Many people had a part in the life of Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa: the French engineer who carried the building of the Yokosuka ironworks forward with him, colleagues in the shogunate's service who took a different line, companions on the embassy to the United States, and those who were present at the end. What this chapter takes up is the people who had dealings with Oguri, with each one's life and character.
The events themselves are followed in detail in the chapters on his works and in the chronology. This chapter keeps to the people.
Articles in this chapter
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Kurimoto Joun — from Ezo to the shogunate's councils, a lifelong friend
Born into a family of physicians to the shogun's household, he worked in Ezo before turning to government. He supported the building of the Yokosuka ironworks, and after the Restoration lived by his pen.
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Katsu Kaishū — a fellow of the sword, and his greatest political opponent
A shogunal official of the same years, taught in the same school of the sword, who often took a different road in politics. Opinion on him is divided still.
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Léonce Verny — the engineer who gave his working life to Yokosuka
Invited as an engineer of the French navy, he directed the building of the Yokosuka ironworks as its chief engineer.
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Kimura Settsu-no-kami Yoshitake — the commander who spent his own money
The shogunal official who crossed the Pacific as commander of the Kanrin Maru and is said to have put his own money into the voyage.
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Oguri Mankyō — the priest said to be a concubine's son
The fifteenth abbot of Tōzenji, named Kikunosuke as a child. He took over the temple where Oguri was beheaded and buried, ten years after. The family tradition holds him to be the son of Oguri Kōzukenosuke and a concubine named Uta.
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Fukuzawa Yukichi and Enomoto Takeaki — a story of a debt
Fukuzawa Yukichi, who sailed in the Kanrin Maru, is said to have had a hand after the Restoration in saving the life of Enomoto Takeaki, a former shogunal official.
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Hara Yasutarō — what became of the man who ordered the beheading
The road taken in later years by the new government's inspecting officer, who is said to have had a part in Oguri's execution.
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Mukasa Ginsuke — the young man said to have guarded his lord's head
A steward's son of the Oguri house, of whom a story of loyalty is handed down: he carried his lord's head in secret to the family temple. The sources differ on his age.
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Suwa Ehaku — the abbot who held the key and begged for a boy's life
The fourteenth abbot of Tōzenji, where Oguri passed his last two months. He was tortured because he held the key to the strongbox, and begged for the life of Ginsuke, who was about to be cut down.
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Honda Sanzaemon — the man who went to fetch his lord's head
A sake brewer of the village of Gonda and head of his group. He got Oguri's family away to Aizu, watched the execution through in a farmer's disguise, and went as far as Tatebayashi to fetch the head.
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Ikeda Kayo — the girl who saw that spring at Gonda
A daughter of Ikeda Tamikichi, an infantryman of the Oguri house. She went to help at Tōzenji at seventeen, and spoke of those days at ninety-one.
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Ikeda Denzaburō — the man who led them to Aizu and fought at Goryōkaku
Kayo's betrothed. He crossed the Karasu River to charge the gamblers when they came, led Oguri's mother and adopted daughter to Aizu over the Manki pass, and later became a policeman in Kyoto.
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Ōkuma Shigenobu — the man entrusted with the daughter left behind
He is said to have taken in Oguri's daughter Kuniko, born at Aizu, in later years, and to have worked to keep the house of Oguri going.
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Tokutomi Sohō and Okada Keisuke — those who came to pay their respects in the 1930s
The writer and the prime minister of the day whose visits to Oguri's family temple in those years are on record.
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Tateishi Onojirō, “Tommy” — the attendant who set all America talking
He went with the embassy to the United States as an attendant, and is said to have become a favourite all over America for his youth and good humour.