We have read many times about allegedly buried Japanese treasures in Philipines but what about buried treasures in Japan itself?
To us westerners perertrating the treasure myths of Japan is very hard because of the lanuage barriers. But if one was to look they may be supprised? Japan just like any other country has had its fair share of political upheavel and war during its long history.
The following story surfaced in early 1941.
JAPANESE TREASURE HUNT
NEW YORK. September 9.— A Japanese treasure hunter claims he Is about to unearth £172,500,000 in gold, Buried 250 foot deep in In the ground. says the'New York Times' Tokio correspondant.
The treasure represents the war chest of the Tokugawa Shoguns. rulers of Japan for 264 years, until the power or the emperors was restored In 1868. The treasure was buried about 100 years ago. The man who burled It killed all who knew of the hiding place and left vague directions In a will. The treasure hunter who claims to be nettling it Is this man's grandson. Hidemorl Kawahra. He has been searching for seven years. He says that 220 feet down he found human bones and a sword, as stated In the will. The gold is expected to be found another 30 feet down. In six large boxes.
Was this a tue story or perhaps an elaborate hoax to cover Japans looting of Namking?
Srange enough as interesting the possible conspiracy theory is there is still surviving evidence to suggest treasure was actually buried during the fall of the Tokugawa shoguns power to the imperialist armies in 1868.
Another story came to light in the Evening post 21 dec 1941 which gives the name of the grandfather.
DEAD MEN'S BONES
DIGGING DEEP FOR MILLIONS:
A fantastic treasure hunt for 2,300,000,000 yen in gold, under way seven years, is approaching a climax and what the treasure hunter believes will be a success that would increase Japan's gold reserve five times its present size, states a Tokio message in the "New York Times." The treasure is stated to represent the war chest of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Oguri Kozukenosuke, its Finance, War, and Navy Minister, is supposed to have buried the treasure, in anticipation of the Shogunate's downfall, immediately preceding the Meilji restoration in 1868.
The treasure hunter is Hidemori Kawahara, grandson of Kozukenosuke, who is digging for it on the basis of his grandfather's secret will. The reason that Mr. Kawahara believes he is certain of success is that after digging seven years to a depth of 220 feet he struck many human bones, a sword bearing his family crest, and other evidence he regarded as showing that he had found the burial place of not only carpenters, boatmen, coolies, stone cutters, and other labourers, but also of bannermen who transported the gold and who were supposed to have been killed by Kozukenosuke to guard its secret. The gold is said to be buried in six large cabinets at a depth of 250 feet. Mr. Kawahara has announced that in conformity with the will of his grandfather, who was captured and executed, he will turn over the gold to the State. Meanwhile, he is daily chanting Buddhist sutras to console the ghosts his grandfather's victims.
In looking beyond the monetary exageration and sensational reporting his granfather was the finance minister and fanatical spporter of the tokugawa regime that fell in 1868 and was captured and executed for refusing to surrender.History also cliams that the leader Enomoto Takeaki moved 180000 gold coins called Ryo as he retreated from Osaka castle.
When the remnants of his forces learned that the Shogun had abandoned them, they departed Osaka Castle, which was later surrendered to Imperial forces without resistance. Yoshinobu later claimed that he had been disturbed by the Imperial approval given to the actions of Satsuma and Chōshū, and, once the brocade banner had appeared, he had lost all will to fight.
French advisors Jules Brunet and Cazeneuve, who were present at the battle, left Osaka and returned to Edo on 12 January, together with Enomoto Takeaki on board the Fujisan. Enomoto brought with him various documents and a treasure of 180,000 ryō. They arrived in Edo on 14 January.
There is no mention of what happened to the remaining war funds of the Tukugawa shoganate after the 14th of january 1868. Was the above all that remained from the treasury or did Oguri Kozukenosuke the then finance minister hide a much larger fortune leaving the clues in a will to his grandson?
Was it all a front by the Japan to disguise thier rape and looting of Namking in China? Was it recovered and used for the Japanese war effort? Or is it still lie where it was hidden?
An interesting treasure legend by those daring to seek.
It would be my pleasure to keep you informed of how the treasure legend unfolds..
The legend is wrapped around the powerstuggle between the old regime of the shogunate and the imperialists who wanted to modernise the country. Japan under the traditional Shogun had been isolationist in keeping foreign influences out of the country for nearly 300 years under the pain of death. Once the imperialists gained the support of western powers with advanced western technolog such as arms and modern military principles. The way of the shogun was doomed because they were in essence a 15Th century fighting force fighting against modern weapons and tactics.
The later consequences from this is the first Japan-Sino war in which Japan had modernised from the events in 1868 to the point it was able to dominate China which was still locked in its own isolationist policies still living in the 15Th century. The aggression we saw from the Japanese in WW2 we can see had roots in the massive changes from a medevil feudal society that evolved into an imperial militaristic one in a very short period of time. Europe took about 200 to 300 years to evolve. Japan evolved in 30 years. By 1900 Japan was very dominant in the region but still with a 15Th century mindset with a brutal warrior class mentality which showed its ugly side in the Pacific war. Today thank fully the Japaneses is very different people than just a few generations ago.
The events of 1868 was an era of massive upheaval. the losers did not go quietly they went down fighting. It is not beyond the realms of imagination to suspect the minister of Finance for the Shogunate planned to hide the remaining treasury before the collapse of the regime.
To really get at the meat of this legend we have to understand the events as they unfolded in the last days of the regime. Much information has been lost due to the catastrophic effects of WW2. There is sources still available but interesting enough no information about the success of the grandsons treasurehunt.
In the following pictures was Imperialists dressed as traditional warrior and the shogunate dressed in more modern military uniform. It is one of strange conundrums of the events of 1868. It seems those wanting moderisation dressed as traditionists. Those who wanted to maintain the shogunate values of tradition wearing modern western clothing. Perhaps a publicity shot to win the heartys of the people?
Interesting enough there was a book about the treasure published in 1992 that would be interesting to find but it was only published in Japanese. I have a few more items I will dig up from my archive.
The treasure hunters grandfather from the treasure story was also known as Kozukenosuke (Tadamasa) Oguri was born in 1827 into the samurai family of the "Hatamoto" rank under the Tokugawa Shogunate. In 1860, at the age of 34, Oguri was handpicked by Senior Minister Ii to travel to the United States of America as a member of a Japanese diplomatic mission to ratify the Japan-US Treaty of Friendship and Commerce.
They set sailed for America on the US naval ship Powhatan and then traveled around the world before returning to Japan. He subsequently spent the next 8 years assisting the Shogunate government in the course of which, he helped push forward Japan's modernization program. Some of his achievements* are as follows:
■ Construction of the Yokosuka shipyard
■ Establishment of Japan’s first French language school (Yokohama)
■ Adoption of French military system and training under it
■ Development of the Iron Ore Mines (Shimonita town, Gunma prefecture)
■ Establishment of the First Japanese Corporation (Hyogo Shosha)
□ Advocacy of the use of Gas Lamps
□ Revamp of the financial markets by issuance of Golden Labels etc.
□ Advocacy of the Prefectural System
■ Advocacy of the Conservation of Forests
□ Advocacy of the establishment of a train line between Edo (present-day Tokyo) & Yokohama
□ Advocated the publishing of a Newspaper
□ Advocacy of the establishment of a Postal System
(* A Japanese writer, Ryotaro Shiba, praised Oguri for his achievements that greatly contributed to the modernization of Japan. He called Oguri "The Father of Meiji Era of Japan" in his work, "A Nation called Meiji.")
However he was sacked as finance minister by the Imperialist Meiji regime that took control after the fall of the shogante and perhaps in retribution of him supporting Enomoto takeaki the ex shogunate who removed 1800000 ryo in Febuary from the treasury to form the short lived .EZo republic in the Northern Island of Honshou.
In March 1868, Oguri had obtained permission from the Shogunate Government to return to his fief (territory) in Gonda Village, Gunma Prefecture. He stayed temporarily at the Tozenji Temple while constructing his house on Kan-non-yama Mountain. Sixty five days later on April 6 1868, Oguri was beheaded along with 3 other retainers on a river bed in Mizunuma Kawara by the armies of the new Meiji Government. On April 7, Oguri's adopted son Mataichi and three other retainers were beheaded inside the Takasaki Castle.
Clearly a payback by the Meiji Imperialists for him allowing the money to fall into the hands Enomoto Takeaki?? And From this we could we could ask ourselves. Was the Grandson Hidemori Kawahara would have been at least about 74 in 1941 at the time of the newspaper story, if he was the grandson of Oguri Tasamada? His father perhaps Mataichi fell victim of the Meiji regime also, So we could assume that whatever Oguri Tasamada did to offend the new imperialist Meiji Regime it was bad enough to warrrant the execution of him , his adopted son and retainers? Perhaps the Meiji Regime suspected there is more money that went missing than just what Enomoto Takeaki had taken?
At the site of where Hidemori Kawahara's grandfather was assinated there is a monument today. It would be interesting to find out where the grandson was digging? It is also fair to speculate that to dig a whole 250 ft deep would take a fair amount of engineering work and time to do, even with an available workforce that was allegedly killed?
But perhaps there is more clues to understand in the newspaper report?
Here is an interesting article about the treasure legend.
There’s Gold in Those Hills: The Tokugawa Buried Treasure Legend in Local Japan:
Japan’s most famous buried treasure legend originated during the Meiji Restoration when the emperor’s forces failed to discover any shogunal money in Edo castle. Rumors quickly spread into the surrounding countryside that Oguri Tadamasa, the last financial magistrate, stole shogunal money and buried it in the mountains of present-day Gunma Prefecture. Throughout the twentieth century people have searched for the gold, but treasure-hunting booms occurred in times of national economic despair, before and after WWII and during the “lost decade” of the 1990s.
This paper argues that local people play an active role in the formation of national historical narratives. It demonstrates how people in different locales in Gunma Prefecture use the legend to appropriate Oguri’s history. Oguri led the debate that tried to convince the last shogun to fight against the Satcho forces, and he was executed for his views shortly after the Restoration. Descendents from his fief villages where he lived in his final months rehabilitated Oguri as a local hero. The treasure legend narrative became part of local attempts to rescue Oguri from the dominant historical narratives that portrayed him as a villain. However, the same legend became a source of tension between local areas that sought to profit from treasure hunters and those that wanted to focus instead on Oguri’s contributions to the making of modern Japan.
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