The Last Testament of Okitsu Yagoemon

Abstract

A SHORT story by Mori Ogai, okitsu Tagoemon no isho, was published in Choij kjron in October I9I2.2 Mainly dealing with the circumstances of a warrior's suicide at the beginning of the Edo period, it was clearly a reaction to an event which had taken place less than a month before. Its appearance so quickly in such a prestigious journal is a reflection of the significance attached to this event by the Japanese people. Emperor Meiji had died on 30 July. At eight in the evening of I3 September, the Day of Great Mourning, a signal gun announced the departure of the Imperial Cortege from the Imperial Palace. At that time, General Count Nogi, in his relatively modest home in Akasaka Ward, facing in that direction, committed ceremonial suicide. The people of the nation, already profoundly affected by the passing of the great figure venerated since his accession in I 867, were further stirred by this dramatic event. They were not revolted by it, although the feelings it aroused contained an element of sorrow. Rather, it was honored as a pure manifestation of conduct appropriate to a warrior, a loyal follower, in a tradition going back to the Middle Ages, with origins in an even more remote antiquity. This particular aspect of that conduct is knowvn asjunshi,3 which implies following one's lord in death. Loyalty is the primary virtue for a warrior he is totally dedicated to