Shigenobu Okuma

2022/08/10

Image: Source: National Diet Library "Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures"

Shigenobu Okuma passed away on January 10, 1922. Therefore, on January 10 of this year, while the Yukichi Fukuzawa Birthday Celebration was held on the Mita Hilltop Square as usual, a memorial ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of Okuma's death was held in the afternoon at Waseda University's Okuma Auditorium.

Yukichi Fukuzawa was born in 1835, and Okuma was born in 1838, making them roughly of the same generation. However, Okuma lived a long life and survived for another 21 years after Fukuzawa's death. Consequently, many reminiscences shared by Okuma about Fukuzawa remain. I would like to examine the relationship between the two primarily based on those accounts.

It is said that the two first met in either 1871 or 1873. Okuma recalled that time as follows:

"At that time, I was a government official with a bit of power, and on top of that, I hadn't lost my student-like brashness. To put it bluntly, Fukuzawa also spoke with an air of importance and criticized officials. We were both getting on each other's nerves. Some mischievous people thought it would be interesting to pit us against each other, as we were like cats and dogs—one a wild scholar from the private sector and the other a wild official. They brought us together at the house of a certain Satsuma man in Ueno Tennoji, as if they were watching a play. I went there without knowing this, and it seems the teacher also came out. At that time, I was thirty-five or six, and the teacher was nearly forty. We were introduced to each other—this is Fukuzawa, this is Okuma—and we announced our names. Our first meeting ended in a strange place, but as we talked more, we found that our inclinations were originally the same, so instead of being like cats and dogs, we got along well. We decided to stop fighting and instead work together, and from then on, we became quite close." (From "Count Okuma's View of Society")

Since then, the two maintained a close relationship. They visited each other's homes and were close enough to involve their entire families. For example, in a letter dated July 9, 1887, from Fukuzawa to his eldest son Ichitaro, who was studying in the United States, he wrote, "Tomorrow, the 10th, my wife, Sato (eldest daughter), and I—three of us—are invited to Okuma's, and we must attend this as well."

Okuma also remarked, "Once we got to know each other, we became very intimate. When the teacher came to my place, even my family became close to him, so we sometimes had dinner together. Since the teacher was a strong drinker and took a long time to eat, he would eat and talk until late at night. When we tried to clear the table, he would say 'not yet, not yet' and continue drinking with my wife, talking quite a lot." (From "Talking about Yukichi Fukuzawa: Direct Accounts from Notable Figures")

As the two became closer, their interaction expanded to Fukuzawa's students. Looking at letters from Fukuzawa to Okuma, in 1878, Fukuzawa was consulted about finding someone to handle the compilation of an encyclopedia for the government and introduced his student Fumio Yano. Furthermore, when the government considered establishing a department for statistical surveys, Fukuzawa responded to Okuma's inquiry in a letter dated January 31, 1879, providing the names of 13 members of the Keio Gijuku Shachu as "associates in statistics."

In August of the same year, Fukuzawa, concerned that foreign banks and trading companies dominated international financial operations, explained to Okuma, who was then the Minister of Finance, the necessity of a bank for exchange and trade operations. Okuma showed understanding, and they cooperated to establish the Yokohama Specie Bank, which began operations in February 1880. Michita Nakamura, a close friend of Fukuzawa, was appointed president, and Nobukichi Koizumi, a student of Fukuzawa, was appointed vice president.

Amidst these developments, the Political Crisis of 1881 occurred. Originally, from late 1880 to 1881, Fukuzawa had been told by three councilors—Okuma, Hirobumi Ito, and Kaoru Inoue—that the government intended to open a national diet and believed a newspaper was necessary to enlighten the public for that purpose. Fukuzawa had agreed to take on the publication of a newspaper similar to an official gazette. However, as the government faced strong public backlash over the Hokkaido Colonization Office Property Disposal Scandal, Ito and Inoue amplified their distrust of Okuma. Siding with the Satsuma-Choshu clan clique, they plotted while Okuma was away accompanying Emperor Meiji on a tour of Tohoku and Hokkaido in October 1881, seizing the opportunity to plan his dismissal and expel him. Furthermore, everyone regarded as part of the Okuma and Fukuzawa faction was purged from the government. This included Fumio Yano (Secretary of the Statistics Bureau and Senior Secretary of the Great Council of State), Takuzo Ushiba (Junior Secretary of the Statistics Bureau), Tsuyoshi Inukai and Yukio Ozaki (Assistant Junior Secretaries of the Statistics Bureau), and Hikojiro Nakamigawa (Senior Assistant Secretary of the Foreign Ministry).

However, some things were born because of the political crisis. These were the "Jiji Shinpo" newspaper by Fukuzawa and the Tokyo Senmon Gakko (today's Waseda University) by Okuma, both established the following year.

Since his agreement with Inoue, Ito, and Okuma, Fukuzawa had been steadily making preparations, such as securing personnel, for the publication of a newspaper. In that sense, the unilateral breaking of the promise was unforgivable to Fukuzawa, but he pivoted those preparations toward the publication of his own independent newspaper. Thus, on March 1, 1882, less than five months after the political crisis, he launched "Jiji Shinpo." While various newspapers of the time were highly partisan, this paper gained trust as an impartial and independent publication.

Meanwhile, Okuma founded the Rikken Kaishinto (Constitutional Reform Party) and Tokyo Senmon Gakko. Yano, Ozaki, Inukai, and others came to support the Rikken Kaishinto. Okuma said of this time:

"From my perspective, the teacher was my senior, and I gained various benefits through him. For example, it is fair to say that this Waseda school exists because I associated with the teacher. (...) After I began associating with him, I conducted various studies on education, which eventually led me to start the school." (From "Talking about Yukichi Fukuzawa: Direct Accounts from Notable Figures")

Because of this relationship, Fukuzawa and the Juku elder Tokujirō Obata attended the opening ceremony held on October 21. Furthermore, at the first graduation ceremony on July 26, 1884, Tokujirō Obata delivered a congratulatory address, and Fukuzawa delivered congratulatory addresses in the following two years. However, Okuma did not attend these ceremonies that Fukuzawa and others attended. He feared that the Tokyo Senmon Gakko's connection with the Rikken Kaishinto would be viewed with suspicion. It is said that the first time Okuma attended an official event was the 15th-anniversary commemorative ceremony.

Regarding the similarities between Fukuzawa and Okuma, Fumio Yano once said:

"These two have many points in common. It is just that one is a scholar and the other is a politician; their characters are very similar. It is likely that if Yukichi Fukuzawa were a politician, he would be Shigenobu Okuma, and if Mr. Okuma were a scholar, he would be Yukichi Fukuzawa." (From "Supplement to the Tales of Marquis Okuma's Past")

But above all, both were people who poured warm affection onto young people and encouraged them often. In 1909, eight years after Fukuzawa's death, Okuma gave a public speaking engagement at the Mita Political Science Association titled "To Young Politicians." In it, he said:

"Nothing is as innocent as youth, nothing is as optimistic as youth, nothing is as pleasant as youth, and nothing is as filled with great hope as youth. The light of the future is truly shining. I love students; I love them very much. My love for students from the bottom of my heart exceeds my love for my own children. I believe the late Yukichi Fukuzawa was likely the same. I am not a great idealist or a great scholar like Yukichi Fukuzawa, but somehow our dispositions seem similar. I love them, and the teacher loved them too. I am a junior to the teacher, but since the teacher's love for his juniors was extraordinary, he loved me quite well." (From "Keio Gijuku Gakuho No. 145")

As mentioned earlier, Okuma was cautious about his involvement with the school to ensure Tokyo Senmon Gakko was not seen as a partisan institution. Consequently, unlike Fukuzawa, there are very few anecdotes involving students, and his image as an educator is hard to see. However, the passage he spoke at Mita regarding Fukuzawa can be seen as a projection of Okuma's own feelings toward the students of Tokyo Senmon Gakko.

On February 3, 1901, Fukuzawa passed away. There is a famous anecdote from this time, which Fukuzawa's fourth son, Daishiro, later recorded in "My Father, Yukichi Fukuzawa."

"When my father died, a magnificent flower arrived from Okuma. Since many university students at the entrance were handling the reception, they told the messenger that while they appreciated the sentiment, they were declining all flowers and other offerings. As if expecting this, the messenger explained, 'I understand that well, but these flowers were not bought in the city. They were made from flowers the master personally tended to and selected from his own greenhouse to be placed before the Buddha as a token of friendship. It would be too heartless to refuse them.' Everyone was left speechless and accepted them gratefully."

Okuma had a hobby of gardening. The Okuma Garden that remains today is a vestige of that. Once, when Okuma showed Fukuzawa many potted plants in this greenhouse, Fukuzawa asked if he could remember every single one of so many pots. Okuma reportedly laughed and replied that he would know immediately if even one pot were moved.

Reminiscing about Fukuzawa, Okuma said, "He has already passed away, but the teacher had many enemies precisely because of his methods. In response, he was not a man of weak will and feeble action who merely spoke or wrote; he hated causing trouble where there was none. He was a truly gentle and peaceful person, and the more one associated with him, the deeper his friendship became. Yet, no matter how much pressure he faced, he would not bend his convictions. This is the high character of Yukichi Fukuzawa." He then continued as follows:

"Before I knew it, even my tone of voice began to resemble the teacher's. Eventually, I felt as if the teacher and I were of one mind and body, as if we had a promise to serve society together. Now that the teacher is gone, I feel as if I am carrying the luggage of two people alone, and secretly, my heart is not at ease." (From "Count Okuma's View of Society")

Keio University and Waseda have had many great matches as good rivals in sports. The two schools have different origins and different spirits. However, the underlying mutual sense of trust and security has its origins in the relationship between the founders of both schools, Fukuzawa and Okuma.