Suicidal Honor: General Nogi and the Writings of Mori Ōgai and Natsume Sōseki (review)

General Nogi Maresuke's junshi after Emperor Meiji's death in 1912, which so poignantly marked the end of a turbulent era, still looms large in the Japanese collective memory, no doubt in part because of the works of Mori ōgai and Natsume Sōseki. In Suicidal Honor: General Nogi and the Writings of Mori ōgai and Natsume Sōseki, Doris Bargen reexamines the sig-nificance of Nogi's junshi "within the context of Japanese culture" from "interdisciplinary perspectives" (p. 4), with particular emphasis on the historical and the literary. Even though Nogi's junshi has received serious scholarly attention in English as a sociocultural phenomenon,¹ its intertextual link with the literature of ōgai and Sōseki has never been thoroughly studied in a comprehensive historical context. Filling this vacuum, Bargen's book is a welcome contribution that helps us comprehend the intriguing implications of the general's famous junshi for the writings of two of the greatest Meiji authors, which should, in turn, enrich our understanding of the spirit of the Meiji period.

The book consists of three main parts. Part I, titled "Following One's Lord into Death," "underscores the religious context of ritual suicide" (p. 4) across cultural boundaries, taking us as far as South America. Part II, "Nogi in History," focuses on the political, military, and biographical context of Nogi's junshi. Part III, "Nogi in Literature," tries to shed new light on Nogi's junshi through the rereading of Sōseki's novel Kokoro and five works of historical fiction by ōgai. Extending from pages 33 through 188, the chapters in parts II and III not only comprise the main bulk of the text but are also the most important. Chapter 3 in part II meticulously traces the samurai legacy of the Nogi family, the general's education, as well as his military career within the historical and cultural context of the pre- and postrestoration years up until 1912. Special attention is given to: the Hagi Rebellion of 1876, in which he was forced to fight against his own brother and mentor, who later committed seppuku; the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 where he lost the "im-perial banner" and asked Emperor Meiji for permission to commit seppuku (denied) to atone for the loss; Nogi's part in the victory and massacre in the Sino-Japanese War; the devastating loss of his two sons along with nu-merous other soldiers under his command in the Russo-Japanese War; and the subsequent victory parades at home that burdened him with feelings of undeserved honor. Chapter 4 gives thoughts about the day of his death by reflecting on the circumstances around his seppuku, his testament, death poems, and his wife, Shizuko, who followed her husband into death. In describing the most dramatic junctures in Nogi's life throughout these chapters, Bargen successfully focuses on the complex layering of feelings of duty and honor ingrained in him, on the one hand, and the sense of shame and guilt brought about by historical circumstances beyond his control on the other.

Against this backdrop of Nogi's junshi, Bargen gives a thoughtful study of relevant literary works by ōgai and Sōseki in part III, which is definitely the most original contribution in the book. Immediately after Nogi's death, ōgai wrote the first version of "Okitsu Yagoemon no isho" (The last testament of Okitsu Yagoemon, October 1912) and published the revised second version with the same title in June 1913. In both versions, Yagoemon wishes to commit seppuku to repay his indebtedness to the lord who magnanimously spared his life on an earlier occasion and yet tackles the issue of permission differently. In the first version, Yagoemon does not ask for permission but "postpones his seppuku in order to make it coincide as nearly as possible with his natural death from old age," whereas...