Shimei Futabatei and Bronisław Piłsudski

He was an extremely interesting person. Two years younger than Piłsudski, he graduated with a degree in Russian studies at the renowned Tokyo School of Foreign Studies (TUFS) and worked as a journalist and writer. By the time they met in Tokyo, he had already became famous for his then experimental novel Ukigumo (Flowing Cloud) written in spoken language (rather than classical, as had been the practice up to that point). Its content is a portrayal of the different characters of four friends living in the late 19th century, and somehow affected by the disease of that period – a sense of uprooting and uncertainty about what choices to make. His name was well known, especially since he translated from Russian the works of Turgenev, Gogol, Garshin, Andreyev, and Gorky, thus strongly stimulating the study of Russian literature and influencing its popularity.

Before he met Piłsudski, Shimei Futabatei had traveled to China and Russia and worked as an interpreter for official delegations. Futabatei was very interested in the Polish cause and being happy to meet with Piłsudski, became his patron during his stay in Tokyo. They met almost every day and Futabatei soon invited Piłsudski to various events, brought him to Hakodateya’s guesthouse, the Hakodate House, and introduced to important persons. One of them was Gennosuke Yokoyama, a journalist and lawyer, who in turn facilitated Piłsudski’s contact with anthropologist Shōgorō Tsuboi.

Itagaki was a prominent figure in Japanese politics from as early as the Meiji coup d’état; he made great contributions to the establishment of Japan’s first constitution and founded the Jiyū Minken Undō Movement for Freedom and Civil Rights, which evolved into the first liberal party Jiyūtō.

He was another important Japanese political figure, a financier, senior official at the Ministry of Education, and later a member of the parliament and the Ōkuma Shigenobu’s party; for a while, he managed a daily newspaper in Yokohama and later also in Tokyo. Along with Ōkuma, Shimada was one the founders of the Waseda University. He supported the trade union movement and defended those harmed in the environmental disaster at the Ashio Dōzan copper mine.

Yoshiharu Iwamoto was a person of great merit to the movement for women’s education. He founded the magazine “Jogaku zasshi” (Women’s Education) and worked to increase the role of women in the society, writing various articles and teaching at the school he founded.

In July, Bronisław Piłsudski moved to Nagasaki and stayed for a few weeks with Chikatomo Shiga who worked as a secretary at the Russian consulate, in his house located in the Inasa district, at the foot of the mountain of the same name. Now, the city park is located there.
On 30 July, on the ship “Dakota” he sailed from the port of Nagasaki toward the United States of America. On the ship, he worked on several texts and prepared for meetings.