Oguri Kōzukenosuke's work falls inside no more than eight years, counting from the embassy to the United States. In that time the shogunate fell and he himself was beheaded. What was left behind became part of the frame of Japan after 1868.
What did he do? Two of his principal works are set out here, each as a group of articles. What he saw in America, and what he planned at the village of Gonda in his last months, are dealt with in order of date under the chronology, “His rise as a shogunal official, and the embassy to the United States”, and the chronology, “1868”.
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The Yokosuka ironworks — the beginning of modern industry in Japan
A general works to make not ships alone but any kind of industrial product. It was designed from the start to run on steam, it had a school attached to train engineers, and it brought fixed working hours, Sunday as a day of rest, monthly wages and double-entry bookkeeping into the country. The dock of the 1860s is still in service.
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The Hyōgo Shōsha and the Tsukiji Hotel — the beginning of the joint-stock company
The first joint-stock company in Japan, and the first Western hotel built in earnest by Japanese. Both came out of one judgment: that scattered small capital could not get clear of the foreign houses' control by advances. The proposal went as far as using the profits to build gas lighting, a post, a telegraph and a railway.
In short
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Technology The Yokosuka ironworks, later the shipyard; the Yokohama ironworks; the cannon works at Takinogawa; the opening of the Nakaosaka iron mine. And the French language school at Yokohama — language teaching so that the technology could be taken in.
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Economy The Hyōgo Shōsha, the first joint-stock company in Japan, and the Tsukiji Hotel, built on the same joint-stock lines. Plans for a post, a telegraph, gas lighting and a railway. He recommended Minomura Rizaemon to Mitsui, and spoke of a central bank as well.
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Military organization A Western-style army on the three-arm establishment of infantry, cavalry and artillery, trained by French instructors. Katsura Kogorō, later Kido Takayoshi, set down his surprise: “the ordinances of the Kantō are made new, and in the ordering of troops and horse there is much worth seeing.”
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How people worked Fixed working hours, Sunday as a day of rest, monthly wages, pay by length of service, pay by skill, double-entry bookkeeping. These took root at Yokosuka, passed to the Tomioka silk mill, and became the pattern for the working life of the company employee today.
Principal sources: Oguri Nikki (the Oguri diaries), Gunma Prefecture Historical Materials vol. 7; Dōhōkai Hōkoku, the Dōhōkai bulletin; Tsukakoshi Yoshitarō, Dokushi Yoroku (further notes from reading history); Hirano Yajūrō Bakumatsu Ishin Nikki (the diary of Hirano Yajūrō through the last years of the shogunate and the Restoration); and the works listed under books and sources. → Books and sources