Praising Sogoro

Sakura Sogoro as he leaves for Edo. 

Cansu Colakoglu

According to the Tokugawa period xenophobe activist Aizawa Seishisai, since the dawn of time the Japanese society lived based on “the norms of human conduct”^[1] which are “loyalty of subject for ruler and affection between parent and child”^[2] established by “the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu.”^[3] I find both of these concepts present in Yoshitoshi’s interpretation of the famous peasant Sakura Sogoro, “the archetype of the peasant martyr [as] a man who deliberately sacrificed himself on behalf of his community.”^[4] In the way it reflects these divine concepts, the illustration reveals a great deal about the fundamentals of the Japanese society in Tokugawa period.

This image is a woodblock print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-92), “recognized as the greatest Japanese woodblock artist of his era,”^[5] and tells the story of Sogoro. According to that legend, the peasants of the domain experienced extreme hardships and starvation due to the daimyo’s raising of taxes. After the refusal of their petition to local officials for tax relief, a group of peasants petitioned the shogunate directly and their demands were denied once again. As a result, Sogoro, who had by then become the unofficial leader of these peasants, approached the shogun independently, sacrificing himself by breaking the bakufu. Painted in 1885-86, The Tale of Sakura Sogou illustrates Sogoro bidding farewell to his family before he leaves for Edo to petition the shogunate.

Amaterasu’s “Way of Heaven”^[6] dictates “sentiments of loyalty and filial devotion.”^[7] In the print, Yoshitoshi illustrates Sogoro as a wise looking built man with wide shoulders manifesting a sense of leadership. He has a graceful compassionate look on his face that shows no sign of regret but only duty. Since ‘filial devotion’ is key to the way of living in the Japanese society according to Aizawa Seishisai, by depicting an instantiation of that devotion and care, Yoshitoshi may be emphasizing that Sogoro actually was a well-behaved peasant who lost his life only because “high officials abused their powers”^[8] in his domain. On the right side of the woodblock print, Sogoro’s wife embraces her baby to protect it from the faith that bakufu casts upon them, probably expecting the punishment for Sogoro’s behavior to be death for the entire family.^[9] The house seems very disorganized, which catches attention right away as it seems unusual in a minimalist Japanese household setting. The chaos of the room could be symbolizing the tragedy that awaits Sogoro’s family after he breaks the law by directly approaching the shogun.

Since loyalty of the subject for the ruler was regarded as the “greatest virtue of all,”^[10] Sogoro has, although acting very honorably and selflessly, broken the bakufu by approaching the shogun himself. Although the act is a disgrace against the bakufu, the fairly honorable depiction of Sogoro in Yoshitoshi’s interpretation of the tale reveals significant sympathy towards Sogoro. Yoshitoshi painted this woodblock print after Meiji Restoration in 1868 which ended the Tokugawa period and thus the system of military governance in Japan. Given this context, it is not surprising that a peasant who selflessly resisted the bakufu for the sake of fellow peasants’ wellbeing constitutes a scene of heroism after the fall of the shogunate.