＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
・「青天を衝け」の第一話に罪人として登場した高島秋帆はどんな人物だったのか？
In the first episode of the NHK Taiga drama “Seiten wo Tsuke,” which began airing on February 14, 2021, there was a scene in which young Eiichi Shibusawa (1840-1931) witnesses artillery expert Takashima Shūhan (played by Hiroshi Tamaki) being arrested as a criminal and escorted away by local magistrates in a prisoner’s cage (a “karumaru cage”).
From his words to Eiichi Shibusawa, who visited him in prison, “If things continue like this, this country will be finished. I must listen to my own heart and act accordingly,” we can imagine that he was a “patriot,” but what kind of person was he really?
1. Who was Takashima Shūhan?
Takashima Shūhan (1798-1866) was a military scholar and artillery expert born in Nagasaki during the late Edo period, and is called the “founder of modern Japanese artillery.” His father was a “Nagasaki town elder.”
Initially, he studied Ogino-ryū artillery, but later he learned Dutch studies, military science, and artillery from the Dutch in Dejima, and founded the Western-style artillery known as “Takashima-ryū.”
He was a pioneer of modern Western-style artillery, possessing a pioneering spirit, and dedicated himself to purchasing and casting firearms from abroad.
Inspired by China’s defeat to Britain in the Opium Wars (1840-1842), and feeling threatened by the invasion of Western powers, he petitioned the shogunate to adopt Western-style artillery.
With the support of Egawa Tarōzaemon (1801-1855), he went to Edo and, in 1841, conducted artillery training at Tokumarugahara in Musashi Province, outside Edo, gaining renown.
However, in 1842, he was imprisoned due to false accusations by Torii Yōzō. This is the “Takashima Shūhan Scandal” described below.
He was pardoned following Commodore Perry’s arrival in 1853, and in 1856 became the shogunate’s artillery instructor at the Kōbusho (military training school), dedicating himself to the shogunate’s military reforms. He made a significant contribution to the modernization of Japan’s military.
2. The Takashima Shūhan Scandal and Torii Yōzō
(1) What is the Takashima Shūhan Scandal?
The Takashima Shūhan Scandal refers to an incident in 1842 in which Torii Yōzō allegedly falsely accused Takashima Shūhan of “illegal trade and treason.”
Takashima Shūhan was arrested and imprisoned by the Nagasaki Magistrate as “responsible for the long-standing sloppy management of the Nagasaki Kaisho (trading office).”
The prevailing theory of this incident is that Torii Yōzō, jealous of Takashima Shūhan’s popularity with the shogunate and his financial power comparable to that of a daimyo with a 100,000 koku domain through “side trade,” falsely accused him of “illegal trade.”
However, there is also a theory that Shūhan’s arrest and the purge of the Nagasaki Kaisho were carried out by Rōjū Mizuno Tadakuni, who feared that the corruption in the Kaisho’s accounting would hinder the copper refinement production of the copper guild.
(2) Who is Torii Yōzō?
Torii Yōzō (1796-1873) was a shogunate retainer and hatamoto (direct samurai) during the Edo period. His biological father was Hayashi Jussai (1768-1841), a Confucian scholar who served as the head of the Daigaku-no-kami (head of the Imperial University). He was appointed to an official position and called himself “Kai-no-kami.”
At the age of 25, he became the adopted son-in-law of Torii Narisumi and served as a close confidant of the 11th Shogun, Tokugawa Ienari. When Ienari retired and Tokugawa Ieyoshi became the 12th Shogun, and when the Rōjū (senior councilor) Mizuno Tadakuni began the “Tenpō Reforms,” Yōzō demonstrated his exceptional ability to maintain order in the city as an inspector and Southern Magistrate, earning him the nickname “Mizuno’s Three Musketeers.” However, due to his strict enforcement, he was feared by the public and nicknamed “Yōkai” (meaning “monster”).
In 1837, Torii Yōzō dealt with the Ōshio Heihachirō Rebellion, and in 1839, he suppressed Western learning during the Bansha Incident, criticizing Takashima Shūhan’s adoption of Western-style artillery.
Torii Yōzō attempted to promote measures to avert domestic and international crises from a “conservative” standpoint, using the shogunate’s exclusive authority, and suppressed the “enlightened” faction led by Takashima Shūhan.
In 1843, Torii Yōzō betrayed Mizuno Tadakuni and switched sides to the opposition, causing the Tenpō Reforms to falter and Mizuno Tadakuni to fall from power.
However, Mizuno Tadakuni, who was reappointed as Rōjū (senior councilor) in 1844, did not forgive Torii for betraying him and thwarting the reforms. He dismissed Torii for “dereliction of duty and corruption,” sentenced him to imprisonment, and placed him under the custody of the lord of the Marugame Domain in Sanuki Province.
He was confined to Sanuki Province for 23 years but was released after the Meiji Restoration. 3. Takashina Shunpan, whose name is very similar to Takashima Shūhan’s, was a great figure from Takatsuki.
Although this is outside the scope of this discussion, while Takashima Shūhan is nationally famous, Takashina Shunpan, whose name is very similar, may still be less well-known nationwide.
During the late Edo period, there was a famous Chinese poet named Fujii Chikugai among the samurai of the Takatsuki domain, and Takashina Shunpan was also a famous Chinese poet and his disciple.
As he is a great figure from my hometown of Takatsuki, I would like everyone across the country to know about him.