Hundred Bales of Rice
This drama was written based to modern Japanese history. It was stopped writing, publishing, and performing during war years. So this drama wasn't popular before. But it became popular very much suddenly, because on May 7th, the Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro mentioned it in his general policy speech. In 1868, Tokugaw shogunate government had finished, and the Meiji emperor started the imperial rule on Japan. The incident has been called the Meiji Restoration. Just after that, the Boshin Civil War that the imperial military attacked to the former Tokugawa forces had started. Hokuetsu War that was one of the battle of the Boshin Civil War had been done at Nagaoka, present Niigata prefecture. Nagaoka intended to keep of the armed neutrality, but the Meiji government didn't allow it. Finally Nagaoka was destroyed completely. It was because Nagaoka had the supreme commander, Kawai Tsugunosuke. After Kawai lost the war as the regular army, he organized retainers to the guerrilla army. They set fire to the town, and made people go away in order to fight against the imperial military. They had fought for four months at Nagaoka until Kawai had died. People hated bushi regardless of Nagaoka or the imperial army. Bushi is a male who belongs to the warrior's class, and is the same meaning as samurai. They were only 5% of the population of Japan at Edo period. At Nagaoka, bushi decided to keep of the armed neutrality, and bushi fought the Hokuetsu War, and bushi lost the war. Bushi had done everything without consulting people of Nagaoka. After the war, the feudal stipend of Nagaoka was decreased to one third, and it wasn't enough for bushi class. Miyama that is the relative of the lord of Nagaoka donated 100 bales of rice to Nagaoka. The clan officer Kobayashi Torasaburo decided to sell the rice in order to built a school instead of distributing the rice to former retainers, because he thought that Nagaoka needed an able person. Although former retainers protested to Torasaburo, they accepted his idea finally. They made their mind up to be patient with recent hardship in order to make a good future of Nagaoka, because they had their pride as bushi. At the result, the school produced many able persons. But the former retainers had had to be patient for a long time. The Prime Minister Koizumi cited this story as an example to restructure of Japanese economy. This story says to keep your mind like being at battlefield anytime as bushi. People accepted it, but I wonder if they really know that they aren't bushi. Kawai Tsugunosuke is well known to Japanese more than Kobayashi Torasaburo. After Hokuetsu War, the tomb of Kawai was destroyed by people, and it wasn't once. We are people as ordinary as the people who destroyed the tomb of Kawai. We don't have pride as bushi. Do you think that you can really make your mind up like bushi? (2001,9,22) |
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