Besides the work that can be established as history, there are stories about Oguri Kōzukenosuke that have been passed on like urban legends, and things that came to light only later. The tradition that the shogunate's gold was buried in the mountains, how the diaries were kept quietly for many years, what became of the man who found them, and the memorial projects of the present day: this chapter gathers the subjects that lie on the border between history and tradition.
They make good stories, but where a thing is legend, let it be said in advance that it has no support as history.
Articles in this chapter
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Following the legend of treasure buried on Mount Akagi
What the well-known legend says — that the shogunate's gold was buried on Mount Akagi — and where it stands.
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The eighty years the diaries lay unread
Why the diaries and the household accounts went some eighty years without being known.
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A memorial museum at Takasaki, toward opening
A short account of the memorial museum being prepared at Takasaki, the city connected with Oguri Kōzukenosuke.
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Honda Natsuhiko, who found them: what followed
Honda Natsuhiko's work in finding the diaries and the accounts and setting them in type, and how scholars judged it afterwards.