Nagai Gagaku - Long Song

Japanese: 長井雅楽 - ながい・うた

Year of death: Bunkyu 3.2.6 (1863.3.24)
Year of birth: Bunsei 2.5.1 (1819.6.22)
A samurai of the Choshu (Hagi) clan in the late Edo period. A promoter of the Choshu clan's movement to unite the Imperial Court and the Shogunate. He lost his father at the age of four. He studied at the clan school, Meirinkan, and in 1837 he served as a page to the clan's lord, Mori Yoshichika. In 1850 he was promoted to the rank of inner ward head and served as an official in charge of internal affairs at Meirinkan. The following year he served as a guardian to the heir, Mori Sadahiro. In 1858 he became a direct inspector. A direct inspector was directly under the lord of the clan. His duties included auditing the overall administration of the clan and submitting reports to the lord. During the Ansei Purge, Yoshida Shoin was escorted to Edo and executed. Not preventing this led to the resentment of Shoin's disciples. In March 1861 he submitted a petition arguing for the need to unite the Imperial Court and the Shogunate, which was adopted and became the clan's policy. He set the foreign policy as overseas ventures, and if the Imperial Court ordered the Shogunate to do so, the Imperial Court and the Shogunate would be united. This was his argument, known as the Navigation Strategy. In May of the same year, he went to Kyoto on the orders of his domain, where he met with Councillor Masagimachi Sanjo Sanei and made his case. The Imperial Court sympathized with his idea of overseas ventures and accepted it, ordering him to work with the shogunate. In June, he went to Edo and made his case to Senior Councillors Kuze Hirochika and Ando Nobumasa, and the shogunate saw his seafaring strategy as an affirmation of the situation of opening the country to the world, and accepted it. He presented his domain's ideas to the Imperial Court, received imperial sanction, and, backed by the prestige of the Emperor, requested the shogunate to carry it out. This style of movement was inherited by Shimazu Hisamitsu's movement to unite the Imperial Court and the Shogunate, and the Sonno Joi movement of the Choshu and Tosa domains. In January of the following year, 1862, he was promoted to the rank of Churo. In April of the same year, Shimazu Hisamitsu led his troops to Kyoto, putting him at a disadvantage. In addition, he was attacked by students of the Matsushita Village School, which led to conflicts with other senior officials such as Shufu Masanosuke and Shishido Kurobei. After the Imperial Court pointed out that the petition contained slanderous words, he submitted a petition for suspension in May of the same year and was sentenced to pardon. The Choshu clan government, which had changed its clan policy to one of expulsion of foreigners, decided on a punishment of seppuku, and he followed this and committed suicide on February 6 the following year. His death poem was, "I have yet to complete my task of repaying the Emperor's kindness. I am ashamed of myself for the madness of 45 years. It is not my wish to attain Buddhahood now. I wish to ward off the demons of heaven and help Kunimitsu." <References> Nagai Gagaku Shoden

(Inoue Isao)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：文久3.2.6(1863.3.24)
生年：文政2.5.1(1819.6.22)
幕末の長州(萩)藩士。長州藩公武合体運動の推進者。4歳で父を失う。藩校明倫館に学び,天保8(1837)年藩主毛利敬親の小姓役,嘉永3(1850)年奥番頭格に進み明倫館内用掛,翌4年世子毛利定広の守役,安政5(1858)年直目付となる。直目付は藩主直属。藩政全般を監査し藩主に上申することが職務である。折からの安政の大獄で吉田松陰が江戸に護送され処刑された。これを阻止しなかったとして松陰門下生の怨恨を招く。文久1(1861)年3月,公武合体の必要を論じた建白書を提出,採用され藩論となった。対外方針を海外雄飛に定め,朝廷がこれを幕府に命じれば公武合体はなる,これが論旨で航海遠略策という。同年5月藩命で上洛,議奏正親町三条実愛に面会し入説。朝廷は海外雄飛論に共鳴してこれを受理,幕府への工作を命じた。6月江戸に赴き老中久世広周・安藤信正に入説,幕府は航海遠略策が開国の状況を肯定しているとみて受理した。藩論を朝廷に入説して勅許を得,天皇の威信を背景に幕府に実行を要請する,この運動様式は島津久光の公武合体運動,長州・土佐藩の尊王攘夷運動に受け継がれた。翌文久2年1月中老格に進む。同年4月島津久光の率兵上洛があり,劣勢に立たされた。加えて松下村塾門下生からの攻撃があり,周布政之助,宍戸九郎兵衛など他の重役との対立が生じた。朝廷から建白書中に謗の文言があるとの指摘を受け同年5月待罪書を提出,慎に処せられた。藩論を攘夷に転換した長州藩政府は,切腹の処分案を決定,これに従い翌年2月6日自刃。辞世の詩,「君恩に報いんとして業いまだ央ならず自羞す四十五年の狂即今成仏は予が意に非らず願わくは天魔を帥いて国光を輔けん」。<参考文献>『長井雅楽詳伝』

(井上勲)

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