Eiji Asabuki

2016/06/03

In the autumn of Meiji 3 (1870), Yukichi Fukuzawa headed to Nakatsu accompanied by his nephew Hikojiro Nakamigawa and others to bring his mother, Jun, who was in Nakatsu, to Tokyo. On the way, in Osaka, he stayed for a few days at the home of his cousin, Senzan Fujimoto, while waiting for a ship. At that time, Eiji Asabuki was working diligently as Fujimoto's servant, handling all the cooking and errands.

In the upper reaches of the Yamakuni River, which flows through the castle town of Nakatsu where Fukuzawa grew up, there is a scenic valley called Yabakei. Asabuki was born in Kaei 2 (1849) in Miyazono Village near Yabakei. Having studied under a local Sinologist during his youth and fully adopting the "Sonno Joi" (revere the emperor, expel the barbarians) ideology, Asabuki had come to Osaka as Fujimoto's servant the year before Fukuzawa's stay.

Upon arriving in Osaka, Fukuzawa wanted to eat beef, so Asabuki ended up cooking beef bought from the only butcher shop in Osaka. At that time, eating beef was still unthinkable for many Japanese people. While Asabuki was resentfully flipping the cutting board over to cut the meat, feeling that even then his hands had been defiled, Fukuzawa, unaware of this, offered some beef to Asabuki. When Fujimoto intervened, saying that he disliked beef, Fukuzawa further suggested eggs instead. Having no choice but to try the eggs, Asabuki found them far from delicious. Once a bad impression is formed, every move the other person makes becomes irritating. Asabuki's antipathy toward Fukuzawa only continued to grow.

Around that time, a man named Sotaro Masuda, a friend of Asabuki's from his Nakatsu days and a second cousin of Fukuzawa, arrived in Osaka. Masuda held extreme anti-foreign views and hated scholars of Western learning. Upon hearing about Fukuzawa's activities from Asabuki, he became incensed and entrusted Asabuki with the task of assassinating Fukuzawa. Unaware of any of this, Fukuzawa was walking all over Osaka with a bookstore clerk to collect pirated editions of Things Western (Seiyō Jijō) to report them to the government for a crackdown. Meanwhile, Asabuki, who had been ordered by Fujimoto to act as a guard, was watching for an opportunity to assassinate Fukuzawa.

Then came the day Fukuzawa visited the home of Ogata Koan's widow. As Fukuzawa and the widow reminisced, the night grew late. By the time Fukuzawa left the Ogata residence around 10 or 11 p.m., the surroundings were pitch black and deathly silent. Just as Asabuki put his hand on his sword and was about to pounce, a thunderous "do-do-do-do-do" sound rang out. It was the sound of drums from a nearby yose (storytelling theater). The tension that had gripped Asabuki's entire body suddenly dissipated, and as he stood there deflated, a large crowd of customers poured out of the theater. Thus, the assassination plot ended in failure without Fukuzawa ever knowing.

Years later, Fukuzawa learned of this incident through Asabuki's confession, but he did not record it in The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa (Fukuō Jiden). Fukuzawa spoke of the terror of assassination, saying, "Of all the things in the world that are unpleasant, disagreeable, creepy, and terrifying, assassination is number one. I believe no one can understand this feeling except those who have been targeted" (The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa). As an example of being a target, he only mentioned an incident that occurred after this one, where he was targeted by Masuda in Nakatsu and narrowly escaped with his life. Asabuki's attempted assassination only came to light in Meiji 41 (1908), after Fukuzawa's death, when Asabuki himself spoke about it at a Keio University alumni meeting in Osaka.

Even Asabuki, a proponent of anti-foreign ideology who had once targeted Fukuzawa's life, underwent a sudden conversion to the school of Western learning after Fukuzawa spent three days and nights explaining the necessity of opening the country and pursuing progress. Asabuki cut off his topknot, sold the sword he had received from his father to raise travel funds, and followed Fukuzawa to Tokyo when the latter returned from Nakatsu with his mother and others.

After entering the Juku at Keio University, Asabuki lived in Fukuzawa's house and served as a doorkeeper. Being a doorkeeper meant more than just announcing guests; he also handled cleaning, family chores, errands, and even babysat Fukuzawa's daughters, Sato and Fusa, by taking them out in a stroller Fukuzawa had brought back as a souvenir from America. In later years, Fukuzawa praised his work, saying, "I have had many dependents over the years, but most of them ended up being a waste of food. Only Asabuki and Takuzo Ushiba (later a member of the House of Representatives and manager of Sanyo Railway) truly paid back their debt."

Fukuzawa, who saw great potential in Asabuki, recommended that his niece Sumi (the younger sister of Nakamigawa) marry him. At the time, 16-year-old Sumi, who was attending a girls' school in Ochanomizu while living at the Fukuzawa residence, said she would follow her uncle's advice on anything else, but she flatly refused to marry Mr. Asabuki. Asabuki had contracted smallpox at the age of nine, and although he fortunately survived, the pustules had left his face heavily scarred with pockmarks. Fukuzawa persuaded her, saying that Asabuki had a bright future and that with a face like that, he would never be popular with women, ensuring a peaceful home life. Sumi finally agreed to Fukuzawa's recommendation, and the two were married with Fukuzawa acting as the matchmaker. As it turned out, while Fukuzawa's assessment was correct regarding the former, he was way off on the latter. Asabuki proved to be very popular with both men and women.

Asabuki demonstrated his abilities in any field—not only in the businesses he was involved in, such as spinning, machinery, and architecture, but also in his hobbies like tea ceremony and antique collecting—as if he had been engaged in them for many years. Nakamigawa described the way Asabuki had countless "drawers" in his mind, from which materials for any given path would flow endlessly once opened, saying, "Asabuki's brain is like an old-fashioned medicine chest." Everyone acknowledged Asabuki's quick wit. At the same time, his flaws of being impatient and scatterbrained were also on full display, which became the human touch that made him so beloved by many.

Ikeda Seihin, Nakamigawa's son-in-law who led the Mitsui Zaibatsu in the early Showa era, recalled Asabuki as "a man of deep affection and sincerity in personal relationships. He was also a man of great experience, not someone who grew up slowly like us. He was truly a man of character" (Kojin Konjin), while also sharing anecdotes that convey Asabuki's personality. One day, Asabuki shouted at his secretary, claiming his glasses were missing. Even after the secretary searched high and low and couldn't find them, they returned to find the glasses were actually in their master's hand. When the secretary pointed this out, Asabuki reportedly said, "Why didn't you say so sooner?" The fact that the person being scolded didn't take it to heart and it became a funny story was a testament to Asabuki's charm. On another day, when visiting an acquaintance's house, Asabuki was shown into the drawing room. Since it was hot and they were close friends, he stripped naked while waiting, only for a stranger to appear to greet him. Realizing he had the wrong house, Asabuki rushed out in a panic.

Fukuzawa would consult Nakamigawa whenever something happened. Nakamigawa was a man of clear intellect and quick decision-making, but he would bluntly say "no" if something was impossible, regardless of whether his interlocutor was Fukuzawa. In that regard, Asabuki would read the other person's mood and guide the conversation skillfully. Fukuzawa valued Asabuki as someone he could consult without reservation. While Asabuki's main stage was in the business world of Mitsui and Mitsubishi, he was always present at important moments for Fukuzawa, such as the founding of Kojunsha and the construction of Meiji Kaido.

When Fukuzawa, Iwasaki Yataro of Mitsubishi, and Okuma Shigenobu (then Minister of Finance) agreed that a company was needed to promote trade with foreign countries by Japanese hands, and a company called Boeki Shokai was established in Yokohama, it was Asabuki who was chosen as its manager.

After moving from his position as a manager at Mitsubishi, Asabuki took on the challenge of fighting foreign merchants in the raw silk trade to protect the country's rights and independence. Just then, in the Political Crisis of 1881, his mentor Okuma lost power, and Boeki Shokai, whose bank support was cut off by rival Satsuma and Choshu officials, was forced to close. Asabuki took on the large remaining debt alone and spent several years as a ronin.

Even when he was called the "unprecedented king of debt" and lacked even the money for a carriage, Asabuki remained energetically active. It was during this period that he helped two Keio University juniors, Inukai Tsuyoshi and Ozaki Yukio—who were later called the "God of Constitutional Government"—when they were in financial trouble. When Inukai wished to observe conditions overseas, Asabuki managed to raise the money from somewhere. However, because Ozaki was ordered to leave Tokyo under the newly issued Peace Preservation Ordinance, this large sum was suddenly diverted to Ozaki's travel expenses to the West. Inukai, who had his funds "stolen by Ozaki," never had the opportunity to travel to Europe or America for the rest of his life.

When Nakamigawa joined Mitsui Bank and began major reforms toward the modernization of Mitsui as its head, the subsidiary Kanegafuchi Spinning Company (Kanebo) was struggling and needed someone to drive its recovery. Upon recommendation, Nakamigawa appointed Asabuki as the Managing Director in charge of Kanebo. Asabuki studied spinning enthusiastically, toured the factories frequently, and put Kanebo's management on track by improving the treatment of employees. Furthermore, when the Mitsui Industrial Department was established to manage the group of factories that had come under Mitsui's umbrella through foreclosures and other means, Asabuki was appointed its Executive Director. At that time, the top four executives of Mitsui were Nakamigawa of Mitsui Bank, Masuda Takashi of Mitsui & Co., Dan Takuma of the mines, and Asabuki of the Industrial Department. Among them, Nakamigawa and Masuda were both powerful figures who had pushed Mitsui to the top of the zaibatsu, and it was not uncommon for a tense atmosphere to exist between them due to their differing positions. And "it was Asabuki Eiji who was the primary contributor" who "stood between the two giants, Nakamigawa and Masuda, and successfully served as a buffer and mediator," preventing the breakup of Mitsui (Biography of Nakamigawa Hikojiro).

After his mentor Fukuzawa passed away, followed shortly by Nakamigawa, Asabuki became a guardian to the young talent from Keio University whom Nakamigawa had hired for the Mitsui reforms, and he nurtured them. From among them emerged representative Japanese business leaders such as Muto Sanji (President of Kanebo), Wada Toyoji (President of Fuji Spinning), and Fujiwara Ginjiro (President of Oji Paper).

In a collection of reminiscences about Asabuki, Muto Sanji praised him, saying, "There are many things we should learn from his (Asabuki's) biography, but the most important thing we must learn is the warm compassion that resided deep in his heart, which led him to spare no effort or expense for the sake of others."