2021/05/28

Being called the 'Holy Land of Karaage'

Nakatsu is not the same as the Nakatsu in Osaka city, nor is it related to Nakasu in Hakata. It should also not be confused with Nakatsuemura, although located in the same prefecture, which gained attention as the training camp for Cameroon during the 2002 Japan-Korea World Cup.

Although Nakatsu has recently gained popularity as the 'Holy Land of Karaage,' it's uncertain how many people actually know that it is Yukichi Fukuzawa's hometown. While there are undoubtedly some people with ties to Keio University who are aware of the connection, how many of them have actually visited this area?

Geographically, Nakatsu city is located in the northwest corner of Oita prefecture. It faces the Suo-nada sea on the western side of the Seto Inland Sea and borders Fukuoka prefecture across the Yamakuni River, which is a first-class river. It is situated halfway between Kokura in Kitakyushu and the famous hot spring town of Beppu, and is about a 30-minute train ride from both locations. It is a regional city with a population of over 80,000 people.

Yukichi Fukuzawa (1835-1901), an enlightenment philosopher and educator who survived the turbulent times of the end of the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration, referred to his life spent as a Chinese classical scholar and Western scholar as 'as if experiencing two lives in one.' He lived through two eras of Japan, the early modern and modern periods, with the Meiji era (1868) serving as a dividing point. Nakatsu is Fukuzawa's hometown.

Yukichi Fukuzawa disses Nakatsu

Yukichi's autobiography, "Fukuō Jiden" (1898), chronicles his life, and it was compiled by proofreading and organizing his oral accounts. In this book, he repeatedly talks about his experiences and events in Nakatsu, as if he were constantly going back and forth between "two lives" and "two eras”.

I recently visited my hometown of Nakatsu after a long absence. At Nakatsu station, I saw a banner that read "Welcome to Nakatsu City, the hometown of Professor Fukuzawa Yukichi." After returning home, I reread his autobiography.

Upon finishing it, I began to wonder if one reason for the seemingly weak connection between Yukichi Fukuzawa and Nakatsu might be due to this book.

The reason for this is that in his autobiography, it can be interpreted that Yukichi heavily criticized his hometown, which might make the connection between him and Nakatsu seem weaker. As a reader, it's hard to have a positive impression of Nakatsu when it's constantly being disparaged, which may cause the impression of the city to become faint.

I would like to see the description of Yukichi Fukuzawa's childhood in his autobiography, which is depicted in the book from the beginning.

Yukichi Fukuzawa was born in the storehouse of the Nakatsu Domain in Osaka. He was the fifth and youngest child, born after three daughters following the eldest son. His father was a low-ranking samurai of the Nakatsu Domain, and unfortunately passed away from a stroke at the age of 45. When Yukichi was only one year and six months old, his mother took him and his siblings back to Nakatsu.

"My siblings and I didn't have any particular reason, but we just couldn't mix with the people of Nakatsu. In Nakatsu, siblings naturally formed a group and carried themselves with high dignity. We thought that the people of Nakatsu were vulgar and looked down on them somewhat in our hearts. It was like we were making fun of people."

Hereditary social class system is the enemy of parents

Due to the discrepancy between Osaka dialect and Nakatsu dialect, Yukichi did not seem to have many memories of playing together with neighbors or cousins' children. Furthermore,

"In Nakatsu, everything was determined by the feudal system based on one's social status, and the order was fixed as if everything was neatly packed in a box, and it never changed even after hundreds of years. For generations, the lord remained a lord and the foot soldier remained a foot soldier, and no matter what they did, they could never make a name for themselves."

"In retrospect, it's truly regrettable that my father, bound by the feudal system, was unable to accomplish anything and passed away with a sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction. Thinking about the future of his little child, he even made up his mind to have him become a Buddhist priest and make a name for himself. I often think about this and feel angry at the strict social hierarchy and clan system that prioritize social status and family background. At the same time, I empathize with my late father's feelings and shed tears alone. For me, the clan system is the enemy of my parents."

Yukichi's father was a Chinese scholar who worked at the Osaka clan's residence, but he also had the role of negotiating with influential merchants in Osaka for the clan's debt, which made him dissatisfied.

"When I was a child living in Nakatsu, it's no wonder that I was always dissatisfied. In Nakatsu, there was a distinction between upper-class and lower-class people, not only in official matters, but also in personal relationships, including children's friendships. The children of upper-class families spoke to lower-class people like my family in a completely different manner. Even in simple children's play, the influence of the clan system was always present, so there was no way to be satisfied," Yukichi wrote.

Leaving Nakatsu behind, kicking up sand with its hind legs

From around the age of 14 or 15, Yukichi began reading and studying the Chinese classics, which gradually gave him a better understanding of the world. While listening to his elder brother and cousins complaining about the injustices in the domain, he would often cut in and say, "Stop it, it's foolish to talk like that. As long as we're stuck here in Nakatsu, there's no use in complaining. If you're dissatisfied, just leave." It was only a matter of time before Yukichi himself left Nakatsu and headed to Nagasaki to study Dutch learning.

"When I went to Nagasaki in the first place, it was because I couldn't stand the narrowness of my hometown of Nakatsu. I had no attachment to my hometown, and I was grateful for any excuse to go outside. 'Who would want to stay in a place like this? Once I leave, I won't feel like coming back, like a bullet from a gun. I feel great today,' I thought to myself, and I turned around and spat, then ran off quickly."

Yukichi crossed the Rubicon.

There is nothing as frightening as debt and assassination

In Fukuzawa's autobiography, he wrote that in life there are two things that truly scare him: debt and assassination. This brings back memories of Nakatsu.

"Of all the things that can be feared in this world, besides assassination, there is nothing as frightening as debt. My siblings and I experienced the taste of poverty from a young age and witnessed the hardships that my mother endured. I will never forget this for the rest of my life."

When Yukichi left Nagasaki and began studying at the Tekijuku in Osaka, his older brother, who was eight years older than him, fell ill and passed away. Yukichi was then required to take over the family estate. When he returned home temporarily, he struggled to repay the large debts incurred from his brother's medical expenses. In addition to selling his father's cherished Chinese books, he also sold calligraphy scrolls, tea bowls, and all the household items he could. He remembered the difficulty of this time in Nakatsu and wrote in his autobiography that he was extremely afraid of debt.

During the era when advocating for the opening of Japan to foreign countries could be dangerous, there was an attempted assassination on Yukichi's life in Nakatsu, which made him uneasy.

In 1870, after founding Keio University in Tokyo, Yukichi returned to Nakatsu to welcome his elderly mother. On the eve of the day when he was to leave by ship, he was almost attacked by anti-foreigner extremists from the Nakatsu clan while staying at his lodging. However, due to internal conflicts within the group, they missed the right timing, and by the time they arrived at the inn, the ship had already departed. Yukichi later learned about this incident.

No good memories in Nakatsu

Although it may have been a lengthy discussion, upon reading Yukichi's autobiography, one may conclude that he endured a great deal of hardship in the old-fashioned town of Nakatsu, and it was fortunate that he managed to escape from there quickly. However, the overall impression of the book is that there were no positive memories of Nakatsu, and it is doubtful that Yukichi made any revisions to the original transcript in order to portray a different image of the town.

Nakatsu City Western School and "An Encouragement of Learning"

However, despite the harsh words towards Nakatsu in his autobiography, in reality, Yukichi also maintained a relationship with the samurai of Nakatsu and helped various people in his hometown.

In fact, it was the Nakatsu domain that appointed Yukichi to teach Dutch studies in Edo after he left Osaka. The Dutch studies school started in the Nakatsu domain's central residence (currently located near St. Luke's International Hospital in Akashicho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo) in 1858, and many Nakatsu-born students also studied there. Incidentally, this location later became the birthplace of Keio University.

In addition, Yukichi contributed to the establishment of Nakatsu City School, a Western-style school that aimed to nurture human resources through Western learning in his hometown. He supported the school's establishment and dispatched principals and teachers from Keio University, mainly those who were from Nakatsu. At one point, the school had up to 600 students and was praised as the "best English school in Kansai."

Furthermore, after visiting Nakatsu to welcome his mother, Yukichi also left a short essay titled "A Message of Farewell to Nakatsu" (1872). In this essay, he advocated for the importance of learning Western studies and becoming self-reliant in the era of civilization and enlightenment, addressing the people of his hometown. By the way, the famous opening line of "An Encouragement of Learning" (1872), which reads "Heaven does not create one man above or below another man," was also originally written for the people of Nakatsu.

And at the end of this essay, he concluded with the words, "Is there anyone who does not think of their hometown? Is there anyone who does not pray for the happiness of the old friends?" Revealing his true feelings towards Nakatsu, despite having already made a name for himself.

It is likely that throughout his life, Yukichi continued to maintain relationships with the people of Nakatsu and supported the promotion of Western learning, the cultivation of talent, and the promotion of local industries.

What did hometown mean to Yukichi? Nakatsu's argument

What exactly did Nakatsu, his hometown, mean to Yukichi? It's hard to find the right words, but it seems that it was a love-hate relationship that served as a sort of a negative example for him.

As someone from the same hometown, I would argue that even as a negative example, there is still room to paint a more positive picture of Yukichi's time in Nakatsu.

Firstly, famous Yukichi's concept of "independence and self-respect" may have been developed precisely because of the stubbornness of Nakatsu as a role model of what not to be.

Moreover, due to Nakatsu's closed nature, a curiosity for the outside world and a hunger for knowledge were fostered, leading to a sensitivity towards accepting the new civilization of the West.

Furthermore, it can also be said that the rebellious spirit cultivated in Nakatsu played a role in the frankness with which Yukichi expressed his opinions to the politicians of the Meiji government.

For Yukichi, his hometown of Nakatsu was both a teacher and a cradle that nurtured his unyielding spirit, independence, curiosity, and hunger for knowledge. While it was a challenging environment that pushed him to break free from its constraints, it also gave him the tools and mindset needed to succeed in the wider world. While it remains to be seen if my humble opinion of Nakatsu will be heard, I believe that it is possible to paint a more positive picture of this town that played such an influential role in Yukichi's life.

If there were "triple life"

According to records, in 1870, Yukichi brought his mother, Jun-san, to Tokyo and lived together for four years until her passing. By that time, his stipend from the Nakatsu Domain had already ended, and it is believed that his direct relationship with Nakatsu had waned since his mother's passing.

In 1894, before he turned 60, Yukichi took his two children to visit his hometown of Nakatsu for the first time in 20 years to pay respects at his mother's grave. It's unclear what he told his children about his hometown during that visit. Shortly after the trip, Yukichi began working on his autobiography.

The group also visited Yabakei, a scenic spot near the city of Nakatsu, known for its beautiful rock formations. In order to preserve this landscape, it is said that Yukichi purchased the land in the area later on. This episode tells of Yukichi's love for his hometown.

It is a digression, but about 20 years after Yukichi's visit, Yabakei was selected as one of Japan's "New Three Scenic Views". During this period, Kikuchi Kan's novel "Enmity and Friendship Beyond" (1919), set in Yabakei, became a huge hit, and Tayama Katai's "Yabakei Travelogue" (1927) was also published. The name of Yabakei as a scenic spot seems to have become well-known in society.

If Yukichi had lived another 20 years and had a "triple life" in Nakatsu, living a retired life near the present-day Fukuzawa Memorial Hall, would he have had time to revise his autobiography and perhaps even add "Nakatsu's argument"?

I also wrote some thoughts about my hometown benefactor, Professor Fukuzawa, which I couldn't help but ponder. I would appreciate your kind indulgence if there are any expressions that concern you.