Among the many life stories of those who created links between Japan and America, some have been concealed in the mists of time. One is that of a Japanese man, Hydesaburo Ohashi (1877–1918).1 Little information about him is likely to be discovered in Japan, because he left his native country as a youth and no indication that he returned has been discovered. His story is unusual and to the extent it can be told today, from a few American sources, deserves a niche in the history of the US-Japan relationship.2
A native of Tsushima-machi (津島町), which is now part of Tsushima City—16 kilometers or 44 minutes by train from Nagoya (名古屋) in Aichi Prefecture (愛知県)—Ohashi was born in 1877 to Sukesaemon Ôhashi (大橋助左衛門) and his wife, Ina. The family had prestigious samurai ancestry and a history dating as far back as the 1570s. The Ôhashi family was one of the Fifteen Houses that served Nobuhide Oda (織田信秀) and Nobunaga Oda (織田信長), famous leaders of the late sixteenth century, on the battlefield. Tsushima developed economically and advanced socially as an intermodal transfer point or port city (minatomachi 湊町). Goods were transported along the Tennô River (天王川) from inland origin to urban centers of consumption.
Sukesaemon had succeeded to his father’s name. The senior Sukesaemon was a prominent, wealthy businessman who had been adopted by the Ôhashi family and became its patriarch. The latter died in 1901. His adopted son took over the company, probably after the senior Sukesaemon died; the most recent public reference to him readily available today dates from 1904.
Ohashi was born on May 26 in the ninth year of the post-feudal Meiji Period, when the birth cries heralding Japan’s modern era were thick in the air and the work of creating a unified state was still in an early stage. Progress accelerated late in the nineteenth century after social order was achieved. Japan’s industrialization had begun with an assist from mobilization for the 1894–1895 war with China, followed by receipt of reparations and other acquisitions gained at the peace conference.
Ohashi’s family played a part in the growth and development of the Japanese nation. The year before the Chinese war, his father founded and became the first president of Tsushima Bank, this after achieving financial success as a wholesaler in the cotton yarn and cotton cloth business. He dealt in a kind of striped cotton cloth known as saori (佐織) or saorijima (jima meaning stripe), which was usually dyed with indigo. He was engaged in this business since at least 1888, after a short period of public service in the prefectural assembly. These accomplishments are consistent with both the Tsushima history as a commercially oriented town and the sustained historical prominence of the family.
While Hydesaburo Ohashi grew to adolescence, so did the nation. Japan was assiduously taking in information from abroad and was in the throes of modernization of indigenous culture. Many Japanese travelled to Europe and America to look, learn, and return to help build the nation. Among those agents of change was Ohashi. In the fiscal years of 1898 and 1899, 2,290 and 3,395 Japanese entered the United States, respectively. In 1898, Ohashi was sent to America to continue his education. It was to be a grand adventure, in terms of who he encountered, and what he did.
When Ohashi departed Japan for the voyage to San Francisco and beyond, he carried in his luggage a premodern link to the family history—a splendid sword.3 Considering the times and his family’s status, travel and living expenses of the young man were undoubtedly financed by his father. Ohashi made his way to Boston; details of his travel and study at Brookline High School are not known. After high school he entered Harvard University. Curiously enough, his matriculation at Harvard was through Baron Kentarô Kaneko (金子堅太郎), a prominent politician who who had attended the Rice Grammar School in Boston before graduating from Harvard Law School in 1874.4 At the time Ohashi attended the college, tuition was $150 a year, or about $4,000 in terms of today’s value.5
The family’s prominence would have facilitated Ohashi’s higher education before he departed on his voyage to America. According to an obituary by a college buddy, in Japan Ohashi had attended the First College in Tokyo. This would have been the Dai-Ichi Chûgakkô (第一大学区第一番中学), formerly known as Nankô (南校), which had the explicit purpose of preparing Japanese for study abroad. This became the forerunner of the University of Tokyo. Attending this school placed Ohashi among the elite of the age. Education at this school included foreign languages, and the school’s connections could have easily facilitated Ohashi’s study abroad. It was the best place in Japan to prepare for an education in America.
Social factors too may have been at work shaping Ohashi’s future. There was a high level of emigration at the time. From 1868 to 1908, the Japanese government issued passports for 4,384 persons from Aichi, 63 percent of whom were headed for America. Many intended to remit money home and return with a personal fortune. From 1891 to 1900, 574 persons from Aichi were given passports. Some of the emigrants were influenced by the earlier success of an Aichi native, Yoshio Yamada (山田芳男), who was rescued by an American whaler in 1882 after his boat seeking sea otters foundered. After being taken to California, where he was befriended by a farmer, Yamada became successful in agriculture in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta area.
Ohashi and his father certainly would have known of Yamada, as he had returned home to the Marujima (丸島) area of Aisai (愛西)—a town neighboring Tsushima, now Aisai City—with money and stories to tell in order to recruit Japanese men for farming.6 This was in 1890.7 As the first person from Aichi to go to America, Yamada acquired the nickname “Columbus Marujima.” These matters may well have provided an additional incentive to go abroad, alongside any influence of Ohashi’s study in Tokyo. Not that he would have been like most immigrants, who were seasonal migrant workers, moving from one camp to another with only a blanket and wicker willow suitcase stuffed with belongings.
At Harvard, where he was in the “special student” category, Ohashi studied economics, government, international law, and English literature and composition. In 1899, he took a course in eighteenth century literature at the Summer School of Harvard, a program primarily for teachers which was also open to students at the university.8 How well he did academically is not known; the university archives have no records for him. He is said to have been at the college for the 1899–1900 and 1901–1902 academic years, and though not awarded a degree, he was considered part of the class of 1903.9 The 1900 edition of the Harvard University Catalogue gives 467 Broadway as his address. In 1902, he left Cambridge, where he had lodged in room 30 of Weld Hall, for Boston.
In his first year at Harvard, Ohashi made the acquaintance of a Nebraskan, George Allan England (class of 1902), who was born in the same year as Ohashi. They became lifelong friends to the extent that England, in an obituary of Ohashi 15 years after they left Harvard, wrote that while at college they became “sworn ‘kyodai’ or brothers.”10
The two exchanged language lessons, English for Japanese, so it is likely that they met frequently. (If not, it would be unusual for England to have remembered that word.) Internet comments regarding England mention an interest in Chinese characters that Ohashi must have written for him.11 England coached Hydé, as his friends called him, and must have been an influence on Ohashi’s own writing, judging from England’s abiding dedication to creative writing. After writing and editing while in college, England went on to become a very popular and prolific writer of novels and magazine stories, especially in the science fiction genre.12
Ohashi succeeded in having his own work published by the Harvard Illustrated Magazine, where England was a contributor and member of the Board of Editors starting in October 1899, when the first number was published. He was also published in the older Harvard Advocate. In both endeavors England must have been encouraging and lending a helping hand. It was England who was counterparty in Ohashi’s first encounter. That encounter was positive for the two of them and stimulated Ohashi’s creative impulse.
* * * * *
Notes
1. This was his preferred spelling; his given name was probably 秀三郎.
2. Other than information on Ohashi’s inventions and other annotated business information, details about his early life are from two sources: “Hydesaburo Ohashi. A Brilliant Japanese Author, Writer, Reformer, Harvard Graduate and Tea Merchant,” Cambridge Chronicle, February 28, 1903, 12; and George Allan England, “Hydesaburo Ohashi,” in Harvard College, “Harvard College Class of 1903 / Quindecennial Report (June 1920)” (Cambridge: The Class of 1903), 221f.
3. The sword was inherited by Ohashi’s grandson, David Ohashi, and in 2020 was kept by his daughter, Anita Ohashi, in Pennsylvania. In a personal communication in 2020, David Ohashi wrote that 20 years ago he showed it to an expert in Hawaii, who nearly fainted upon examining it.
4. Many elites of the times attended the school. Harvard graduates other than Kaneko included Jûtarô Komura (plenipotentiary negotiator at Portsmouth) and Rioichiro Arai, silk merchant. In 1898 Kaneko became Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. In the following year he visited America, where he was awarded an honorary LLD degree by Harvard.
5. That is, $1,500 in 1900, and $4,000 in 2015. Bob Gay, “George Allan England: The Harvard Years.” The yen value of $150 then was about JPY316.
6. Many persons from this area migrated to America. The Walnut Grove region near Sacramento later attracted many who created a Japantown in the 1920s that is almost intact today.
7. Yamada returned home a successsful man, recruited others and returned to California.
8. “Harvard Summer School,” Cambridge Tribune, July 15, 1899, 3.
9. He may have also attended college in the 1900-1901 year.
10. England, “Hydesaburo Ohashi,” 221f. The correct spelling in romanized English is kyôdai.
11. England shared with Clemens strong disapproval of current work of missionaries in China. Clemens had great sympathy for the Chinese. See Selina Lai-Henderson, Mark Twain in China (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2015).
12. None of the popular works by England appear to have anything to do with Japan.
© 2024 Aaron Cohen
