. Familiar studies of men and books . YOSHIDA-TORAJIRO ^HE name at the head of this page isprobably unknown to the Enghshreader, and yet I think it should be-come a household word like that of Gari-baldi or John Brown. Some day soon, Wemay expect to hear more fully the details ofYoshidas history, and the degree of his in-fluence in the transformation of Japan; evennow there must be Englishmen acquaintedwith the subject, and perhaps the appear-ance of this sketch may elicit somethingmore complete and exact. I wish to saythat I am not, rightly speaking, the authorof the present paper: I tell the
. Familiar studies of men and books . YOSHIDA-TORAJIRO ^HE name at the head of this page isprobably unknown to the Enghshreader, and yet I think it should be-come a household word like that of Gari-baldi or John Brown. Some day soon, Wemay expect to hear more fully the details ofYoshidas history, and the degree of his in-fluence in the transformation of Japan; evennow there must be Englishmen acquaintedwith the subject, and perhaps the appear-ance of this sketch may elicit somethingmore complete and exact. I wish to saythat I am not, rightly speaking, the authorof the present paper: I tell the story on theauthority of an intelligent Japanese gentle-man, Mr. Taiso Masaki, who told it me withan emotion that does honour to his heart;and though 1 have taken some pains, andsent my notes to him to be corrected, thiscan be no more than an imperfeft was son to the heredi-204. YOSHIDA-TORAJIRO From painting by Kinsen YOSHIDA- TORAJIRO tary military instrudor of the house of Cho-shu. The name you are to pronounce withan equality of accent on the different sylla-bles, almost as in French, the vowels as inItalian, but the consonants in the Englishmanner—except the/, which has the Frenchsound, or, as it has been cleverly proposed towrite it, the sound of;{/?. Yoshida was verylearned in Chinese letters, or, as we mightsay, in the classics, and in his fathers sub-jed; fortification was among his favouritestudies, and he was a poet from his boy-hood. He was born to a lively and intelligentpatriotism; the condition of Japan was hisgreat concern; and while he projeAed a bet-ter future, he lost no opportunity of improv-ing his knowledge of her present state. Withthis end he was continually travelling in hisyouth, going on foot and sometimes withthree days provision on his back, in thebrave, self-helpful manner of all heroes. Hekept a full diary while he was thus up
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