英語訳
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During the Restoration, from our Yoshida domain, besides the old man, there was Nakamura Shōsuke (later changed his name to Kiyoyuki) who became a chōshi. He had deep relations with the old man, but as their circumstances differed, I shall write about this. Kiyoyuki's house was on the east side of what is now the entrance to the Higashi-hachi-chō drill ground (south of the small park). He was a domain retainer with a stipend of fifty koku. When Prince Arisugawa-no-miya Taruhito, Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Expedition, stayed in Yoshida for two or three days—when that brocade imperial banner first shone on the Tōkaidō—a unit was dispatched from the domain with Shōsuke as its leader, and he had an audience with His Highness. Later he went to Edo to serve His Highness, became a chōshi and head of statistics in the Accounting Bureau (later the Ministry of Finance), and when banks began to flourish, became manager of the Fifteenth National Bank, which was funded mainly by nobility at the time. He later also became a special appointee of the Imperial Household Ministry and died in the capital. The circumstances of His Highness's stay in our region were that while the journey from Kyoto to our area was peaceful, there were considerable pro-shogunate forces in what is now Shizuoka Prefecture, and moreover Yamaoka Tesshirō had come to Shizuoka for negotiations and was waiting for Saigō Takamori, the vanguard of the imperial army—such were the circumstances that led to the imperial sojourn.
There were two plaques that Takayoshi wrote at Kikuoka, one of which is still preserved at that house, while the other lacks a signature (Shōkiku-sei), and for that one the old man wrote a note certifying its authenticity, and it now belongs to Mr. Fukutani Tōtarō of Kaya-chō.
Let me record a little about how the old man gained Takayoshi's deep acquaintance. Takayoshi, celebrated as one of the three great founders of the Restoration along with Kido, Saigō, and Ōkubo, was born in Chōshū domain, originally named Wada Kogoro, adopted in his youth by the Katsura family of the same domain. Though he was an unruly youth, he resolutely reformed himself, went to Edo to study under hardship, and entered the school of Saitō Yakurō, a great swordsman of the age. At that time, at the Renbu-kan dojo that Saitō operated in Kanda, Kaneko Kenshirō from Uo-machi in Yoshida (Toyohashi), who ranked among the top five in the capital, served as head instructor. Kenshirō was, like Yakurō, a disciple of Sugiyama Tōshichirō, and for a time took charge of Yakurō's dojo. Sugiyama was a master of the Shintō Munen-ryū, and Kenshirō studied under him, later also studying under Okada Tōmatsu of the same school. Katsura Kogoro's Takayoshi was also at the same dojo under Yakurō, and among the many students there, he was counted among the top ten. Since the old man had deep connections with the same Yoshida as Kenshirō, he would frequently visit Yakurō's school, and the three would sit together like a tripod, sometimes perhaps displaying their true colors as drinkers. The brilliant young Kogoro would certainly also join these gatherings, and it is not hard to imagine that he was entrusted with future hopes by his three seniors. The old man was born in Bunka 11 (1814), year of Kinoe-inu; Kenshirō in year 10 (1813), Mizunoto-tori, making him one year older; and Kogoro was born in Tenpō 5 (1834), Kinoe-uma, making him twenty years younger than the old man and twenty-one years younger than Kenshirō. Later, Mito domain needed to hire a martial arts instructor for their Hyakuren-kan dojo belonging to Koishikawa Funahara bridge. Fujita Tōko and Takeda Kōun-sai consulted together and, after searching the capital, decided between either Kaneko Kenshirō of the Shintō Munen-ryū or Chiba Shūsaku of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū. After observing Kenshirō's skills firsthand, they hired him to Mito with a stipend of one hundred koku when he was twenty-six years old. Prior to this, the old man had frequently traveled to Mito with brush in hand, and apparently had close relations with the domain lord Nariaki as well. Therefore, regarding the adoption of his compatriot Kenshirō from the same Yoshida, Kazan gladly provided assistance, and there was apparently some mutual understanding between him and the old man as well. The interconnected karma of Kenshirō and Takayoshi, Mito and Chōshū, the old man and Mito and Takayoshi—is this not quite interesting? Takayoshi resigned from his position as councilor and took on the role of the first cabinet advisor, but regrettably died of illness in Meiji 10 at age forty-four. Here is another episode about the similarities between the old man and Takayoshi.
(1) Takayoshi had many acquaintances among Mito domain retainers, Chōshū allied with Mito, and several promising young men from Chōshū, including Itō Shunsuke (later Hirobumi), were sent to Mito to establish friendly relations.
(2) Takayoshi lost his parents in his youth, yet was extremely filial to his deceased parents, worshipping their spirits morning and evening as if it were the same day for ten years.
(3) Takayoshi broadly loved the talented and was accepting of people, was modest in social relations, would personally greet and see off anyone who presented their calling card, and was deeply loyal to his friends.
(4) He was close to elegant pursuits and poetry, took the pen name Shōkiku, and was skilled in poetry and calligraphy.
Once the great work of the Restoration was accomplished, thinking only of the security of imperial authority, he conspired with Ōkubo Toshimichi of Satsuma to bring about cooperation between the two domains that had been at odds. He also argued: "If the powerful domains that overthrew the shogunate dare to indulge their own will arbitrarily, they cannot escape criticism for replacing violence with violence. Should they make the people feel that this is rather worse than the old feudal times, the foundation of the new government accomplished entirely through the Emperor's virtue would be overturned—this would be unbearably lamentable." On the other hand, among the court nobles at the time, there were those who said that for the Emperor to form alliances with feudal lords was not permitted by the national polity. This view was also quite influential, so worrying about this, he campaigned among the court nobles and was at the forefront of efforts to broadly include feudal lords and establish national policy and direction. Finally, his proposal was adopted—this
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