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Meiji Restoration Losers: Memory and Tokugawa Supporters in Modern Japan . By Michael Wert . Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press , 2013. 240 pp. ISBN: 9780674726703 (cloth).
Book Reviews--Japan
In Meiji Restoration Losers, Michael Wert offers a highly readable study of the complex politics of regional memory in modern Japan, providing insight into the role of what Carol Gluck has termed "memory activists." Wert does this primarily through the tragic figure of Oguri Tadamasa (1827-68), a high official in the Tokugawa shogunate who received additional notice for being executed by imperial forces in the turmoil of the Meiji Restoration. Wert's study is broadly chronological, tracing the contested commemoration and construction of Oguri's memory through to the early twenty-first century. In this context, the book examines several parallel strands, including the remembrance of Oguri's contemporaries Ii Naosuke (1815-60) and Saigo Takamori (1828-77). Wert also weaves into his narrative the fascinating story of the legendary Tokugawa treasure hoard that Oguri supposedly buried near his home in modern-day Gunma Prefecture, and which has occupied adventurers and treasure hunters from the early Meiji period to the present day.
The first chapter provides an overview of Oguri's life and career, focusing on two key episodes: his efforts to construct the great naval complex at Yokosuka with French aid, and the events surrounding his execution in Gonda Village, where Oguri had moved after Tokugawa Yoshinobu ignored his plan to continue armed resistance and decided to surrender to the imperial forces. Oguri's advocacy of war placed him at odds with the shogunal commander Katsu Kaishu (1823-99), who was later venerated for having avoided excessive bloodshed by surrendering the capital to the imperial loyalist...