NHK's year-long historical drama "Yae no Sakura," which began this month, is drawing solid ratings. It portrays the life of Yamamoto Yaeko, born daughter of Aizu retainer Yamamoto Gonpachi—bold in character, who with five hundred women held Tsuruga Castle during the Boshin War, fought with a gun, was called the "Joan of Arc of Aizu" and, for her manly spirit, a "handsome woman."
Yaeko later married Niijima Jo, who founded the predecessor of Doshisha University, Doshisha English School, and was counted among the six great Meiji educators alongside Fukuzawa Yukichi and Mori Arinori; she became Niijima Yae and advised on Doshisha's management.
Her husband Jo was born on February 12, 1843 (Tenpō 14), at the Itakura family residence of Annaka Domain, Joshu—near present-day Palaceside Building in Kanda Nishiki-chō.
His childhood name was "Shimeta"—the first boy after four girls, named when his grandfather cried "Shimeta!" ("Got one!") in joy. After coming of age, drawn to America and Christianity, he stowed away from Hakodate on an American ship; the captain called him "Joe," and he later took the name "Jo."
For Jo's centennial, a "Memorial Monument to the Birthplace of Teacher Niijima Jo" was erected in 1965 (Showa 40) beside Gakushi Kaikan in Kanda Nishiki-chō. The inscription notes that after mastering the foundations of Christian culture in America, he felt keenly that Japan's prosperity required not law, politics, and economics alone, but each citizen to "stand and govern themselves with knowledge and dignity" and become "a stalwart filled with conscience throughout."
Niijima Jo opened Doshisha English School in Kyoto in 1875 (Meiji 8). In 1880 (Meiji 13), because enrollment for September 1878 and January 1879 fell short of plan, the school moved to merge those classes.
When students learned of this, they struck and caused an uproar. Distressed, Jo stood before them at morning chapel on April 13, 1880, and said: "This happened because the school's sincerity did not reach you—not the teachers' fault or yours. It is the fault of your unworthy principal. The principal will now punish that sinner," and struck his left hand repeatedly with the cane he held. He struck so hard the cane broke; the students not only bowed their heads but clung to Jo's hand and pulled his sleeve to stop him. This is the famous "Staff of Self-Reproach Incident."
Jo's hand swelled purple; Yae soaked it in water and changed the water through the night to keep it cool. Students who picked up the broken cane fashioned it into a cross and later sent it to Yae.
Nonfiction writer Yasumasa Hosaka, a Doshisha graduate, serialized the story of Jo and Yae in Sunday Mainichi from January 29 through September last year; it was published as Yae and Niijima Jo (Mainichi Newspapers, 1,500 yen before tax).