Yae Ogata

2017/04/04

Image: Portrait of Yae Ogata (Painted by Yoshimatsu Goseda: Collection of the Tekijuku Commemoration Center, Osaka University)

Yae Ogata (1822–1886) is well known as the wife of Koan Ogata. Tekijuku, which produced many talented individuals including Yukichi Fukuzawa, is said to have been a place where more than 1,000 Keio students studied. It was none other than Yae who supported Tekijuku behind the scenes.

Yae was born on January 1, 1822, in Najio, Settsu Province (present-day Najio, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture) as the eldest daughter of her father, Hyakki Okukawa, and her mother, Shiu. Najio was a production center for papermaking, and the Okukawa family is said to have originally been papermakers. Najio washi paper, made using a unique technique of mixing mud into ganpi fibers, was resistant to discoloration, fire, and insect damage, and thus became widely used throughout the country as paper for clan notes during the Edo period. At that time, it was known as "Najio Senken" and flourished as a "papermaking village." However, Hyakki had long aspired to become a doctor. Taking the opportunity of going to Osaka, he entered Shishisai Juku, the private school of the Rangaku (Western medicine) physician Tenyu Naka. After studying hard, he opened a medical practice in his hometown of Najio, fulfilling his long-held dream, and also engaged in the manufacture and sale of medicine.

From a young age, Yae was said to have a gentle and sharp personality and was also skilled at waka poetry. Hyakki doted on Yae so much that she was the apple of his eye.

Even after becoming a doctor, Hyakki frequently visited Tenyu's Juku to receive guidance. The young man who entered Tenyu's Juku at that time was Koan Ogata. Later, having heard words of praise for Koan from Tenyu, Hyakki saw Koan and thought, "He is truly my son-in-law" (from the epitaph written by Tsunetami Sano at the grave of Koan Ogata's wife at Kobun-ji Temple). Koan, who became engaged to Yae, studied in Nagasaki for about two years with Hyakki's support before returning to his hometown. In 1838, he moved to Kawaramachi, Osaka, and opened a medical practice. That same year, Koan and Yae held their wedding ceremony. Koan was 29 years old, and Yae was 17.

Koan did not just open a clinic in Kawaramachi; he also had many Keio students who were studying Rangaku live with him, taking care of their food and lodging. This was the origin of "Tekijuku." In other words, from the beginning of her marriage, Yae also took on the role of a dormitory mother for the students. Meanwhile, Yae was blessed with 13 children with Koan. Although four of them died at a young age, she also fulfilled her role as a mother to them.

When Koan first opened his practice in Kawaramachi, he had no reputation yet, and life was difficult. Yae recalled in her later years that when Koan was bedridden for a long time, she sold her own obi (sash) to buy a bathtub and surrounded it with wooden doors so Koan could bathe. However, the daily life of Koan and Yae remained simple but warm even after Koan gained fame. It is said that they did not buy new clothes for nearly ten years, and although their meals consisted of only one soup and one side dish, Yae took great care and used her ingenuity to ensure the children were satisfied.

Yae's kindness toward her husband, Koan, extended to his parents as well. Every year at the end of the year, she sent winter greetings such as herring roe, dried cod, kelp, and money for New Year's rice cakes. She also sent gifts to celebrate Koan's father's recovery from illness, as well as gifts and clothing selections for Koan's nieces. Of course, her detailed kindness toward her own parents in Najio was the same. Above all, the fact that Koan's family and Yae's family got along well was a blessing for both Yae and Koan.

Setsuzo Okukawa (to whom Yae was a great-aunt) later said that she was a mother who constantly held Koan up as a model for their children, encouraging them by telling stories of his hard work as a student.

However, there were times when she was troubled. For example, Koan, who believed that one must master Chinese classics as a foundation for studying the Dutch language, had his son Heizo study Chinese classics from the age of seven. When Heizo turned 12, Koan admonished him to master Chinese classics until he turned 20 and sent him, along with 11-year-old Shiro, to study under his disciple Uzaburo Watanabe.

However, after more than two years of studying at Uzaburo's Juku, Heizo and Shiro heard that the Ono Domain in Echizen had opened the Ono Yogakukan by inviting Shinzo Ito, a Rangaku scholar who had served as the head of Tekijuku. The two left without permission and took refuge at Shinzo Ito's Juku. Upon learning of this, Koan disowned the two of them. Yae's father, Hyakki, who had heard about this secretly from Yae, even went to Ono to see how they were doing.

How must Yae have felt about Koan's actions toward their children, who were about the age of upper elementary school students today? Yae sent her children to study far away from home at the age of about ten and later sent them to study in Nagasaki. While she was sometimes troubled, she hoped that her children would achieve great things in the future. In doing so, as she looked at the Keio students at Tekijuku, she might have been seeing the parents who stood behind each of them.

In December 1845, Tekijuku moved to its current location in Kasho-machi.

The Juku was a two-story building with a long depth. The rooms for Koan and his family were located at the back, separated by a courtyard. The Keio students lived in the rooms facing the street and a 40-tatami mat room on the second floor. Since these living quarters also served as classrooms, dozens of Keio students were constantly living in these two rooms.

When the Keio students obtained original books, they worked very hard, taking turns copying and translating them without sparing time for sleep. Students interested in physics and chemistry would read original books and attempt experiments in their own way to satisfy their academic curiosity. Although Tekijuku was a Juku for Rangaku physicians, it was actually like a Research Centers and Institutes for deciphering Rangaku books. The Keio students included not only doctors but also military scientists, and some, like Yukichi Fukuzawa, devoted themselves to "study without a specific purpose." Fukuzawa later stated in "The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa" that "when it came to academic study, there were probably no people in the world at that time who could surpass the Ogata Juku students."

However, the Keio students did not only release such energy toward their studies. Many episodes of these high-spirited young men in their early 20s outside of their studies can be found in "The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa." The Keio students would pawn their swords for drinking money and lived literally naked in the summer. They were completely indifferent to hygiene, using the same tub for washing their bodies as for washing vegetables, and sometimes even using it to boil and eat somen noodles.

Furthermore, the rowdiness of the Keio students did not stop within Tekijuku; they would go out and return after causing various problems. While Koan faced such students with a sincere, earnest, and tolerant attitude to guide and discipline them, the hardship and effort Yae put into assisting him must have been extraordinary.

Koan took a strict stance toward students who went too far in order to maintain order within Keio, and sometimes resolutely ordered their expulsion. Each time, Yae would soothe him or protect the students with her own body. For this reason, it is said that Yae would care for those who broke the rules and returned late at night drunk and singing loudly so that Koan would not notice, quietly taking them to their beds. There were also countless times when she personally went to settle matters out of court for their misconduct outside.

Yae was also a person who did not discriminate against poor non-paying students like Fukuzawa, taking good care of them and encouraging them. She was also kind and compassionate toward servants and employees, recognizing each person's personality and never getting angry or blaming them for their mistakes.

In this way, Yae was adored like a benevolent mother by the many disciples who gathered at Tekijuku. She loved everyone without discrimination, was a good counselor, gave discipline where it was needed, and guided them so they would not lose their way in the future.

Eventually, Koan, who became the Shogunate's personal physician and the head of the Institute for Western Studies, moved to Edo in 1862, but he died suddenly the following June at the age of 54. Even after that, Yae raised nine children and sent three of her sons abroad as Shogunate overseas students to Russia, the Netherlands, and France.

Five years after Koan's death, Yae returned to Osaka in 1868 and lived in the former vaccination center as her retirement home. She ended her life in 1886 at the age of 65. It is said that the funeral procession for Yae, who was adored by the Keio students as being "like a mother" ("The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa"), numbered 2,000 people.

For Fukuzawa, just as Koan Ogata was like a father, Yae was also like his own mother.

After Yae passed away, Fukuzawa immediately visited her grave. In March 1886, Fukuzawa visited Ryukai-ji Temple in Osaka to pay his respects at the graves of the Ogata couple. At this time, when Yoshiaki Sakai, a Keio University alumni who was accompanying him, tried to help, Fukuzawa said, "This is my job," and tied up his sleeves, tucked up his hem, and used a rope as a scrubber to clean the gravestones of the Ogata couple.

After visiting the grave, Fukuzawa visited Koan's adopted son, Shujiro Ogata, at the former Tekijuku building. According to the account of his companion, two women, believed to be Koan's daughter Yachiyo (Shujiro's wife) and Kokonoe, were also there. The sight of these two women and Fukuzawa quietly talking about Yae's life was said to be just like real siblings, and those nearby wiped away tears at the scene.

Even after Koan's death, Fukuzawa never failed to visit the Ogata house whenever he went to Osaka. He said in "The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa," "Even though the late master is gone, the widow loves me like her own child."