自叙伝(5) Tanaka Shozo Autobiography

1880年　3８歳

何のかのと先づ一年畢り、十三年となりました。塩田奥蔵さんは郡長を止めて民権家となり、田中正造、小室重弘、中田良夫と四名の名にて、各郡の有志に檄文を走せて、起てよ、起てよと呼起して、国会の請願と出掛けたのさ。塩田は東部、田中は西部にて、各手分けの運動したけれども、塩田は若手の華武者、田中は老込み、故に塩田には少々後れを取りました。

Many other things happened until the end of the 12th year and the 13th year of Meiji came.Mr.Shioda Okuzo resigned from the office of the county to become an advocate of people's rights just like us.Our goal was to open the House of Representatives.Four of us,Tanaka Shozo,Komuro Shigehiro,Nakada Yoshio and Shioda Okuzo composed a letter and sent its copies  to  our friends in all the corners of the counties,urging them to stand up with us.We divided the whole prefecture in two:Shiota took the eastern half and I was responsible for the western half.I could not compete with Shiota,because he was young and attractive and I was a bit older.

この春、田中は県会議員となる。

In this spring Tanaka was elected member of the prefecture assembly.

十三年、田中、栃木群馬二県を以て同志七百名を募集し、中節社と云へる言語端正なる政談社を設立す。

In the 13th year of Meiji I established Chusetsusha,a political organization."Chusetsu" means "moderate".I intended to create an organization where people can talk politics in gentlemanly way.Seven hundred comrades joined us from both Tochigi and Gunma Prefectures.

この社員より国会開設の総代を出せり、田中正造、山口信治、今泉正路の三人なり。今泉は下都賀郡の人、山口は簗田郡の人、田中は安蘇、里程十五余里に渉り、淡泊無味の社員なりき。

Three men were selected to represent our movement of early opening of the House of Representatives.They were Tanaka Shozo,Yamaguchi Shinji and Imaizumi Masaji.Imaizumi is from Tsuga County,Yamaguchi from Yanada County and Tanaka from Aso County.They are all quite  innocuous type of men.

之年国会期成会を、東京西紺屋町に移す。河野広仲、林正明、新井毫、杉田定一、内藤魯一、箱田六助、栃木より田中、塩田など出席。

In this year we moved the national office of our movement to Nishi-Kon-yacho,Tokyo,where the meeting was held.Kono Hironaka,Hayashi Masaaki,Arai Go,Sugita Teiichi,Naito Roichi,Hakoda Rokusuke attended.From Tochigi Tanaka and Shioda and others  attended.

之年、板垣君が土佐から来て、陰然此会に妨害を与えて、期成会の文字を嫌ふのさ。

In this year Mr.Itagaki came up from Tosa,Shikoku Island,and surreptitiously attemped to stop our activities.He disliked the name of our organization,"Kiseikai",which means "early opening of the House of Representatives."

其時、薩摩より柏田盛文他一名が、二千余人の代表者として本会に出席せんことを申込んだのを、田中の動議で排擯したのさ。

At around the same time Kashiwada Morihumi and other from Satsuma,Kyushu Island,asked our permission to attend the meeting.I proposed  a motion to reject their request.

その要は、この仁は政府の探偵にて、西郷を暗殺に九州に下りたるものなり、入会を許すべからずと。満場同意ときて、柏田も残念に思ひ、毎日新聞社の野村本之助（薩摩の人）に至り、之を図る。

The reason why I did it was that I knew this man was an agent of the Government who had been sent to Kyushu to assassinate Saigo.All the members approved the motion.Unsatisfied Kashiwada went to Nomura Motonosuke of the Mainichi Newspaper and asked for his advice.Nomura was from Satsuma.

野村曰く、それは無造作の事なり、足下、期成会の門前にて切腹せよ、さすれば鹿児島の名誉には疵つかぬなりと。柏田すごすごと去る。

Nomura said,"It's a piece of cake.You commit suicide by harakiri in front of the Kiseikai office.In this way Kagoshima can save face." Hearing this,Kashiwada left without a word with his tail between his legs.

四国の小西甚之助氏、奉書の紙に何やらうやうやしげに包み、自ら期成会に持参して、之を民権家に奉ると言ふ。受けたる人は誰ぞ。河野広仲君なり。

Mr.Konishi Jinnosuke of Shikoku Island came to  Kiseikai.He was ceremoniously carrying something wrapped with expensive paper.He said he would like to present this to people's right activists.Who accepted this gift? Kono Hironaka did.

欣然之を携へ来り、是は之れ小西君の献納なりと、自らその水引を解きて開き見れば、こは如何に如何に、焼芋の皮なり。中には大書して曰く、眠犬これを食うべしと。

He was delighted and brought it to the office.Saying that this was a gift from Mr.Konishi,he personally opened the wrapping and inside the box he found the peeled skin of baked sweet potatoes.There was a message written:Have sleeping dogs eat this.Kagoshima is famous for its production of sweet potatoes.Sweet potato is called "satsuma imo".

さてさてこの如く話せば限なし、これより十七年に移るべし。

I can go on and on like this.Let's move to the 17th year of Meiji.

---

田中正造 1841年12月15日 - 1913年（大正2年）9月4日Tanaka Shozo dedicated his life for the farmers who were victimized by the pollution of Ashio Copper Mine. He is one of the pioneers of environmental movement in Japan.

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