Nogi Maresuke
Meiji era (19th century)
Donated by Watanabe Riemon
Nogi Maresuke (1849-1912) was a military figure in the Imperial Army during the Meiji era. He contributed to the taking of Port Arthur during the First Sino-Japanese War and served on the front during the Russo-Japanese War as the commander of the Third Army. In 1906 he was appointed military counselor, and in the next year was made a count. He was held in the greatest confidence by Emperor Meiji, and was named the twelfth director of Gakushuin University, but upon the death of Meiji, Nogi and his wife committed ritualistic suicide in order to follow their emperor to the next world.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Nogi’s eldest son, Imperial Army infantry lieutenant Nogi Katsunori, perished in the bloody fighting at Nanshan, in northeast Dalian, China. Nogi’s masterpiece is a poem that displays his state of mind upon visiting the site of his son’s demise, where he stood, lost in shock. The poem is titled “Outside the Walls of Jinzhou.”
[Translation]
Mountains, rivers, grasses, and trees, all have become desolate; nothing remains. Here, where just days earlier war was waged, one can perceive the stench of blood from ten leagues away. The war horses will not move forward, and the officers and their men stay silent. Outside the walls of Jinzhou where the sun shines brightly, I stand, motionless.