ToYoshida the moment for action seemed to have arrived. He was himselfstill confined in Choshu. Nothing was free but his intelligence; butwith that he sharpened a sword for the Shogun's minister. A party of hisfollowers were to waylay the tyrant at a village on the Yeddo and Kiotoroad, present him with a petition, and put him to the sword. But Yoshidaand his friends were closely observed; and the too great expedition oftwo of the conspirators, a boy of eighteen and his brother, wakened thesuspicion of the authorities, and led to a full discovery of the plotand the arrest of all who were concerned.

  In Yeddo, to which he was taken, Yoshida was thrown again into a strictconfinement. But he was not left destitute of sympathy in this last hourof trial. In the next cell lay one Kusakabe, a reformer from thesouthern highlands of Satsuma. They were in prison for different plots,indeed, but for the same intention; they shared the same beliefs and thesame aspirations for Japan; many and long were the conversations theyheld through the prison wall, and dear was the sympathy that soon unitedthem. It fell first to the lot of Kusakabe to pass before the judges;and when sentence had been pronounced he was led towards the place ofdeath below Yoshida's window. To turn the head would have been toimplicate his fellow-prisoner; but he threw him a look from his eye, andbade him farewell in a loud voice, with these two Chinese verses:--

  "It is better to be a crystal and be broken, Than to remain perfect like a tile upon the housetop."

  So Kusakabe, from the highlands of Satsuma, passed out of the theatre ofthis world. His death was like an antique worthy's.

  A little after, and Yoshida too must appear before the Court. His lastscene was of a piece with his career, and fitly crowned it. He seized onthe opportunity of a public audience, confessed and gloried in hisdesign, and, reading his auditors a lesson in the history of theircountry, told at length the illegality of the Shogun's power and thecrimes by which its exercise was sullied. So, having said his say foronce, he was led forth and executed, thirty-one years old.

  A military engineer, a bold traveller (at least in wish), a poet, apatriot, a schoolmaster, a friend to learning, a martyr toreform,--there are not many men, dying at seventy, who have served theircountry in such various characters. He was not only wise and providentin thought, but surely one of the fieriest of heroes in execution. It ishard to say which is the most remarkable--his capacity for command,which subdued his very jailers; his hot, unflagging zeal; or hisstubborn superiority to defeat. He failed in each particular enterprisethat he attempted; and yet we have only to look at his country to seehow complete has been his general success. His friends and pupils madethe majority of leaders in that final Revolution, now some twelve yearsold; and many of them are, or were until the other day, high placedamong the rulers of Japan. And when we see all round us these briskintelligent students, with their strange foreign air, we should neverforget how Yoshida marched afoot from Choshu to Yeddo, and from Yeddo toNangasaki, and from Nangasaki back again to Yeddo; how he boarded theAmerican ship, his dress stuffed with writing material; nor how helanguished in prison, and finally gave his death, as he had formerlygiven all his life and strength and leisure, to gain for his nativeland that very benefit which she now enjoys so largely. It is better tobe Yoshida and perish, than to be only Sakuma and yet save the hide.Kusakabe, of Satsuma, has said the word: it is better to be a crystaland be broken.

  I must add a word; for I hope the reader will not fail to perceive thatthis is as much the story of a heroic people as that of a heroic man. Itis not enough to remember Yoshida; we must not forget the commonsoldier, nor Kusakabe, nor the boy of eighteen, Nomura, of Choshu, whoseeagerness betrayed the plot. It is exhilarating to have lived in thesame days with these great-hearted gentlemen. Only a few miles from us,to speak by the proportion of the universe, while I was droning over mylessons, Yoshida was goading himself to be wakeful with the stings ofthe mosquito; and while you were grudging a penny income-tax, Kusakabewas stepping to death with a noble sentence on his lips.

  FOOTNOTES:

  [4] Yoshida, when on his way to Nangasaki, met the soldier and talked with him by the roadside; they then parted, but the soldier was so much struck by the words he heard, that on Yoshida's return he sought him out and declared his intention of devoting his life to the good cause. I venture, in the absence of the writer, to insert this correction, having been present when the story was told by Mr. Masaki.--F. J. [Fleeming Jenkin.] And I, there being none to settle the difference, must reproduce both versions.--R. L. S.

  [5] I understood that the merchant was endeavouring surreptitiously to obtain for his son instruction to which he was not entitled.--F. J.