The schooling the Meiji government set up left Oguri's work out of the textbooks. A shipyard built by the shogunate does not fit a story in which the modernization of Japan begins after 1868.
The name did not disappear for all that. Those who owed him something repaid it, each in his own way: a former servant who became chief manager of Mitsui, the admiral who won at Tsushima, a prime minister. And at Gonda the villagers never let the memorial services lapse.
The course of his rehabilitation is followed here in order of date.
Commemoration in later years — the course of his rehabilitation
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From 1877
(Meiji 10)Minomura Rizaemon repays a debt
Minomura Rizaemon, chief manager of Mitsui, had served in his youth as a hand at the Oguri house; Oguri saw a head for business in him, and he was taken into Mitsui. He kept the words Oguri left with him before leaving Edo — that if ever the women and children of the house came to hardship, he asked that they be looked after — and the Minomura family went on helping the family for many years.
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1912
(Meiji 45)Tōgō Heihachirō's thanks
In the summer Tōgō Heihachirō invited the family to his own house and thanked them, saying that the complete victory at Tsushima had been possible because Oguri had built the Yokosuka shipyard beforehand. He later wrote out a scroll to mark it and sent it to the family.
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1915
(Taishō 4)The first official commemoration
At the celebration for fifty years since the founding of the Yokosuka naval arsenal, the prime minister, Ōkuma Shigenobu, sent a representative to say in his address that the yard had been begun by Oguri in the last years of the shogunate. Until then the Yokosuka shipyard had been taken for something the Meiji government built. From this a movement to raise busts began, and in September 1922 the busts of Oguri and Verny, the work of the sculptor Asakura Fumio, were unveiled.
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1932
(Shōwa 7)A memorial stone at the riverbed at Mizunuma
On the fifth of May a memorial stone was raised at the place of the execution. Its text, “A great man, Oguri Kōzukenosuke, cut down in this place without crime”, was composed and written by Ninagawa Arata, the scholar of international law who was a nephew of Oguri's wife Michiko. When the stone was registered the police held it up, saying the wording was not temperate; Ninagawa pressed the matter, the objection was dropped, and the stone went up.
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1952
(Shōwa 27)A fresh start after the war
In May, a memorial service at Tōzenji. At Yokosuka the first post-war port festival was held, and the busts of Oguri and Verny, put up in 1922 and given up for metal during the war, were cast again in bronze. In September of the same year the Oguri Kōzukenosuke diaries and the household account books were found.
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1954
(Shōwa 29)A bust at Tōzenji, and memorial rites for “the villages across the river”
On the sixth of May a bust of Oguri, presented to Gonda by the city of Yokosuka, was set up in the grounds of Tōzenji. From this year, memorial rites were held at the same time for the people of the villages across the river who died during the attack.
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1956
(Shōwa 31)Unveiling the bust of Kurimoto Joun and the stone “benevolence and duty together”, and the reorganizing of the memorial society
On the thirteenth of May the bust of his friend Kurimoto Joun and the stone “benevolence and duty together”, the stone for the peasant militia, were unveiled. After the ceremony the memorial society was reorganized as a body run by the village. Its predecessor was the association for the preservation of the Oguri sites.
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1957
(Shōwa 32)The first Oguri Festival
On the fifteenth of May the village held the first Oguri Festival, the service for the ninetieth anniversary of his death. It has been kept up in the middle of May every year since.
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1968
(Shōwa 43)The centenary commemoration
On the second of May a memorial stone was unveiled at the site of the house on Kannonyama. The title on it, “Shisei Taikō”, was written by Ii Naoyoshi, a great-grandson of Ii the senior minister. In the same year a store for his effects was built in the grounds of Tōzenji.
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1976
(Shōwa 51)The memorial society's journal Tatsunami begins
The first number came out to coincide with the Oguri Festival on the fifteenth of May. It has appeared once a year ever since. Local records, testimony and reports of investigation that reach no book have accumulated in this journal. → Books and sources
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1981
(Shōwa 56)Yokosuka and the village of Kurabuchi become friendship cities
The agreement was signed on the fourteenth of December. Through Oguri, the town of the shipyard and the place of his death were joined.
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Today
The Oguri Festival, and the Verny and Oguri Festival
At Gonda the Oguri Kōzukenosuke memorial society continues to hold the Oguri Festival, the service at the grave. The city of Yokosuka, for its part, holds the Verny and Oguri Festival in the middle of November each year, for the men it counts as its benefactors. See the places.
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2027
(Reiwa 9)The NHK taiga drama “Gyakuzoku no Bakushin” (planned)
A taiga drama with Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa as its central figure is planned for broadcast. Matsuzaka Tōri plays the part.
Principal sources: Oguri Tadamasa, Oguri Nikki (the Oguri diaries), Gunma Prefecture Historical Materials vol. 7; Dōhōkai Hōkoku, the Dōhōkai bulletin; Ninagawa Arata, Ishin Zengo no Seisō to Oguri Kōzuke no Shi (the political struggle around the Restoration and the death of Oguri Kōzuke), 1928; and the works listed under books and sources. The entries under “commemoration in later years” follow the issues of Tatsunami, the journal of the Oguri Kōzukenosuke memorial society. For more, see books and sources. Please point out any errors you notice.
The entries from 1952 on follow the issues of Tatsunami, the journal of the Oguri Kōzukenosuke memorial society. Corrections are welcome.
In more detail
From the silent years of the early Meiji era, when he was treated as a rebel, through the official commemorations of the 1910s to the 1930s, to the international ceremony held after the war: the course of his rehabilitation is set out event by event in the articles below.
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The silent years of the early Meiji era
After the Restoration, Oguri Kōzukenosuke's name was gone from public view for a long time. The half-century before his rehabilitation began.
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The rehabilitation of 1915, fifty years since the opening of Yokosuka
The official document published in 1915 over the name of the head of the arsenal, Vice-Admiral Kuroi Teijirō. Why it counts as one of the few official documents of commemoration.
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Ninagawa Arata, and the inscription “benevolence and duty together”
Ninagawa Arata, the scholar of international law who was a nephew of Oguri's wife Michiko, and the story of the title on the “benevolence and duty together” stone at Tōzenji.
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The commemoration movement of the 1930s — the stone for the summoning of his spirit, and the bust
The stone for the summoning of his spirit raised at Fumon'in in Ōmiya, the title inscribed by Tokugawa Iesato, and the anchor and torpedo granted by the navy ministry.
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A story of which only fragments remain: the Empress is said to have asked about the statue of Oguri.
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The day a prime minister came to pay his respects
In 1935 the prime minister, Okada Keisuke, visited Fumon'in and gave an address entitled “The benefactor of our navy”.
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The first international ceremony after the war: the unveiling of the bust after the peace treaty
In 1952 American and French representatives attended the unveiling of the bust at Shiomi Park, the first ceremony conducted with international forms after the war.