[The Timeline is being revised/enhanced but still far from done]
http://www.shinsengumihq.com/ShinsengumiBakumatsuTimeline.htm
If anyone wants to help...we'd all really appreciat it if someone
could go through the Hillsborough book...I'm only in the early 1860s
with another book
[The following post is about Fujita Goro and Tokio during the Meiji Era]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SHQ/message/2589
I had discussed the strong possibility of Fujita Goro and Kano Jigoro
but at the time I did not have a solid biography of Kano (other than a
few judo websites) in front of me to establish a really good time line.
Fortunately I obtained a copy of THE FATHER OF JUDO A BIOGRAPHY OF
JIGORO KANO by Brian N. Watson. I recommend this short book for people
who are interested in martial arts bios and getting a crash course in
how "fun" education can be during the Meiji Era...
I updated
http://www.shinsengumihq.com/saitouhajime.htm with a few
brief paragraphs of info regarding these details and a quote of Kano
hiring good kendo teachers for Tokyo Normal School (called Teacher
Training College in this book). Many people knew that Kano's student,
Saigo Shiro was the son of Saigo Tanomo, senior retainer of Matsudaira
Katamori. How would Mr. and Mrs. Fujita miss this?
-------------------------------------
It took a really really long time to get confirmation on a minor
detail regarding Tokio's friend. Please see
http://www.shinsengumihq.com/TakagiTokioinfo.htm
click on "Memories of Tokio"
and read near the end of the paragraph,
I also added a pic of Tokio's much older friend Takamine Kinoko.
More information including on her can be found here
http://www.shinsengumihq.com/TakamineHideo.htm
Kinoko was an interesting older woman (she was not shy at all)
who also recorded what
happened to her and her family after the defeat of the Aizu domain.
Thus, her narrative is one of the few written by a woman in that
situation (at this time I cannot find any record written by an Aizu
woman which has been published).
Incidentally I found it funny that this elderly lady Takamine Kinoko
dragged her grand daughters to the Fujita household---because
according to the American scientist Edward Morse, she also was a
babysitter to a herd of boys (maybe? the Fujita boys too?)
-------------------------------------
http://www.shinsengumihq.com/TakagiTokioinfo.htm
click on "Normal School This and That"
-------------------------------------
I had to revise the timeline's format here
http://www.shinsengumihq.com/TakagiTokioinfo.htm
[scroll down to 1919]
I used the Watson book to get more solid info on the ultimately severe
protesting by the faculty, and alumni of the Normal School (where both
Fujita Goro and Tokio were employed). The most open opposition shown
by these educators occurred after Mr. Fujita died...however Tokio was
still very much alive to observe these movements at the school.
You will note that I am not saying either Mr. or Mrs. Fujita was in
any way involved or if they agreed or disagreed with any of this.
Unless both kept their eyes and ears closed at work they would be very
much aware of these incidents. The school was pretty small and run
like a "family" even if Mrs. FUjita was retired it would be hard for
not to take an interest in these situations (covered by national
newspapers). Tokio would have co-workers/friends and students still
there and she would feel a deep attachment to her workplace.
In other English texts, no specific dates were recorded for
***earlier*** "threats" by the faculty/staff of the Normal School
which should have occurred at the very beginning of the 20th century
[during Fujita Goro years] and not just before the 1920s. These were
all well coordinated efforts where teachers would sign petitions draw
up lists and so forth.
"Threats" being mass walk outs to protest the Ministry of education's
stubborness in increasing pay and so forth. Walk outs and
resignations were SIGNATURE tactics for these pesky teachers (^_^).
Keep in mind that mass protests were discouraged by the Meiji gov.
which had a distaste for such public displays (which occurred shortly
after the Russo-Japanese war in 1905)...these teachers faced possible
arrest and imprisonment (a small handful of teachers were banished
from Tokyo earlier in the era for political reasons).