Ryohei Noguchi 'Biographies of Bakumatsu Figures: Expelling Barbarians and Opening the Country' Episode 1: Daikokuya Kodayu (Part 11)
★Header image: A map said to have been drawn by Kodayu
Göttingen State and University Library (Göttingen State and University Library)
From the Asch Collection (Sammlung Asch). (See below for details at the end of the page.)
Episode 1: Daikokuya Kodayu (Part 11)
【5】
Drifting due to a storm and where one ends up are things one cannot choose by one's own will. Once one becomes a castaway, one is forced to face the limitations of the customs and manners learned in one's homeland.
Kodayu, while dealing with people in a foreign land and surviving, cultivated the ability and character of an individual who carves out his own path by his own will.
Otherwise, even with the help of various conditions, he would not have been able to negotiate directly with the country's highest authority and achieve the magnificent feat of the first return from Russia.
If he had been in Japan, he would never have thought of the method of direct appeal to the Shogun.
On April 11, in the 11th year of the Bunsei era (1828), Kodayu ended his 78-year life in Edo. Isokichi, who maintained a relationship of trust with Kodayu, passed away at the age of 75, ten years later.
It seems Kodayu and Isokichi are depicted with various faces in the same composition [Editor]
→**About the image
Kodayu often had opportunities to be asked about his stories in Russia, but looking at the records left behind, it can be seen that he changed how he dealt with people depending on their nature.
A record of a visit by the scholar (a retainer of the Obama Domain) Ban Nobutomo, who visited the 75-year-old Kodayu, remains.
"His nature appears to be strong-willed. After returning to his country, he became accustomed to being treated by high-ranking people and others, and became self-willed, and as he calls himself old, he appears increasingly arrogant. His speech is rapid and overflowing, and often difficult to understand; when asked again, he often tires and does not answer." ("Notes on Kodayu's Talk").
Given that the entries in this notebook end in a stereotypical Q&A record, the visitor probably did not understand the worth of the person in front of him.
The fact that he was scolded by that person as being "arrogant" is where the dignity of Kodayu as an individual lives on.
(Photo by the author)
Ryohei Noguchi 'Biographies of Bakumatsu Figures: Expelling Barbarians and Opening the Country' Episode 1: Daikokuya Kodayu (End)
→ To the 'Biographies of Bakumatsu Figures' magazine top by Ryohei Noguchi (This is the table of contents)
→ To Episode 1: Daikokuya Kodayu (Part 1) (Author profile at the end of the text)
★Header image: 《A map of Japan said to have been drawn by Daikokuya Kodayu. On the back, it is written in ink, 'Tenmei 9 year end of the 7th month, Daikokuya Kodayu of Shiroko, Ise Province, Great Japan' [1] (1789). A card sent to the University of Göttingen by Georg Thomas von Asch, who was a physician for the Russian Army (de:Georg Thomas von Asch), noted in German that it was 'received in Irkutsk in 1793'. Held in the Göttingen State and University Library (Göttingen State and University Library) Asch Collection (Sammlung Asch).》 = Commentary posted on the linked page below. Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daikokoya_Kodayu_-_Landkarte_von_Japan.jpg?uselang=en
★References
・The copyright of the main text belongs to the author (Ryohei Noguchi), and the publishing rights belong to Keikosha.
・Linking, sharing, and introducing the entire article is welcome! m--m [Editor]