Anyone setting out to read about Oguri Kōzukenosuke runs into the same difficulty: the material is scattered across temples, municipal offices, libraries and digital archives, and it is hard to tell where to begin. This site is an index that gathers in one place the facts that can be checked and the whereabouts of the sources.
It tries to serve two readers at once: someone who came to the question through the NHK drama and wants a first answer to who Oguri was, and someone who wants to go further and can read straight on. Counting the chronology, his works, the people around him and the shorter pieces, there are more than a hundred and thirty articles.
How things are written here
Historical writing tends to mix what has been established with what has not. This site keeps three kinds of statement apart.
Verified Matters supported by a primary source or by reliable scholarship. A citation is given.
Tradition Stories handed down locally or in a family. Written as “is said to” or “a story survives that”, and kept apart from fact.
Conjecture The editor’s own reading. Written as “it may be that”, with the grounds given, and never stated as settled.
Where something is not known, this site says that it is not known. It does not exist to overturn the accepted account, or to accuse anyone. Its one purpose is to check.
What is left out
The following are not published here, by decision.
The names of living people, and information by which an individual could be identified.
Photographs of other families’ graves and gravestone inscriptions.
Images of records not suitable for publication, such as family registers and transcripts of removed registers.
Correspondence with the people concerned, and the private circumstances of those involved.
Relation to the memorial work
The memorial work itself has been carried on for many years by Tōzenji, the temple that holds the family graves, by the Oguri Kōzukenosuke memorial society, and by the cities of Takasaki and Yokosuka. This site does not stand in for them; it is meant as a guide that brings the reader to them. It is a private site, with no connection to any public body, memorial organization or temple.
Sources, and corrections
The principal sources are listed under books and sources. Citations are given on the individual pages wherever possible.
If you find an error in what is written here or a broken link, or if you know of a record, a photograph or something handed down, please write by way of the contact page. Nothing you send is published without your permission.