The commemoration movement of the 1930s — the stone for the summoning of his spirit, and the bust

In the early Shōwa years the commemoration of Oguri went forward not only at Gonda and Yokosuka but in another place connected with the house of Oguri: Fumon'in on Ōnariyama at Ōmiya in Saitama, now part of Saitama city. It is the burial temple of Tadamasa, the founder of the house, and the temple where Oguri Kōzukenosuke's head is said to have been buried — a claim against which there is strong argument (→ A loyal young man, and the story of how he guarded his lord's head). Abe Dōzan, the abbot there, began to speak of Oguri in 1927.

The occasion was a single piece of post. Abe Dōzan took rubbings of all the graves from Tadamasa down to Kōzukenosuke and sent them to Ninagawa Arata, asking for his judgement. Until then Ninagawa had not known that Kōzukenosuke's burial temple was Fumon'in. A reply came in time saying that “from Lord Tadamasa down to Kōzukenosuke there is not a point of doubt: these are the graves of the house of Oguri”, and from there the two men's co-operation began.

Ninagawa's Ishin Zengo no Seisō to Oguri Kōzukenosuke no Shi was published in September 1928 and went through sixteen printings. The book says nothing of Fumon'in, however, having been published before the temple's part was confirmed. That gap came to be filled later in the form of a stone.

On 25 November 1934 the stone for the summoning of the spirit of Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa was unveiled in the grounds of Fumon'in. Through the offices of Admiral Kuroi Teijirō, the eight characters on its face were in the hand of Prince Tokugawa Iesato. On the back was cut a text of praise composed and written by Ninagawa Arata himself. Fumon'in, which his book had not mentioned, was here cut into stone as the place where Oguri Kōzukenosuke's head was buried. The fact of the burial itself became a matter of examination afterwards.

The day was cloudy. The grounds were filled with men of consequence from the navy. The prime minister, the navy minister, the education minister and the foreign minister each sent a representative and offered congratulatory words. Prime Minister Okada's message had this in it.

“In this sense it would truly be no exaggeration to call Oguri Kōzukenosuke the father of our country's navy”

The navy's message was to the same effect: “What I as a naval officer am especially grateful for is that he built the Yokosuka shipyard, the origin of today's Yokosuka arsenal. In this respect it is no exaggeration to call him the father of the building of our navy.” This unveiling began a correspondence with the house of Oguri that had been broken off until then, and Oguri Sadao, the thirteenth head, also began to visit Fumon'in.

The year after the unveiling, Abe Dōzan, consulting nobody, submitted a document to the navy ministry, dated 21 October 1935. It set out the course of the raising of the stone and the order of the unveiling, and asked that some commemorative object be granted.

As a result the navy ministry officially granted, for the front of the stone, the anchor and the floating mine used on the warship Sakaki. Inside the temple gate there was already a gun presented by the Yokosuka naval arsenal, and now an anchor and a mine given by the navy stood before the stone — a scene fit for the burial place of the man who built the shipyard. Beside the stone stand a laurel planted by Prime Minister Okada's own hand, another laurel planted by Minister Tokonami's hand on the opposite side, and a ginkgo planted by Vice-Admiral Furuichi Tatsuo when he was head of the arsenal.

At Fumon'in there had always been a Kannon assembly in the middle of the third month, at which the Kannon image, the temple's principal object of worship, was shown. Abe Dōzan stopped it once after taking over, and began instead the “Oguri festival”. He called it a festival and not a memorial service because its purpose was to recall Oguri's work with longing, which is different in character from a service of mourning.

The festival was held every year on 8 May. It was established that the head of the Yokosuka naval arsenal, in person or by representative, should always attend. A supporting association ran it, with the prefectural governor as chairman, Paymaster Captain Fukuda Kurafumi as vice-chairman and Abe Dōzan as chief secretary. In the first year only forty-nine members came together; ten years later the number had grown to six hundred and fifty-two.

At the festival of 1941, the year of the seventy-first anniversary of Oguri's death, the newly appointed head of the Yokosuka naval arsenal came to pay his respects, bringing Captain Shimomura Hiroshi and Commander Kuranaga Tsuneki with him. Before the small natural stone of the grave behind the main hall he said: “By him was founded the Yokosuka shipyard, the first-class arsenal of today's navy. Having been appointed head of that arsenal, I have come before the grave to report my appointment.”

There is a little-known scene behind the raising of Oguri's bust at Yokosuka. At the fiftieth anniversary festival of the opening of Yokosuka, in 1922, scholars who owed the French engineer Verny a debt in engineering began a movement to raise a bust of him. It was Dr Sakurai Jōji who brought the matter to the head of the arsenal, Vice-Admiral Kuroi Teijirō.

Kuroi pointed out that the premise was mistaken. The arsenal as it stands was certainly not opened by Verny. It was done by Oguri Kōzukenosuke's decision; Oguri merely engaged Verny, who was then at Shanghai, through the French minister Roches. If a statue of Verny was to be raised, the proper order would be to raise a statue of Kōzukenosuke first and his afterwards. And so Oguri's bust came to be raised first. In Suwayama park, Oguri's bust stands at the top, with Verny's bronze statue set a step below it, looking out over the naval port.

A gift of money was granted by the empress of the day towards the fund for this statue. That Oguri's photograph was shown at court was something Oguri Sadao, the thirteenth head, spoke of as the honour of his life.

The commemoration continued after the war. In 1952 a new bust of Oguri was raised in a park in the city of Yokosuka, and the governor of Kanagawa, the mayor of Yokosuka and the president of the chamber of commerce held an unveiling attended by the French ambassador, the commander of the American base and other notables from Japan and abroad. At Tōzenji in Gonda the temple grounds were designated a historic site of Gunma prefecture in 1952, and in the spring of the following year an unveiling of a bust was held with ceremony on the anniversary of his death. It was the bust by Asakura Fumio, made with the empress's own funds and presented from far-off Yokosuka, and it still stands in the front garden, facing the statue of his sworn friend Kurimoto Joun, unveiled the year after.

Sources: Abe Dōzan, Kaigun no Senkusha Oguri Kōzukenosuke Seiden (a true life of Oguri Kōzukenosuke, pioneer of the navy), Kaigun Yūshūkai, 1941; Ōtsubo Motoji, Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa Kakei oyobi Ryaku-nenpu (the genealogy and short chronology of Oguri Kōzukenosuke Tadamasa), Oguri Kō Kenshōkai, 1957; Oguri Nikki (the Oguri diaries), Gunma Prefecture Historical Materials vol. 7

→ The day a prime minister came to pay his respects　→ Ninagawa Arata's writings　→ The bust in Suwa park　→ The grant from the empress