The road to Osaka from Hyogo passed along Motomachi, then along the north side of the Foreign Concession, where to-day the electric tram-line runs in front of the Daimaru Department Store. Daimyo processions from the southwest were under orders to bypass Kobe by travelling inland near Akashi along the newly-constructed Tokugawa Road. The Bizen party having landed at Hyogo had no option but to pass through Kobe. In any case they may not have been disposed to obey the Tokugawa edicts. As the advance party of about 150 men passed along the road the rough order Shita ni iro! Shita ni iro! —"Down on your knees"—was shouted as customarily at the onlookers, whereupon all not of military rank were required to kneel down and bow low until their heads touched the dust.
The few foreigners gathered on the edge of the Concession refused to bow down, whereupon an American was attacked by one of the samurai, but succeeded in escaping. The procession was as usual long strung out and did not proceed in close formation. When two French marines crossed the line of the procession the Bizen samurai were so infuriated that the order was given to cut them down. Fortunately they too escaped, although one suffered a slight wound. It was then that Taki Zenzaburo, an officer of the advance guard, gave the order to open fire. Shots echoed across the Settlement as they fired on every foreigner in sight, but their marksmanship was so bad that they only succeeded in nicking one American sailor. It was said that they had just been issued with newly imported rifles, the sights of which had not been adjusted. At any rate the bullets went whistling overhead and most fell splashing into the sea.
Sir Harry Parkes, the British Minister, hurriedly turned out the Legation guard, and putting himself at the head of an armed escort galloped after the Bizen men. A substantial body of British sailors and a force of American marines were quickly landed from men-of-war in the harbour and joined in the chase, whilst a party of French marines crossed into the fields beyond Ikuta Temple, in the hope of cutting off the samurai from the hills.
The Bizen soldiers made one stand, but after firing upon the advancing foreign force they retreated in disorder towards Kumochi and Rokko, scattering their impedimenta as they ran. Several hours later the foreign soldiers and marines returned to the Concession, having expended much ammunition but without taking a single prisoner, other than an old coolie too decrepit to run fast. Many of the men however were laden down with trophies. The shooting on both sides was apparently wild, because not a single Japanese soldier appears to have been hit, nor did they succeed in hitting any of their attackers. The only casualty was an old woman who was accidentally wounded in the leg.
By the time the foreign troops got back to the Concession, they found it in a state of siege and wild excitement. Over five hundred English, French and American sailors and marines had been landed from the men-of-war in the harbour. Pickets guarded all parts of the Concession and town where foreigners resided. Earthworks had been thrown up and two twenty-four-pound howitzers guarded the main road from Hyogo. The British Consulate was protected by two Armstrong guns, and the Americans had constructed sandbag earthworks and placed guards with fieldpieces at each of the gates to the Concession. All Japanese steamers in the port of Hyogo had been seized and were being held as hostages.
Three days later word came from the Mikado in Kyoto that the treaty engagements entered into by the Tokugawa Shogunate with the Foreign Powers would be honoured and that foreigners would be protected. The foreign representatives thereupon released the ships, returned their forces to the men-of-war and brought the state of seige to an end.
While at this late date some portions of these happenings may have the appearance of a Gilbert and Sullivan farce, it must be remembered that Japan was then passing through a state, as she has on several other occasions, when an attempt was being made by opposition elements to govern by assassination. A Japanese Minister of State and a U.S. Legation official had been assassinated. The British Legation in Tokyo had been attacked and fired and many foreigners had been murdered. The fear was that an attack such as the Bizen men made could develop into a massacre of foreigners.
The risks of assassination did in fact continue to be very real ones for foreigners until in March, 1868, the Mikado issued a decree reading:
...All persons in future guilty of murdering foreigners or of committing any acts of violence towards them will be not only acting in opposition to Our express orders but also... Such offenders shall be punished in proportion to the gravity of the crime, their names if they be samurai being erased from the roll and...
But let us return to the happenings in Kobe. The Japanese authorities took a serious view of the attack on the Settlement and soon after an instruction was issued, although perhaps reluctantly, in the name of the Mikado that the officer who had given the order to fire upon the foreigners should commit hara-kiri in the presence of witnesses of the seven foreign legations in Kobe. The ceremony took place at 10:30 at night in the Eifukuji Temple in Hyogo, then the headquarters of the Imperial troops, in the presence of the Governor of Hyogo Prefecture, other high Japanese officials and the representatives of the foreign legations.
I, and I alone, unwarrantably gave the order to fire on the foreigners at Kobe, and again when they tried to escape. For this crime, I disembowel myself, and I beg you, who are present, to do me the honour of witnessing the act.
Thus spoke the unfortunate Taki Zenzaburo. Then with calm dignity and great courage he bowed to the assemblage and allowed his garments to fall from his shoulders, the better to expose his neck.
Deliberately, with a steady hand, he took the dirk that lay before him; he looked at it wistfully, almost affectionately; for a moment he seemed to collect his thoughts for the last time, and then stabbing himself deeply below the waist on the left-hand side, he drew the dirk slowly across to the right side, and, turning it in the wound, gave a slight cut upwards. During this sickeningly painful operation he never moved a muscle of his face. When he drew out the dirk he leaned forward and stretched out his neck; an expression of pain for the first time crossed his face, but he uttered no sound. At that moment the kaishaku, who, still crouching by his side, had been keenly watching his every movement, sprang to his feet, poised his sword for a second in the air; there was a flash, a heavy, ugly thud, a crashing fall; with one blow the head had been severed from the body.*
In those words A.B. Mitford of the British Legation described the ceremony, and in that manner died the brave but impetuous Taki Zenzaburo.
The Eifukuji Temple where this drama occurred was located in the oldest section of Hyogo. During World War II the great bronze Buddha of Hyogo and many other Buddhist statues were torn down to be turned into munitions of war, whereupon, it is said by some, that the Gods deserted Kobe, and being unprotected the city suffered terrible damage when the B-29s poured down their bombs. However that might be, it is a fact that the ancient Hyogo section suffered immense damage and many historical spots were wiped out for all time, including the Eifukuji Temple.
Two years ago we visited the site of that temple to say a prayer for the soul of brave Taki Zenzaburo. It was the anniversary day of his death. Noisome heaps of rubbish and old packing cases then littered the ground upon which once gushed the blood from his severed neck. A philopon addict was drowsing alongside his tomb.
A few days ago on re-visiting that area we had difficulty in locating the site. The land on which the Eifukuji Temple once stood had been sold. Factories had sprung up where previously we had found squalor and ruin. A high palisade had been erected by the new owners of the land, and the tomb is no longer visible from the street, but on penetrating behind the palisade we found that the tomb is being well preserved. The ground about it had been cleared and the customary offerings of flowers and greenery had been placed before it. The new owners of that land seemingly are doing everything possible to ensure that the once anguished spirit of the ill-fated Taki Zenzaburo may rest in peace.
Footnote
* Tales of Old Japan, by Lord Redesdale, MacMillan & Co., Ltd.
&nb
sp; THE
SAKAI
MASSACRE
Right over against Osaca, on the other side of the River, lyeth another great Towne called Sacay, but not so bigge as Osaca, yet it is a Towne of great Trade for all the Ilands thereabout.
Capt. Saris' Diary, 1613
In the previous chapter entitled "Hara-kiri in Kobe," an account was given of the attack made upon the Kobe Foreign Concession, for which the officer responsible, Taki Zenzaburo, was required to commit hara-kiri.
It will be recalled that the affair was precipitated by two French marines crossing the line of a Japanese procession—a senseless act and one probably carried out with insolence and in ignorance of the affront that was being given to persons of dignity. The attack upon the Foreign Concession that followed was treated very seriously by the foreign Ministers in Japan, who, fearing an extension of the assassinations and violence against foreigners, demanded of the Government that the officer responsible for the attack be punished. By order of the Mikado, as the Emperor was then known to the Western world, Taki Zenzaburo was required to commit hara-kiri. It needed but a hint or request from the foreign Ministers that such an extreme penalty was not required, for Taki Zenzaburo to receive some lesser punishment. Such request was not forthcoming, even though there were some who felt that something less than death would have fitted the crime.
The Japan Times Overland Mail of February, 1868, referred to the death of Taki Zenzaburo as "a foul deed." It charged that he had been "judicially murdered," and said:
No great harm was done by the attack on the Kobe Concession. No life was lost and the summary punishment of the two Frenchmen and a reprimand from the Government to the Bizen officer, with the offer of an apology, and a few hundred dollars as a salve for the two wounded men's hurts should have settled the question.
It then added in a prophetic vein:
But our representatives would be satisfied with nothing but blood and the creation of a vendetta between their victim's retainers and foreigners, which nothing but some European's life will satisfy.
As the Japan Times was known to be receiving support from the Japanese Government, its views were always under suspicion of being inspired.
Unhappily a few days later that prophecy seemed to come true, with the massacre of eleven Frenchmen at Sakai near Osaka. Whether that massacre was an act of revenge for the death of Taki Zenzaburo a few days before, or whether it was just a coincidence that Frenchmen were involved in both affairs, has never been known. Certainly different clans were responsible for each affair, which, it might be argued, indicated that a coincidence and not a vendetta existed.
It was Sunday, 8th March, 1868. The French vice-consul at Kobe and the commander of a French corvette had visited Osaka and were walking from Osaka to Sakai there to embark on a launch which had been sent by the French war vessel "Dupleix" to take them back to Kobe. They were being escorted by four Japanese, two of whom were Osaka officials.
At Sumiyoshi, which lies about half way between Osaka and Sakai, they were stopped by armed men of the Tosa clan who compelled them to return to Osaka. In the meantime the launch was waiting for them alongside the jetty at Sakai. Some of the crew were on the jetty talking with Japanese children to whom they had given some bread, others were strolling on the shore nearby. Never has it been suggested by either side that the Frenchmen did anything that might have provoked anger against them. Nevertheless they were suddenly attacked by a large body of Tosa men who fired upon them at close range. Some of the Frenchmen jumped into the sea when the attack commenced, but all, with one exception, were killed outright or fearfully wounded by the large ball bullets of those days. Those who were wounded died later. The only survivor was the engineer who had jumped overboard, and hid between the launch and other vessels nearby.
This terrible news reached the French Minister in Osaka when he was entertaining a number of Government officials. Rising from the table in intense anger he demanded the delivery of the bodies of the murdered men within twenty-four hours, struck his flag in Osaka, and returned to Kobe on the "Dupleix."
Two Japanese Ministers called upon the French Minister to express their regrets, but until such time as the bodies were returned he refused to see them.
The Japan Weekly Mail, fourteen years later, published translations of extracts from "The Diary of a Japanese Gentleman" from which the following has been taken:
.... meanwhile the fishermen of Sakai were ordered to search for the bodies of the Frenchmen who had been killed in the sea. A reward of Yen 30 was offered by the local Government for each corpse returned. Hundreds of fishermen were soon engaged in the search and by 9 p.m. all bodies had been found.
On Tuesday, the second day after the massacre, the bodies were brought to Kobe by sea for delivery to the French, but, as the result of a curious and most unhappy blunder, the boxes containing the corpses were delivered to the British transport "Adventurous" where they were received on board and stowed away in the mistaken belief that they contained curios from the British Legation. It was not until late in the afternoon that the error was discovered, after which the coffins were conveyed to the French flagship with proper ceremony.
The funeral took place the following morning in the old Ono-hama Cemetery of Kobe, and was attended by well-nigh all the residents of the Concession and large contingents from all foreign vessels in the port. Although Kobe had been opened less than three months, the desolate and wind-swept little cemetery close to the sea, and near what was then the mouth of the Ikuta River, was already dotted with many graves.
The following is a published translation of the French Minister's funeral oration:
You have been treacherously massacred without provocation and while doing your duty in your country's service.
Had your chiefs yielded to the first impulse of their affection for you, your death would have been immediately avenged by the complete destruction of a city and of thousands of its inhabitants. But they had the self-control to repress their first impulse; they recognised the fact that France should reply to such an act of barbarity as your murder by giving a proof of civilization.
But, though delayed, reparation will be more just and shall not be the less full.
I swear to you in the name of France and of the Emperor, whose noble children you are, that your death shall be avenged in such a way as to give us the hope that your comrades and your fellow-citizens shall be for the future safe from such atrocity as that of which you have been the innocent victims.
You are now near God. Pray to him to help us in our difficult task.
Following the funeral the French Minister demanded of the Japanese Government:
(a) The public execution of the guilty men, leaving the Japanese Government to determine the number, but specifying that the officer in command be included.
(b) An apology to be made on the deck of the "Dupleix."
(c) Payment of an indemnity of $150,000 for the benefit of the relatives of the murdered men.
(d) Exclusion of Tosa men from all treaty ports.
The new Imperial Government was now gravely aware of the growing danger in these increasing acts of violence against foreigners, which violence had been born of their own earlier teachings that the presence of foreigners polluted the soil of Japan. Whilst the leaders of the Government had preached that doctrine a few years earlier, in their crusade of opposition to the Tokugawa Shogunate for opening Japan to the West, it was now evident to them that the situation was getting out of hand. The Imperial Government now hoped that they could reverse the doctrine of hate. All the French demands were therefore readily accepted. The French war vessels moved up the bay to Sakai, and the commander and a contingent of men proceeded ashore to the execution site nominated by the Japanese authorities, which was at the Myokokuji Temple about a mile distant from the place of the massacre.
Robert Louis Stevenson in his bizarre story, "The Suicide Club," describes the tense excitement amongst a group of men—members of the Suicide Club
—when they gathered together, each waiting to learn whether Fate would decide that he should die that night.
Possibly the same emotions were being experienced by some of the twenty men whom the Japanese authorities had brought for execution. It had been left to the Japanese authorities to determine the number, and so not unnaturally an impression existed that the French might be satisfied with a lesser number than twenty. The first to be executed were the two officers. It is said that when the turn came for the men to commit hara-kiri, they contended among themselves for the privilege of being the next to follow. And it is said that each, with his last breath, prophesied woe and vengeance against the French.
The sickening ceremony proceeded, as each in turn first used his short sword against himself. When the eleventh head had been severed from the body and fell thumping onto the ground, the French commander intervened and asked that the remainder be pardoned. The Japanese officer in command replied that he could not accede to such a request without written permission from the French Minister, who at that time was on board a French warship three miles off shore. A painful delay ensued, until a written request for the suspension of the executions could be obtained from the French Minister. The nine survivors were then led away and were subsequently reprieved by the Emperor.
The Japan Times Overland Mail of the time saw in this act of clemency a possible termination to the blood feud which that paper professed to believe arose out of the death of Taki Zenzaburo, and so indeed it may have been because the Sakai Massacre marked the end of a long succession of such evil deeds of violence.
Shades of the Past Page 8
