Books and sources

If you read one book

• Andō Yūichirō, Bakushin Oguri Tadamasa no Shinjitsu (the truth about Oguri Tadamasa, shogunal official)

  PHP Institute, 2026. The author is a historian. A biography written from the records: the family's standing since its Mikawa days, the embassy to the United States, the reform of the shogunate's government, and the beheading as a “traitor”. It is easy to get in paperback and it is the most recent, so it suits a first book. It goes as far as the judgments of Ōkuma Shigenobu, Fukuzawa Yukichi and others in later years.

  See on AmazonPHP Institute, 2026

Biographies and studies — in print now

• Kitagawa Kunio, Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa no Kashin — Hyōden Mukasa Yūzaemon to Ko no Ginsuke (a retainer of Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa: a life of Mukasa Yūzaemon and his son Ginsuke)

  Sakitama Shuppankai, July 2026. A biography written from the retainer's side, following Mukasa Ginsuke, who guarded his lord's head, and his father Yūzaemon. One of the few books to put the light not on Oguri himself but on the people who served him.

  See on AmazonSakitama Shuppankai, July 2026

• Madono Tomohiko, Oguri Kōzukenosuke no Ketsudan — Nihon no Kindai Kokka o Dezain shita Shinnen no Bakushin (the decisions of Oguri Kōzukenosuke: the shogunal official of conviction who designed the modern Japanese state)

  Sanwa Shoseki, July 2026. The author is the former commander of the Yokosuka District of the Maritime Self-Defense Force. He reads Oguri's decisions as a man who has had Yokosuka in his charge. No other book sees the shipyard from the side that uses it today.

  See on AmazonSanwa Shoseki, July 2026

In fiction

• Yoshioka Michio, Jipangu no Fune — Oguri Kōzukenosuke Kokka Hyakunen no Kei (the ships of Zipangu: Oguri Kōzukenosuke and a plan for a hundred years of the state), 2 vols.

  Kōjinsha NF Bunko, March–April 2026. A biographical novel, a long work following Oguri's plans from the side of ships and the navy.

  See on AmazonKōjinsha NF Bunko, vol. 1, March 2026

  See on AmazonKōjinsha NF Bunko, vol. 2

• Dōmon Fuyuji, Shōsetsu Oguri Kōzukenosuke — Nihon no Kindaika o Shikaketa Otoko (Oguri Kōzukenosuke, a novel: the man who set the modernization of Japan going), 2 vols.

  Shūeisha Bunko, August 2025. A biographical novel, a long work in two volumes drawn from the side that set the modernization going. Available in paperback.

  See on AmazonShūeisha Bunko, vol. 1, August 2025

  See on AmazonShūeisha Bunko, vol. 2

• Satō Masayoshi, Kakugo no Hito: Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa Den (a man resolved: the life of Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa)

  Iwanami Shoten, 2007; later Kadokawa Bunko. A biographical novel, but close in its account of the currency negotiation and the shogunate's finances, so that the outline of Oguri as a financial official comes through. Easy to get in paperback.

  See on AmazonKadokawa Bunko

Reading at the National Diet Library

• Koyama Tadashi, Oguri Mankyō Den (the life of Oguri Mankyō)

  A record Koyama Tadashi set down in 1975. It holds Oguri Mankyō, the fifteenth abbot of Tōzenji, to be the son of Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa and a concubine named Uta. The text is not published; it can be read at the National Diet Library. → On Oguri Mankyō

  See the catalogue recordNational Diet Library Search; call number Y93-R10737

• Ishihara Kaizō, ed., Bakumatsu no Eiketsu Oguri Kōzukenosuke o Shinobu — Yokosuka Kaigun Kōshō Sōsetsu no Yurai (in memory of Oguri Kōzukenosuke, a great man of the shogunate's last years: the origins of the founding of the Yokosuka naval arsenal)

  Management-sha, 1934. A pre-war booklet given to Oguri alone: the original plan and the agreement for the Yokosuka ironworks, the course of the building, Oguri's family standing and official career, and his end. The section “glimpses of Oguri” gathers the passages on him from Tokutomi Iichirō, Yamagata Yasujirō, Fukuchi Gen'ichirō, Kurimoto Joun, Ninagawa Arata and Muramatsu Shōfū, so that one book shows how he was read before the war. An appendix, “Fumon'in and Kōzukenosuke”. The record of Captain Ishihara Kaizō of the navy, which the Yokosuka articles on this site use for the dates of the work, is this author's. → The Yokosuka ironworks　Fumon'in

  Read the whole textNational Diet Library Digital Collections; 39 frames

• Fukuchi Ōchi (Gen'ichirō), Bakumatsu Seijika (statesmen of the last years of the shogunate)

  Minyūsha, 1900. It treats the shogunate's senior men one by one — Abe Ise-no-kami, Hotta Bitchū-no-kami, Ii Naosuke, Mito Nariaki — and the last chapter is “Oguri Kōzukenosuke” (p. 263). The author, who writes “I served directly under Oguri”, worked under him, and this is the standard source when Oguri's handling of finance is discussed. → Army reform as commissioner of infantry　The first convertible paper money in Japan

  Read the whole textNational Diet Library Digital Collections

• Osatake Takeki, Kokusaihō yori Mitaru Bakumatsu Gaikō Monogatari (the diplomacy of the shogunate's last years seen from international law)

  Bunka Seikatsu Kenkyūkai, 1926. A historian of law reading the diplomacy of the shogunate's last years again from the side of international law. The second appendix, “Relics of Oguri Kōzukenosuke” (p. 438), carries translations of documents bearing on the loan from France, and the frontispiece has a photograph of the French letter. The appendices also treat the truth of the Namamugi incident and the missions sent abroad. → The six-million-dollar loan that never was　The aftermath of the Namamugi incident

  Read the whole textNational Diet Library Digital Collections

• Dōhōkai Hōkoku (the Dōhōkai bulletin), Dōhōkai

  The bulletin a society of former shogunal retainers published in the Meiji era. It carries the testimony of people who knew Oguri at first hand, the words about “the urisue with a storehouse attached” among them. The Teikoku Toshokan Zasshi Shinbun Mokuroku (the Imperial Library's catalogue of magazines and newspapers) records the holding as no. 1 (sixth month, 1896) to no. 15 (sixth month, 1900), thereafter retitled Dōhōkai-shi. No digitized text is published; it can be read at the National Diet Library. → Where “the urisue with a storehouse attached” comes from

Looking in libraries and secondhand shops

• Sakamoto Fujiyoshi, Oguri Kōzukenosuke no Shōgai (the life of Oguri Kōzukenosuke)

  Kōdansha, 1987. A pioneering book, reading Oguri from the side of business history. The same author wrote Bakumatsu Ishin no Keizaijin (men of business at the end of the shogunate and the Restoration), Chūkō Shinsho.

• Ōtsubo Motoji, Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa Kakei oyobi Ryaku-nenpu (the genealogy and short chronology of Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa)

  Oguri Kō Kenshōkai, 1957. A compilation of the genealogy and a short chronology of the Oguri house. Parts of the chronology and the family tree on this site draw on it.

• Abe Dōzan, Kaigun no Senkusha Oguri Kōzukenosuke Seiden (a true life of Oguri Kōzukenosuke, pioneer of the navy)

  Kaigun Yūshūkai, 1941. An early biography following Oguri's work from the navy's side. It is strongly coloured by its time, in the imperial view of history and in praise of the navy, so its judgments of other people have to be discounted; but its account of the facts holds information found in no other book. It is in the National Diet Library Digital Collections, but not among the material published on the internet. To read it, a reader must register for the transmission service of digitized material for individuals, or use it at a library taking part in the library transmission service.

Reading the primary sources yourself