Sotaro Masuda

2025/04/10

Sotaro Masuda, a second cousin of Yukichi Fukuzawa, was a young man who lived a short but intense life, serving as a pro-imperialist activist (sonno joi), a leader in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, and the commander of the Nakatsu Corps during the Satsuma Rebellion. Before World War II, it is said that Masuda was more popular than Fukuzawa due to his imperialist claims and his decision to die alongside Saigo, and he appeared in numerous literary works. The most famous of these is likely Ryotaro Shiba's "Tobu ga Gotoku." In the novel, as the signs of defeat grew stronger and Saigo encouraged the young men gathered from various regions to return home, Shiba highlights Masuda's words as he decided to remain with Saigo's army.

Regarding Saigo's charisma, Masuda reportedly said with tears in his eyes, "That man is truly mysterious. One day with him creates one day of love. Three days with him creates three days of love. However, as I spend more days with him, I can no longer leave. Now, beyond good and evil, I have no choice but to share life and death with him." This depicts Masuda as a man of rich emotion.

The relationship between Masuda and Fukuzawa was deep. In "The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa" (hereafter "Autobiography"), Masuda is memorably described as a young man with pro-imperialist thoughts who targeted Fukuzawa's life. After the failed assassination attempt, Masuda worked at the Western School and Nakatsu City School and even enrolled in Keio University, maintaining his interaction with Fukuzawa. While it is presumed that Fukuzawa influenced Masuda's acceptance of Western learning and his transition to the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, it is difficult to trace the details of Masuda's ideology. This is due to historical limitations—primary sources on Masuda are scarce, and most existing biographies were created for the purpose of honoring him after his death—and because his activities spanned many fields, making it difficult to grasp his true intentions. This article attempts to introduce "Sotaro Masuda" as told by those around him, starting with the "Autobiography."

In 1849, Sotaro Masuda was born as the eldest son of Hisayuki Masuda, a lower-ranking samurai of the Nakatsu Domain. His childhood name was Kumemaru, and since some of his handwritten letters use characters read as "Kumemaro," it is presumed that was the pronunciation. His father, Hisayuki, was a cousin of Yukichi Fukuzawa's mother, Jun, and his mother was the daughter of the Kokugaku (National Learning) scholar Shigena Watanabe. He was described as having a calm, brave, and decisive personality, with a feminine appearance and fair skin. A "description of appearance" issued during the Satsuma Rebellion noted he was fair-skinned with a long face, distinct eyes and eyebrows, and a "gentle appearance."

In "Osuen Iko," a memoir of the late Edo and early Meiji periods by Shigena's grandson, Ikarimaro Watanabe, Masuda reported on Fukuzawa's mother, Jun, in letters, showing that the families interacted closely. Furthermore, in the "Autobiography," Fukuzawa recalled, "Since he was 13 or 14 years younger than me, I thought of him as a child; we lived nearby and visited each other morning and evening as we had in previous years, and I was close to him, calling him 'So-san, So-san.'" Fukuzawa was fond of his much younger second cousin. However, Masuda himself looked upon Fukuzawa with hatred, to the point of later planning his assassination. This was related to the Watanabe family, Masuda's maternal lineage.

The Watanabe family was a lineage of Shinto priests at Kobyo Hachimangu Shrine. The 34th generation, Shigena Watanabe, was a Kokugaku scholar who studied under Hisao Araki and Norinaga Motoori. Shigena's grandsons, Shigeharu and Ikarimaro Watanabe (who were Masuda's cousins), were also Kokugaku scholars who taught Kokugaku and waka poetry at the Nakatsu Domain school, Shinshukan, and the private school Doseikan. The Watanabe family was located in Sakuramachi, very close to the Fukuzawa and Masuda families, and Masuda grew up strongly influenced by them. In the "Autobiography," Fukuzawa described Masuda's environment, noting that Masuda had "scholars of the Mito School style among his cousins" and that Masuda was "quite impressive" because he took them as his teachers. He also introduced the Masuda family as having a steadfast family tradition that was "not at all shameful for a feudal samurai family."

In the Nakatsu Domain, where the class hierarchy based on lineage was strict, friction arose between upper and lower samurai, and lower samurai were sometimes treated unfairly. Consequently, there was a trend where lower samurai avoided the domain school and instead studied at private schools. Among these, Doseikan was the only Kokugaku school, and many lower samurai enrolled. Besides Masuda, students at Doseikan included Eiji Asabuki, Shigeho Iwata (father of author Bunroku Shishi) Shigeho Iwata, and other lower samurai who would later form the Nakatsu Corps. Ikarimaro was a follower of Atsutane Hirata, having been moved by his writings and becoming a posthumous disciple. The students of Doseikan came to hold pro-imperialist views under the influence of the Hirata Kokugaku preached by Ikarimaro. Thus, the pro-imperialist activists of the Nakatsu Domain plotted to assassinate Fukuzawa.

In the autumn of 1870, Fukuzawa stayed in Nakatsu to bring his mother, Jun, and his niece, Ichi, to Tokyo. During his stay, Fukuzawa treated Masuda as a child and was as fond of him as ever. Masuda interacted with him with a smile and visited his house, but in reality, he hated Fukuzawa as a "Western-obsessed" person, and his visits were for reconnaissance. Masuda reportedly snuck into the Fukuzawa house, waiting for an opportunity to assassinate him. However, because Fukuzawa spent the entire night drinking with Gorobe Hattori, an upper-ranking samurai and relative, Masuda missed his chance, and Fukuzawa narrowly escaped death.

Afterward, Fukuzawa finished his business and prepared to return to Tokyo by boat. Fukuzawa's party stayed overnight at the nearby Unoshima Port (now Buzen City, Fukuoka Prefecture) before departure. However, a person with pro-imperialist views was at the inn and informed the Doseikan faction, including Masuda, of Fukuzawa's movements, leading them to plan the assassination again. The Doseikan faction gathered in Kanaya (a district where many lower samurai like Shigeho Iwata lived) to discuss the plan, but a major argument broke out over who would lead the attack. An old man named Yotayu Nakanishi heard the noise and scolded them. While they were arguing, including Nakanishi, dawn broke, and Fukuzawa was able to safely depart for Kobe. Nakanishi came from a family of Nakanishi Itto-ryu swordsmanship instructors, and it was fortunate for Fukuzawa that he was able to stop the hot-blooded activists.

In a letter Masuda sent to Ikarimaro around 1870, he expressed resentment that upper-ranking samurai at the center of the domain administration, such as Yutaro Shimazu, were aligning with Fukuzawa to promote Western education while providing no support for Kokugaku. There were also rumors that they were deceiving the domain lord, Masatake Okudaira, into studying in the United States, which intensified the hatred Masuda and others felt toward Fukuzawa. During his stay in 1870, Fukuzawa wrote "Nakatsu Ryubetsu no Sho" to enlighten the people of his hometown with modern social thought. However, contrary to Fukuzawa's intentions, Nakatsu was not yet in a position to accept his ideas. Fukuzawa remained unaware of these assassination plots at the time, but he later recounted his terror upon hearing about them years later and realizing how close he had come to losing his life.

In the early Meiji period, Masuda engaged in various activities, including studying in Kyoto, establishing the Imperial School in Nakatsu (which could be considered the successor to Doseikan), enrolling in Keio University, getting married, and planning an attack on the Satsuma Domain. In 1872, he went to Tokyo with Hitoshi Mizushima (also known as Rokube), the brother of his wife, Shika. Hitoshi was a lower-ranking samurai of the Nakatsu Domain who played a central role in the 1861 petition incident that led to the downfall of Iki Okudaira. Hitoshi's son, Tetsuya (who served as the first principal of Kobe Higher Commercial School), recalled that Masuda often told him, "This country of Japan is a very small country, so we citizens must be firm in both mind and body," and that Hitoshi and Masuda engaged in debates during their journey.

In "The Biography of Mr. Tetsuya Mizushima" (edited by Aian-kai), an episode is shared where Masuda cut his hair in Shimonoseki while on his way to Tokyo. When Hitoshi asked what "that man" (Fukuzawa) would say if he heard Masuda had cut his hair, Masuda argued that he had certainly not yielded to Fukuzawa. Afterward, Masuda and Hitoshi discussed the new era's ideas that Fukuzawa had brought to Nakatsu. Masuda reportedly stated that while he found Fukuzawa's ideas difficult to accept, he believed it was necessary to learn new trends of thought for the sake of coastal defense, diplomacy, and the country.

After his plan to attack Satsuma was discovered and he was ordered into house arrest, Masuda formed the Kyuyusha in 1874 and began the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. The main members of Kyuyusha were schoolmates who had studied together at Doseikan, and many of Nakatsu's pro-imperialist activists transitioned into Freedom and People's Rights activists alongside Masuda. Yuzo Hayashi was dispatched from the Risshisha in Tosa to Nakatsu to celebrate the formation of Kyuyusha. Members of Kyuyusha were active, holding public speaking events at Myorenji Temple (the Fukuzawa family temple) and Nakatsu City School. In 1876, Masuda enrolled in Keio University again to study under Fukuzawa. Later, Ichiji Nagata, a Keio University alumni from Nakatsu who also taught at Nakatsu City School, was dispatched as a teacher to Risshigakusha, the educational institution of Risshisha. The origin of this interaction between Nakatsu, Keio University, and Risshisha was Kyuyusha.

Also in November 1876, the first issue of the "Inaka Shinbun" (Country Newspaper) was published by the Inaka Shinbunsha, where Tadanaga Murakami (who later served as the head of Kusu District) was the president and Masuda was the editor-in-chief. This newspaper company used funds from the Nakatsu City School and was operated primarily by individuals advocating for civil rights, such as Hanshichi Yamaguchi. However, a few months later, Masuda formed the Nakatsu Corps and participated in the Satsuma Rebellion. He died in battle in September 1877.

Masuda's activities during the Meiji period spanned many fields, making it difficult to capture his ideology. However, it is noteworthy that from the pro-imperialist movement to the Satsuma Rebellion, Masuda consistently advocated for national independence and the importance of coastal defense. In his plan to attack Satsuma in 1873, Masuda argued that "to worry about the stagnation of diplomacy, defend the outer seas, and greatly rouse national authority, internal troubles must first be removed. It is deeply regrettable that Satsuma still retains a strong feudal character and stands arrogantly apart from other prefectures without any cooperation." His reason was a concern that Satsuma's independent path would disrupt national unity.

When he later joined the Satsuma Rebellion, he created a manifesto condemning the Meiji government's failures in diplomacy and finance, expressing concern over foreign threats, and criticizing despotic government. Considering that Masuda was surrounded by different thinkers and educators like Fukuzawa and Ikarimaro who influenced each other, is it not possible that while Masuda held a consistent patriotic ideology throughout his life, he was going through a process of trial and error regarding the means to achieve it while absorbing the ideas of Fukuzawa and others?