Interview with a Bakumatsu Official: A Translation from Kyuji Shimonroku

Abstract

IN November 1890 an article appeared in Shigakkai zasshi , the journal of the Historical Association (Shigakkai ), stressing the significance of the study of unofficial documents and the preservation of oral testimony. The author, Ogawa Ginjiro II$, the secretary of the association, called on historians not to ridicule the feudal era but to make an effort to understand its spirit. To that end, he noted, researchers should utilize the knowledge of people with firsthand experience of bakufu institutions and practices, before such knowledge was lost forever.' Ogawa's article signaled the establishment of a research group devoted to interviewing former bakufu officials. Among the most ardent promoters of this project was the famous historian Shigeno Yasutsugu l Mt#W (1827-1910), founder of the Department of National History of the Imperial University of Tokyo. Others included the historians Konakamura Kiyonori 4I1UPF (1821-1895), Kume Kunitake NA1 (1839-1931), and Mikami Sanji EL (1865-1939), and the legal scholar Miyazaki Michisaburo 9WR ?Jl (1855-1928). The participants in the project, which from March 1891 adopted the name Kyuji Shimonkai IHEI:PA (Association for Inquiring into Bygone Days), themselves provided substantial financial support for its realization. The first interview was held on 31 January 1891 and the fourteenth and last on 28 November 1892. Transcripts of the interviews were published in a supplement to Shigakkai zasshi as Kyuji shimonroku IHE ivii. The members of Kyuji Shimonkai conducted interviews with a wide range of figures. Testimony from a supervisor of the corps of pages (kosho todori /i\at4 R) and a lady-in-waiting from the interior (oku A, the shogun's private quarters) provides an impression of shogunal daily life. Information on more official