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Enomoto Tatsu (1852-1893)
Feb. 2nd, 2024 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnozomi[Fair warning: I’m trying to avoid “We don’t know much about her, but her husband did this” on this site, but this one it kind of applies to. I think between the two of them they had interesting lives, at least…]
Enomoto Tatsu was born in Edo in 1852, the daughter of the rangaku doctor Hayashi Dokai and his wife Tsuru. Hayashi held various important posts in medical service after the Meiji Restoration in 1868; Tatsu grew up in comfortable circumstances, studied Japanese and Chinese poetry, and acquired an “intellectual beauty” (which makes me think of glasses and ponytails, but I think she preceded the widespread acceptance of both in Japan).
Enomoto Takeaki was a high-ranking naval officer with significant overseas experience, having learned English from Nakahama Manjiro and studied in the Netherlands along with Tatsu’s brother Kenkai, who introduced them. She married him in 1867, when she was sixteen and he twice her age.
The Boshin War broke out almost immediately after their marriage. Takeaki was on the bakufu side, ie the losers; in 1869 he fled to Hokkaido with his fleet of steam warships, along with a handful of French military advisors, and set up the short-lived Republic of Ezo with himself elected president, making Tatsu first lady. The new Imperial forces defeated them exactly six months later and Takeaki was imprisoned for two and a half years.
Unusually for fighters on the losing side, he was rehabilitated and made a part of the Meiji government, serving as Minister of almost all the major ministries at one point or another, as well as becoming a special envoy to Russia in 1874. Tatsu accompanied him there; her diary, which I would love to lay hands on, is said to describe Russian sights and customs in detail [although this comes from a dubious site and may be fictional, but it would be neat if true]. Takeaki was also active in promoting Japanese emigration overseas, meaning he had a hand in creating the waves of emigrants to Brazil and Peru.
At some point during all this they managed to have five, possibly six children. Tatsu died in 1893 of illness, only 41; Takeaki survived her by fifteen years.
Sources
Nakae
https://daimaru-tottori.co.jp/history/5229/ (Japanese) Contains some facts that seem to be straight-up fiction (possibly the person writing it just made things up when they couldn’t find anything?) but interesting
https://museum.kirinholdings.com/person/kindai/01.html (Japanese) Enomoto Takeaki from the perspective of beer! In a letter to his sister: “I am a little bit dronken, so please excuse my bad handwriting,” using the Dutch word. He also wrote to Tatsu in 1872: “Thank you for sending so much beer, I had plenty yesterday and today and am in high spirits. … I’m looking forward to the time soon when we can spend our days and nights together.”
Enomoto Tatsu was born in Edo in 1852, the daughter of the rangaku doctor Hayashi Dokai and his wife Tsuru. Hayashi held various important posts in medical service after the Meiji Restoration in 1868; Tatsu grew up in comfortable circumstances, studied Japanese and Chinese poetry, and acquired an “intellectual beauty” (which makes me think of glasses and ponytails, but I think she preceded the widespread acceptance of both in Japan).
Enomoto Takeaki was a high-ranking naval officer with significant overseas experience, having learned English from Nakahama Manjiro and studied in the Netherlands along with Tatsu’s brother Kenkai, who introduced them. She married him in 1867, when she was sixteen and he twice her age.
The Boshin War broke out almost immediately after their marriage. Takeaki was on the bakufu side, ie the losers; in 1869 he fled to Hokkaido with his fleet of steam warships, along with a handful of French military advisors, and set up the short-lived Republic of Ezo with himself elected president, making Tatsu first lady. The new Imperial forces defeated them exactly six months later and Takeaki was imprisoned for two and a half years.
Unusually for fighters on the losing side, he was rehabilitated and made a part of the Meiji government, serving as Minister of almost all the major ministries at one point or another, as well as becoming a special envoy to Russia in 1874. Tatsu accompanied him there; her diary, which I would love to lay hands on, is said to describe Russian sights and customs in detail [although this comes from a dubious site and may be fictional, but it would be neat if true]. Takeaki was also active in promoting Japanese emigration overseas, meaning he had a hand in creating the waves of emigrants to Brazil and Peru.
At some point during all this they managed to have five, possibly six children. Tatsu died in 1893 of illness, only 41; Takeaki survived her by fifteen years.
Sources
Nakae
https://daimaru-tottori.co.jp/history/5229/ (Japanese) Contains some facts that seem to be straight-up fiction (possibly the person writing it just made things up when they couldn’t find anything?) but interesting
https://museum.kirinholdings.com/person/kindai/01.html (Japanese) Enomoto Takeaki from the perspective of beer! In a letter to his sister: “I am a little bit dronken, so please excuse my bad handwriting,” using the Dutch word. He also wrote to Tatsu in 1872: “Thank you for sending so much beer, I had plenty yesterday and today and am in high spirits. … I’m looking forward to the time soon when we can spend our days and nights together.”
