Ryohei Noguchi 'Biographies of Bakumatsu Figures: Exclusion and Opening of the Country' Episode 6: Kazan Watanabe (9)

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9

Kazan's imprisonment came as a great shock to those who had friendly relations with him. High-ranking officials of the Shogunate and various domains, as well as most Confucian scholars, including his Neo-Confucian teacher
Issai Sato, emphasized their lack of connection to Kazan and remained silent throughout. Fearing that among the confiscated books of Kazan there might be a book he had gifted four years earlier as a token of appreciation for a portrait of his beloved son,
Bakin Kyokutei had accurate information that Kazan was not the author of 'Yumemonogatari' (Tale of Dreams), but he only went so far as to remark that it was a disaster for him to have served the affairs of the state beyond his duties as a vassal. Those who ran around to rescue Kazan were mainly his low-ranking disciples and friends within his household, such as

|Chinzan Tsubaki and |Shunzan Suzuki.

For them, the immediate concern was to ensure Kazan's life and safety within the prison, where rules different from the outside world prevailed. What was needed was prison visitation money, or |kin-su (gold coins).
Although his comrades were not financially well-off, the elder of the Tsuwano Domain,
|Issai Tago (1802-57), who was a friend of Kazan's refined tastes, and others contributed a large amount of money, which improved Kazan's treatment in prison.
Their wide-ranging and desperate activities were powerless to achieve Kazan's acquittal, but they show how heartfelt the private exchanges Kazan usually had were. In that sense, the many letters left by Kazan can be said to have a value comparable to 'Shinkiron' (Theory of Prudent Opportunity) and 'Seiyo Jijosho' (Things Western) ('Collection of Letters by Kazan Watanabe' Heibonsha Toyo Bunko, etc.).

The person who worked hard for the commutation of Kazan's sentence and his release from prison, and who made it happen, was Kazan's mentor |Kodo Matsuzaki (1771-1844).

Kodo was already 69 years old at this time. Jussai Hayashi was a Neo-Confucian scholar who studied under him, and he was a fellow student of Issai Sato. He must have also been well aware of the character of Jussai's son, Yozo Torii. After serving as a professor at the Kakegawa Domain School, he declined an invitation from the Hosokawa family in his hometown of Higo and opened |Sekkeisanbo in Hazawa Village, Meguro, Edo, where he engaged in academic research and guided his disciples.
Kazan began attending Sekkeisanbo shortly after the death of his father, Sadamichi. The remaining letters between the two and Kodo's diary show that they were bound by deep affection.

Kodo, who was informed of the contents of Kazan's deposition by Senior Councilor Mizuno's attendant Yosuke Odagiri, wrote a long petition while suffering from illness and submitted it to Mizuno through Odagiri on July 29. Fortunately, there was a Senior Councilor who sympathized with Kazan, and Kazan was spared the death penalty and was sentenced on December 18 to confinement at his home in Tahara.

Due to his long imprisonment, Kazan's mind and body were exhausted, and his entire body was afflicted with a severe skin disease.
Surrounded by strict escort guards, Kazan left Edo on January 13, 1840, in the bitter cold. His mother Ei, his wife Taka, and his three children (eldest daughter |Katsu, eldest son |Tatsu, second son |Kano) followed him later.

Arrived in Tahara on the 20th.
He moved with his family to the Ikenohara residence of |Nagatsune Okura, who had been expelled from the domain due to Kazan's involvement.
This became the place of Kazan's final days.

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■ About the photos

* Header photo: Kazan's secluded residence restored (1955) in Ikenohara Park (Tahara City, Aichi Prefecture) (photographed by the author)

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■ References

■ Author Profile

Ryohei Noguchi
Intellectual historian and writer.
Author of 'The Worldview of "Daibosatsu Toge"' (Heibonsha, 2009, winner of the 18th Mineo Hashimoto Award), 'Bakumatsu Thinking' (Misuzu Shobo, 2017), and his latest work, 'A History of Archipelago Philosophy' (Misuzu Shobo, 2025).
Translator of Louis Menand's 'The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America' (co-translator, Misuzu Shobo, 2011) and Michael Wert's 'Meiji Restoration Losers: Memory and History Surrounding Oguri Kozukenosuke' (Misuzu Shobo, 2019).

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