Daisuke Konno, Dr.

Publications

■Hashimoto Sanai『Treatise on Enlightenment』/English Version by Dr.D.Konno
Publisher ; Kinseisha
Published Date : the first edition Feb.1996, the second edition Mar,1999
The third edition 29th July 2005.

This volume of the " Treatise on Enlightenment" is the first English translation of the
Japanese "Keihatsuroku", which samurai Sanai Hashimoto (1834-1859) wrote at the age
of 15. Sanai Hashimoto was a gifted statesman, especially active from the end of the
Tokugawa feudal system through the Meiji Restoration, which brought modernization
of Japan. He was sent to his death on false charge when he was only twenty-five years old
during the politically-motivated Ansei Purge.
" Treatise on Enlightenment" is not a long work, but rather a short work. This work is,
as it may be called, an aggregate of people's sense of values in the period from the
Tokugawa shogunate government to the Meiji Restoration. Nevertheless, even now, this
work does not impress us as anachronistic. Why ? Furthermore, throughout life's path,
loyalty, morality, ethics, good grace, aesthetics sensibility of the Japanese people of
those days are condensed in this work.
■Yoshida Shoin『Soulful Minute』/English Version by Dr.D.Konno
Publisher : Kinseisha
Published date : The first edition Oct.2003, The second edition April 2016.

  "Soulful Minute" is Shouin Yoshida's (1830-1859) farewell note. He wrote it out in just
one day, the day before his execution in the Ansei Purge. The physical size of this missive,
12 cm long and 17 cm wide, coming to about 5,000 characters on 19 pages, is enough to
allow us to easily imagine how much inconvenience he had writing it in jail. In "Soulful
Minute", he reveals a mind so unruffled enough it is hard to believe that death stared him
in the face, as he encouraged his disciples and paid careful and thoughtful attention to his
followers. This only increases the pathos we feel upon reading it. When reading his writings
including his letters as well as "Soulful Minute", we cannot help admiring how affectionate
he was to others, how anxious he was about the future of his country and how much he
sacrificed himself for society. We can almost hear his soulful cry. May it serve as an
important warning to modern Japanese as well.
  Priest Mokurin, in the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, said "Every character
written by Shouin Yoshida seems to be filled with his tears, and blood seems to gush out of
every word in his letters."  Nothing could be more aptly said.
■Sakuma Shozan 『Record of Conscience』/English Version by Dr.D.Konno
Publisher : Kinseisha
Published date : May 2016

   Seikenroku("Record of Conscience") by Sakuma Shozan is the third　work
I have translated into English, after the first,Keihatsuroku("Treatise on
Enlightenment") by Hashimoto Sanai, and the second,Ryukonroku("Soulful
Minute") by Yoshida Shoin. Hashimoto Sanai (1834-1859) wrote "Treatise on
Enlightenment" when he was fourteen years old. He had read the biographies of
great men, studied the words, deeds and morality of the ancients, and was deeply
inspired by them. He then wrote "Treatise on Enlightenment" as his own moral code
for self-encouragement. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that Sanai's
whole life development started from this book. To my knowledge, there is no other
example in any time or place of such a work being written by a youth of only
fourteen. The work passed into the hands of his follower Mizoguchi Tatsugoro (later
Kato Nakaba), who gave it to Sanai's brother Hashimoto Tsunatsune, and he in turn
to the Echizen Confucian scholar Yajima Ryuken. Finally, it came into the
possession of Count Mitsuaki Tanaka, a samurai from the Tosa Domain who was to
become Minister of the Imperial Household. Tanaka donated it to the Imperial
Household Ministry, where it survives to this day as an "Imperial Treasure".
   "Soulful Minute" is a testament written over the course of one whole day by
Yoshida Shoin (1830-1859). He wrote it in prison before his execution the following
day as part of the Ansei Purge. "Soulful Minute" consists of around 5,000 characters
written finely on 19 pages of thinhanshipaper folded in four, measuring 12cm long
by 17cm wide. In it, Yoshida sets down his final words with a composure belying the
fact that he was awaiting death, and in spite of the constraints placed on his freedom
in prison. He expresses words of encouragement to his followers and shows caring
consideration to those around him.
   "Soulful Minute" had the effect of a "bible" on the late-Edo patriots who
looked up to Shoin as a mentor. They used it as a foundation stone for their
leadership of the new Japan and for building the new era now known as the "Meiji
Restoration", which they had won through their own deeds.
   Hashimoto Sanai was executed at the age of 25, and Yoshida Shoin at 29, as
part of the Ansei Purge orchestrated by Ii Naosuke.
   By contrast to both of these, "Record of Conscience" by Sakuma Shozan
(1811-1864) was set down over a period of nine years while he was under house
arrest in Matsushiro. Unlike Hashimoto's "Treatise on Enlightenment" and
Yoshida's "Soulful Minute", moreover, "Record of Conscience" was written when
its author was in late middle age. "Record of Conscience" has a strong flavour of a
collection of thoughts planned in prison, after Shozan had been incarcerated for
complicity in a stowaway incident involving his follower Yoshida Shoin. But
"Record of Conscience" is not merely a record of thoughts written in prison, for it
contains 57 sections on a variety of subjects including historical retrospectionon the
crisis facing Japan's political system and the state of the national polity (with
particular reference to the Perry Expedition), doctrine on human cultivation,
scholarship, a treatise on state affairs, and a theory of naval defence. It is a veritable
compendium of Shozan's learning and thought.It is also a work of great historical
value as an aid to understanding the state of Japan's national defence at that
time.