Kuhara Fusanosuke/ Okubo 1 WAKUSEI - WANDERING STAR Life of Kuhara Fusanosuke (Originally serialized in the magazine Nikkei Business from July, 2003 to April, 2004) By Furukawa Kaoru Translated by Michiko Okubo About the Author Furukawa Kaoru was born in 1925 (Taisho 14) in Shimonoseki-shi, Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan. Graduating from Yamaguchi University, he worked for the Yamaguchi Shimbun Newspaper for many years, and was the managing editor of his paper when he resigned to write full-time. He is the author of Shishi no Roka, Hono no To, Ansatsu no Mori, Tenpen no Isu, Sanga Ariki. His book, Hyohakusha no Aria, account of the life of the famous opera singer Fujiwara Yoshie, won the 104th Naoki Prize in 1991 (Heisei 3). (* The Naoki Prize and the Akutagawa Prize are Japan’s most prestigious literary awards.) About the translator Michiko Okubo was born and raised in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. She majored in French at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. She has lived and studied abroad, first as a student in England and France, then as the spouse of an expatriate businessman in the United States and Hong Kong. She is a translator and interpreter. She also writes short stories in English. Contents Prologue – The Other Choshu Faction PART I – HORNFELS Assassination Hagi Merchants Family Connections PART II – THE CENTURY OF SEISHO Kuhara Fusanosuke/ Okubo 2 Counterfeit Scandal Satsuma and Choshu Faction Survival Dozoku Gaisha Risky Mining Lord’s Loan of 200,000 yen PART III – BLACK GEM Fukuzawa Yukichi Fear Nothing Morimuragumi New York Recedes By Lake Towada Reviving Kosaka Mine Pyritic Smelting Confrontation Kosaka Mine Utopia Palatial Office Building and Theater PART IV – GOING INDEPENDENT The Ghost of the Boshin War Leaving Fujitagumi Family Constitution Dividing the Kosaka Fortune Wedding – 36 Marriage and Family Connections PART V – RICH VEINS Sunrise over the Pacific If you lose all we have, that’ll be fine. Jumping Ship Relief Party Piling in Inoue Fault A Step Ahead Japan’s First Motor PART VI – JAPAN’S KRUPP Splurge Kuhara Harbor 2 million Oshima Cherry Trees The World Tallest Chimney Riding Clouds World War I – The capital is 260,000,000. Steam Locomotive in the Kuhara Garden Dreaming Ideal Industrial City Blank Map of Coastal Industrial Zone Kuhara Fusanosuke/ Okubo 3 Platinum high Crushed Dream Kuhara Trading Burst Beautiful Universe PART VII – MONSTER’S ALCHEMY Turning Point Tranomon Incident The Tanaka Giichi Cabinet A Personal Letter from Nobuskeviçi Snow-covered Kremlin Palace Entering Politics Ayukawa Yoshisuke Nissan Konzern Pressure on the Minister of Post and Telecommunications Impeaching Kuhara Blowing up Shan Tso-lin (Zhang Zuo-lin) Secretary-General Kuhara The 2.26 Incident Imprisonment A Revolutionary Fund of 5,000 yen Prison Notes: “Country Villa Diary” Escaping Purgatory EPILOGUE – WAKUSEI ONLY FADES AWAY The Fall of Kuhara Phoenix flies out of Ashes Hibernation Saved by Sun Yat-Sen Phantom Kuhara Cabinet Cherry Blossoms Fell Going Home Prologue – The Other Choshu Faction In the early Showa period (1926-1989), there once was a politician in Japan nicknamed Monster or “Wakusei (planet).” As an industrialist earlier in his life, he already displayed a sign of a dreamer, but once in the world of politics he started to show his true colors, splashing his considerable fortune on his dreams. He ended his life as idobei leaving nothing but ido (well) and bei (fence). Of the wakusei/idobei, the author Kurokawa Shuzo said in his book “Planet Kuhara Fusanosuke” published in 1936: “The term wakusei is often used to describe a dark horse in political circles. If the word wakusei implies inestimable power and unpredictability, late Goto Shimpei fits the bill Kuhara Fusanosuke/ Okubo 4 perfectly. If we look for a candidate among today’s politicians, nobody embodies it better than Kuhara Fusanosuke.” Fusanosuke was born on June 4, 1869, to Kuhara Shozaburo and Fumiko, in Hagi, a former castle town of Choshu han (domain in the Edo period) – present-day Yamaguchi prefecture. Hagi attained the rare feat of producing four Prime Ministers: Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo, Katsura Taro and Tanaka Gi’ichi. As major players of the Meiji Restoration, a staggering number of former samurai revolutionaries from Choshu obtained important posts in the new government, forming what was sometimes called derisively the Choshu faction that wielded tremendous clout. The Kuhara family was not part of this exclusive clique, but belonged to the other Choshu faction –those who did not become either professional soldiers or politicians, but advanced into the world of commerce. Leaving the hidebound former castle town where lingered the old sense of samurai superiority, they headed for Osaka instead, among whom was Fujita Denzaburo, a younger brother of Kuhara Shozaburo. Osaka was then an important base of Japan’s incipient capitalism. While the Choshu faction comprised of former samurai bickered with other former han factions, the other Choshu faction of merchants worked steadily on. It was only a few years after the birth of Fusanosuke that his father, Shozaburo, left Hagi to join his younger brother in Osaka. A century has passed since Kuhara Fusanosuke founded the Kuhara zaibatsu. Not many people recognize the name Kuhara today, but among the contemporary giant enterprises are several, the foundation of which Fusanosuke laid. Starting with mining, Fusanosuke diversified his business empire. Incurring losses during the post World War I depression, he handed his businesses to his brother-in-law, Ayukawa Yoshisuke. Fusanosuke turned to politics, holding such prominent posts as the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications and the 8th party chairman of the Seiyukai. His checkered career as a politician included a months-long incarceration for interrogation on suspicion of involvement in the 2.26 Incident in 1936. Seen from the earth, planets seem to wander among distant fixed stars, thus people in ancient times coined the term Wakusei (the two ideograms composing the term literally mean ‘wandering star’). When “Wakusei” is applied to Fusanosuke, however, it is not to imply ‘straying aimlessly.’ It is referring to the term’s other attribute, inestimable power. The solar system has nine major planets and countless smaller ones. I will follow the bold movements of a group of planets led by Fusanosuke, and try to find out who he really was, this formidable industrialist who helped build a modern nation after the Meiji Restoration. PART I HORNFELS Assassination Susa Bay is part of Kita-nagato Quasi-National Park. A drowned valley, the bay is dotted with inlets and islets, and has a tranquil feel about it. Outside the bay, the scenery changes drastically. A sheer cliff soars 100 meters high above the austere expanse of the Sea of Japan. The precipice of hornfels (dark, fine-grained metamorphic rock consisting Kuhara Fusanosuke/ Okubo 5 largely of quartz, mica and feldspar) meets the strong wind with its cliff-face, which, roughened by coastal erosion, exposes the strata. Susa is an old fishing village, situated in the northeast of Yamaguchi prefecture. During the Edo period it belonged to Choshu-han (domain), and was the fief of the Masuda, a chief vassal of Choshu-han. The Masuda, originally a local magnet, had served Mori Motonari in the mid-sixteenth century during the Sengoku period. At the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 (Keicho 5), the Mori sided with the Western camp, which subsequently lost. The Mori forfeited control of Chugoku (present-day Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Shimane and Tottori prefectures), and was confined into the western corner of the mainland. The Masuda followed their master and settled in Susa with a diminished fief of 12,000 koku. (Note: A fief of 12,000 ‘koku’ means a fief with the production capacity of 12,000 ‘koku’ of rice; 1 ‘koku’ is 180 liters.) When serving the Masuda, the Kuhara assumed the name Sasaki, claiming to have descended from samurai, Sasaki Takatsuna. The Kuhara, however, was not included a group of vassals who followed the Mori to Bocho (Suo and Nagato, present-day Yamaguchi prefecture). When chased out of Hiroshima, with the fief drastically reduced from 1,120,000 koku to 360,000 koku, the Mori was obliged to leave many vassals behind. Some of them chose to give up the status of samurai and followed the Mori to Bocho where they settled as farmers. The Sasaki stayed on in Kubara, Mino-gun, Iwami- koku, engaged in farming, but during the Kan’ei era (1624-44) followed the Masuda to Susa. It was then that the Sasaki family took up the new name, Kubara. The family was to switch the pronunciation of its name from Kubara to Kuhara later on, when they moved out of Susa to Hagi after a certain incident. Kubara Hampei Yasushige was the 10th generation Kubara after the family had settled in Susa. Kaheiji, the 1st Kubara must have been a very competent farmer; shortly after moving to Susa, he changed his name to Sukezaemon, and was appointed urajoya, village head. A growing family fortune reached its peak in Hampei’s time, grandfather to Kuhara Fusanosuke. He was granted a quasi samurai status; he was allowed to carry swords, and granted the samurai post of sendo, head of lower ranking sailors cum fishermen, while he also doubled as village head. He owned and operated two large vessels, and also acted as a treasurer for his master, the Masuda family. His success must have incited envy from his fellow merchants as well as the samurai class, including or especially, the Masuda themselves. On the eve of the Meiji Restoration, the samurai class was hard up, socially privileged yet economically deprived. Then, tragedy struck… Hampei rambled along the Susa River with a lantern in hand on December 16th, 1863.