Rebel Against the Forbidden Crest 1

*Only for use by E-G.

tl by molokidan

2)
Rebel Against the Forbidden Crest - Hirata Hiroshi Chronologies 1971-1975 Table of Contents

Yoshida Shouin - 5
The Assistant - 59
Hero - 83
Rebel Against the Forbidden Crest - 127
Lie - 157

5)
Yoshida Matsukage

8)
1: Ohhhh
2: Americaaaaaaaaaaa

10)
1: We are the ones who contacted you this afternoon! Please, bring us up on to the deck! Give us a ladder!
2: What should we do, boatswain?!
3: If they were really officials, then they wouldn't be coming by this late!
4: They're probably from the group that is against us coming here. Fix 'em!
5: Thank you!
6: They'll listen to us!
7: Ah!

11)
1: Sensei!
2: Senseiiiii
3: Awww, he doesn't know how to swim?

12)
1: Don't let him die! Throw out a buoy!
2: Sensei!
3: OK, carry them up!
4: Unuuu! They dropped him on purpose!

13)
1(small): nuuu
2: He's climbing up on his own.
3: Looks like he swallowed a lot, hahaha!
4: He has a sword. Is he a samurai?
5: What a pitiful knight, hahaha!
6: You bastards!
7: Don't laugh!
8: We may have come at night, but we are truly your guests!
9: If you try to disgrace us any further, it will not be forgiven!

14)
1: What'd you say, bastard?!
2: Wanna go?!
3: It's the middle of the goddamn night!
4: Stop!
5: Stop, Kaneko-kun!
6: But sensei!

15)
1: We have not come to fight. Being allowed on their deck like this is the first step in the right direction. This is a success, Kaneko-kun!
2: But
3: We must bear this.
4: Hey, Williams! Interpret what they're saying.
5: Ohhh!
6: So this WAS written by you fellows, wasn't it?
7: Yes. We passed it to your comrades who had disembarked, but we had yet to receive any reply, so we decided to come ourselves tonight.

16)
1: Just like it says, we wish to see the world. It may seem rather forward, but we beg that you take us to England on your vessel.
2: Both I and Commodore Perry would certainly like to help fuel your scholastic desires.
3: However, your country has prohibited international travel. Therefore, unless we have official approval, we cannot take you with us.
4: There is no way the government would ever give official approval to this! That's why we're committing treason and risking our lives to come here ourselves.
5: I understand...
6: But no matter how much you risk your lives, there is nothing I can do! I'm sorry!
7: No matter what?! Even if we acted as stowaways?!
8: Woahh! Nooo!
9: Absolutely not!

17)
1: It looks like this is the end of the line, Kaneko-kun...
2: Please forgive me...but I would rather splatter my blood all over the deck of this ship than be caught and killed like a dog by those officials!

18)
1: Please stoooop!
2: No matter what kind of death may await you back there, you must not take your own lives!
3: Think about it! No matter what kind of stormy waters may have awaited us, our fleet came toward this island! And we acquired a Japan-America friendship treaty!
4: 46 days later, they were detained within the Denma District Prison, in Edo.
5: From that moment on, the man who had been referred to as "sensei"'s life was ever connected to prison.
6: His name was Yoshida Kagematsu.

19)
1: Meal tiiime.
2: It's meal time.
3: Mmm.
4: Mmfoh!
5: Confucius once said: "Education is lifelong!"

20)
1: Education is lifelong!
2: Lifelong!
3: Why do you keep silent?!
4: Why do you not repeat after your elder brother?!
5: Toranosuke! Please repeat it, hurry now.
6: Toranosuke!
7: Come!

21)
1: Say it, now! Hurry, Toranosuke!!
2: Mu!
3: Gyaaaaah

22)
1: Continue!
2: Blue comes from the indigo plant, yet it is bluer than indigo. Ice is made of water, yet it is colder than water.
3: Blue comes from the indigo plant
4: yet it is colder
5: Dear!
6: His bone! The bone in his arm is broken!

23)
1: Mencius once said:
2: For the hungry any food is tasty
3: and for the thirsty any drink is tasty.
4: But they are not getting the true taste of the food and drink,
5: since their deprivation has perverted them.
6: has perverted them.
7: Toranosuke!
8: Why do you not repeat?!

24)
1: Come, Toranosuke.
2: Your father is not chastising you.
3: I am not making you suffer because I hate you.
4: No matter how much they struggle, people who are born into common houses are destined to live their entire lives in poverty, without any rise or advancement.
5: To be born as a human without any hope is truly a piteous thing.
6: I do not want you to become a piteous human like that.
7: For the world we live in now, education is the only way to the top!
8: The only way for you to escape your destiny as a commoner! Do you understand, Tora?!

25)
1: If you understand, then please repeat.
2: Come now, repeat after me, Toranosuke.
3: Answer me!
4: Toranosuke!
5: You won't answer?!
6: Tora!
7: Do you not understand your father's truths?!

26)
1: I hate studying!
2: Unuuu

27)
1: Ugyaaaaaah
2: Toraaaaa

28)
1: Do you...do you truly adore your son?! If you did...if you did, then you would never give him such a serious wound!
2: What do you intend to do if he happens to lose his life as a result?!
3: If he will not study, then I believe he will be happier if he dies now.
4: But Toranosuke is still only five years old! It's impossible!
5: What will you do if he breaks his leg?!
6: Even without arms or legs, a man can still study!
7: Ahhhhh
8: Is study really that important to you?! Uuu...uuuu!
9: It will not change whether he is 3 or 100 years old.
10(2b): And it is most important that this is imprinted on him while he is still young. Even though you may hate my elder brother right now, someday it will all pay off.

29)
1: His father's name was Sugi Yurinosuke,
2: a member of the Mouri clan, with a yearly stipend of merely 26 koku. He lived out his days just like any other common farmer.
3: His younger brother Yoshida Daisuke (29) was a scholar who went to be adopted by another family and received roughly 50 koku.
4(small): Yamaga soldier instruction
5: His other younger brother was also an adopted son: Tamaki Bunnoshin (26), a scholar who also went to be adopted, and became an assistant instructor for the clan's school.
6: Your two uncles were also born into this Sugi family, but were able to rise to better places all because of their education.
7: But unfortunately, your Uncle Yoshida's illness is in a truly critical condition now.
8: Now, Toranosuke.
9: This is for your future.
10: Go be adopted by the Yoshida family.

30)
1: It meant he would be come the inheritor to a family of scholars. He hated the idea, but...
2: He thought of it as a way to escape his father's cruel discipline, so he accepted.
3: Come over here, Toranosuke.
4: From today forward, you'll take the important kanji from my name and become "Daijirou."
5: cough cough cough
6: cough!
7: Let us begin. Yamaga style soldier instruction.
8: You must memorize this as soon as possible.

31)
1: "The true key to victory, which any man can achieve, is to find the most superior location around him and attack from there, in order to force his enemy to retreat."
2: cough cough cough
3: U-uncle!
4: I am not your Uncle! Call me father! Cough!
5: Now, on to the next part. Repeat after me, Daijirou.
6: blecch

32)
1: Toranosuke felt saved because his new father never hit him -- whether or not this was simply due to the man's illness,
2: but the teachings continued from morning deep into the night.
3: Once or twice a night, Daisuke's energy would return to him,
4: and he would immediately wake up Daijirou to continue.
5: It's no wonder the five-year old boy began to develop a neurosis.
6: in order to force his enemy to retreat...
7: I understand your intent, but you must at least let the poor thing sleep properly.
8: I know that.
9: But as long as there I still have life, I must spend it infusing knowledge in that boy!
10: When Toranosuke began thinking about escaping from the Yoshida house,
11: his adopted father died.

33)
1: He could only breathe a sigh of relief for a short while.
2: Daijirou!
3: Come.
4: I will be replacing your deceased father from this day forward, and become your direct teacher. Accept this.
5: Uncle Tamaki's teachings were the epitome of extremity.

34)
1: You want to run?!
2: It was a full-blown Spartan approach.
3: Although he was still young, the child had no choice but to accept his fate.

35)
creak!

36)
1: Come out! Daijirou!
2: Bunnoshin took him to the clan school's Meirin Hall.
3: Now that you've lost your adopted father, the clan will not continue letting you eat for free forever.
4: The time for you to complete your duty of becoming a military instructor is nearing.
5: From today forward, you will sit amongst your peers and learn what it means to instruct and be instructed.
6: Consider this your training.
7: Ummm...so, this interpretation of the 18th doctrine was something done to edit the truths to fit a new age, therefore it is called the revised 18th doctrine...
8: How old are you?
9: What? Nine?

37)
1: Meirin Hall was a classroom in which only elite samurai children were allowed to study.
2: Heheheh! Not bad for a little kid.
3: Wow! You say you're gonna become a military instructor? Heheheh!
4: It was here that the child learned about anger.
5: Compared to his previous days of working and suffering through the daylight hours for his life and future, then getting shut up in his room to study all night...
6: This new environment would have been a blessing, if not for the self-indulgent students that surrounded him.
7: When he thought about his peers, who simply repeated the conservative, uniform teachings of their elders over and over again, ad infinitum,
8: and would eventually be awarded with seats of power for no other reason...
9: his nine-year old heart became filled with violent anger.
10: How can I lose to them?!
11: And when his mind became ten years old, he became a military instructor in training.

38)
1: The first theory of the Yamaga-style military tactics is to place each separate warrior in a position centered around their quality!
2: Okay, okaaay!
3: The following year, he heard a rumor that the newly-appointed 13th leader of the Choushuu clan, Mouri Takachika, would be visiting Edo.
4: Call him here. I'll see for myself.
5: He's probably just another talentless dolt who has simply memorized all his textbooks with the help of an assistant.
6: From the eyes of commoners, the clean leader was like a God.
7: Bunnoshin and his student fell prostrate before the man's presence.
8: This was to be a very important interview exam, through which the Yoshida house would be dismantled if it was proven that they did not possess true ability.
9: Raise your heads.

39)
1: Begin.
2(2b): Yes, sir. There exist three major precepts within the Yamaga-style book of military philosophy! Soldiers must first win, and then fight! They must defeat their enemy before they fight! In other words, they must strike first--
3: While feeling slightly shock at the unfaltering speech, the revered man looked deep into the boy's heart.
4: A vassal asked a question.
5: And the boy explained the matter piece by piece, as if the old man were his student.
6: I-I see...
7: Excellent.
8: With that single word, Yoshida Daijirou was acknowledged.

40)
1: What do you warriors think of education?!
2: If it is only a means to acquiring the label that you are educated, then that is not education at all! And even if you simply increase the amount of knowledge you possess, that does not count as true education! If that's the case, then you should quit immediately! It's fruitless!
3: That little punk's really getting high in his britches lately.
4: Hahaha! But it's good that he has energy. He's still better than those other instructors who put me to sleep.
5: The growth of tomorrow! The happiness of tomorrow!
6: The true meaning of education is to pursue the happiness and right to equality for all human beings!
7: The sole talent of Meirin Hall, the instructor whose energy flowed out incessantly day after day, began to accumulate more and more fame.
8: And around this time, other men began to share his attitude toward education.
9: The salvation of all commoners who were currently suffering without any hope for the future...in order to achieve that, he would have to thoroughly educate the men who would eventually rise up to become vassals themselves! That was what the 16-year old Daijirou firmly believed.

41)
1(2b): And then, he fell in love...
sfx: bam
2: Why, if isn't the illustrious Yoshida-sensei.
3: What can I do for you?
4: I would like to meet with your daughter, Miss Chizuru.
5: Hohoh.
6: What could you possibly have to say to someone like her?

42)
1: Call in Chizuru.
2: Ohh, so beautiful...
3: I would like to make you my wife. Please accept this request...
4: Huh?
5: If that's what you came for, then leave at once!
6: You may be the genius instructor of Meirin Hall or whatever they call you, but our house is of a different circumstance than someone of your kind!
7: So that's what you came for, eh? I can hardly believe my ears! Out with you!

43)
1: Today, I am determined to not leave until I hear a positive response, even if I may die as a result.
2: Please accept this truth in your hearts...
3: What?! B-bite your tongue!
4: Someone throw this man out!
5: I am in the middle of a request right now.
6: Please, not not interrupt me. I beg of you!
7: You dog! How selfish can you be?! Do you completely lack common sense?!
8: And of all things, how dare you attempt to seduce my daughter?!
(The * line is just an explanation for a difficult japanese word, so you can delete it)
9: Throw it him out! Kill him if need be!

44)
1: Kukuh
2: Status, status, status!
3: Do you know how much tragedy your insistence on status discrimination has caused up to now?!
4: Miss Chizuru! Please understand the truth of this man, who came here with to ask you honestly, with no thoughts of status discrimination in his heart!
5: I...
6: I can't even stand to look at your pock-marked face and your meager body!
7: Daijirou collapsed there, feeling like a complete and utter imbecile.
8: And then suddenly, he began crying loudly.

45)
1: auuuuuuuuuh
sfx: bang! bang! bang!
2: The pockmarks were from advanced herpes, an incurable disease that was currently spreading.
3: If he had been born in a rich house, however, he could have received treatment before it got this bad.
4: His meager body came from eating millet as his main food with a dash of Kinyamaji miso, a meal that was far from substantial.
5: It was a sorrow that only commoners knew.
6: The news of his disgrace spread, and his popularity fell instantly.
7: That's exactly what a commoner like him would do! His lectures were too idealistic anyway!
8: Hahaha! He always went on prattling as if he was better than us.

46)
1: Besides, do you think the kind of outdated military techniques he talks about would actually let us win if we were attacked by a foreign country?
2: Hahahaha...no way!
3: The other instructors whispered to themselves...
4: He's saying we don't need education!
5: If the clan will not make him stop, then we must confront him and take matters into our own hands!
6: Whenever he stood up at the podium, he was only laughed at repeatedly.
text on people's heads: laugh
sfx: Heheheh... hee hee...
7: Finally, Daijirou lost his position, and was left to shut himself up in his house and cry midst his dejection.
8: At that time, a destitute foot soldier named Kaneko Juusuke came to visit him.
9: Sensei! You are an excellent man! I know you will rise to achieve something great in your lifetime! So please, cry! For the more you cry, and the more you suffer, the more hope I will be able to have in your future!

47)
1: I'm about to lose my position as military instructor, the one thing I've managed to acquire after working my entire life! The Yamagi-style tactics I teach are becoming outdated!
2: If I lose this, then I'll become just another commoner! I'm afraid! Uuuuu!
3: Sensei! Let's add more importance to your military tactics! Let's go somewhere!
4: Let's search for new knowledge! Travel Japan! And absorb everything!
5: Sensei! Please come with me!
6: And so, he received a great,
7: Kaneko-kun!
8: solitary ally.
9: They traveled the entire country and met with various scholars in different clans. And in the end, they met with Sakuma Shouzan.
10: No matter where you search in this nation the way it is now, you will find nothing! You have no choice but to seek out foreign cultures, who are far more evolved than ours! There is no time to waste!
11: For the time being, you should aim for the American fleet Perry has led here. This is a perfect chance for you!

48)
1: With those parting words from Shouzan in their minds, the two went out.
2: But their attempt to board the foreign ship ended in failure, as described in the beginning.
3: And as history has explained to us, Shouzan was also arrested as a result of the incident.
4: But the two men's lives were spared, and they were sent back to their hometown in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
5: By this time, the Yoshida house had already been removed from the clan registry, so Shouin was now officially nothing but a poor, masterless samurai.
6: He was thrown into jail again, at 25 years of age.

49)
1: And now Kaneko has died as wellll!
2: Would you shut up already?!
3: Let me tell you something about this Noyama prison! It's a living hell, a mansion from which you will never be able to leave for the rest of your life!
4: Why did I have to be thrown in here?! Iiiii...I don't remember doing something this bad!
5: What's wrong with wanting to go to another country?! The government's just being selfish!

50)
1: What do you think about that?! Huh?
2(sfx): Shut up!
3: Whether it's good or bad, it's the law! We have to obey it! There's no point to whining about it now!
4: No, I will not be silent! How could I be?! Bad things are bad!
5: And if I'm going to die here no matter what, then I'm just going to go on speaking until I can speak no longer!
6: Kill him!
7: I won't be able to stand it if he goes on crying and screaming all night.
8: Yeah!
9: KILL me?! Yes, you people were all thrown in here because you did bad things! But there must have been reasons for you all to do those bad things, right?! What were they?!
10: Yes! yes! You're closing your eyes to those reasons! That's what it means to kill me!

51)
1: Are you fine with that?! Huh?! Do you really care that much about being faithful to the law?! That's so hypocritical! So selfish! Who cares about the law?!
2: Kuh
3: Auuuuuggh! You're so pathetic! It's because there are so many people like you that the world will never get any better, no matter how long the human race survives! Uuuuuuaaaaaaaah!
4: I no longer have anything left! Nothing, I lost all reason I had to live! Ahhhhhhh, it hurts! I'm filled with so much sorrow! What was all my effort up until today for?! Ahhhh!
5: He continued to cry, as he clawed the stone floor.

52)
1: So this is what that genius boy, that esteemed scholar's become.
2: He's hardly any different from me, an uneducated rapist!
3: We're badgers in the same hole! Ahahahaha!
4: No.
5: What?!
6: You were simply born into a good house and did what you wanted.
7: But this newcomer crying here desperately cut open his own path. He's different from you.
8: Shuddap, old man!
9: Family this, family that, all you people ever talk about is family! It's really starting to piss me off!
10: B-but that's exactly it!
11: Samurai live for their family! And clan leaders live for their clan! The Tokugawa live for the peace and continuation of their own Tokugawa government! It is for those reasons that people suffer! That people still suffer!
12: It's a law of power! The world is being controlled by power! Those with no power have to suffer and cry more than anyone else! And those who cannot bear the law of power either cease to be human beings or commit crimes!
13: Isn't that the truth?! Huh?!

53)
1: Laws of power must not be involved in human coexistence! Laws of power are for the world of animals!
2: Even farmers and poor people are humans! Rapist, you too! All humans are born wanting to live freely! It is the fact that we someday cease to obey the ones gripping the power that makes us human!
3: I want to break the laws of those in power! I want to rip them, shred them, trample them, crush them into pieces and blow them away!
4: Do you understand me?! Everyone!!
5: He shouted on and on--
6: You must be thirsty, sensei.
7: Huh?
8: You're giving me water?
9: Thank youuuuu

54)
1: Shouin had always been an extremely simple man, and was able to feel deeply moved from the bottom of his heart for a mere cup of water.
2: And so, these hopeless men who had been imprisoned for life--
3: began to lend their ears to the furious lectures coming from this simple, and therefore strange scholar who seemed not to be showing off in the least.
4: Gradually, they became no longer skeptics, but listeners who called the man "sensei."
5: He ordered for books to be brought into the prison and talked to the men about true education.
6: I am happy! I have enough hope to keep living now! Because of you! You listen to what I say! I am truly thankful! This is truly a joyous thing!

55)
1: Indeed, he had found hope to keep living.
2: I don't care if I just rot away in this cell! I will be reborn, and change things once and for all!
3: What? Lectures in the prison?
4: Just make whatever excuse you like to the government.
5: This is too much of a shame...he is a genius. Let him out.
6: Although Shouin was allowed to live in his house again, he was not allowed to step a foot outside, meet with people from other clans, or do anything that would make him stand out, such as meeting with other scholars. Once again, his blood father was positioned to supervise him.
7: But despite the conditions, he was allowed to live a free life in a room removed from the main estate.

56)
1: This was when he changed his name to "Shouin"--
2: referring to the fact that he lived in the shadow of the pine trees...
3: Even those prisoners, with their hardened hearts, listened to my words! There's no reason a normal person wouldn't either!
4: My thoughts and my heart should be simple for any person to understand! There is nothing complex about them!
5: With the confidence he received from jail, he began to act.
6: Hello!
7: I am...
8: That's it, everyone, come closer! That's it, line up, line up!
9: Ahhhh, this is why I cannot go without speaking any longer!
10: This guy's pretty fun to watch.
11: Mmm
12: Among these children stood Takasugi Shinsaku, Kusaka Genzui, Kido Takayoshi, Itou Hirofumi, Shinagawa Yajirou, and Yamagata Aritomo -- among many other men who played a major part in bringing about the Meiji Restoration--

57)
1: Come now, let's talk inside here! That's it, go on inside!
2: Hey, don't push me!
3: It's totally full of people!
4: This classroom -- was called the Shoka Sonjuku, or Village Classroom Under the Pines -- where Shouin held his famous classes--
5: Which means that the first thing we must do is topple the government!
6: Then an age will come where you will all be able to travel abroad, study in foreign classrooms, and go wherever you want!

58)
1: Then, a man named Ii Naosuke became a Great Elder within the government, and the Great Ansei Purge was carried out, in which 100 "suspicious persons" were executed.
2: Shouin was arrested as well, and thrown into the Denma District prison once more.
3: Ansei 6 (1859) - July 27 - "Regardless of my death, my comrades will carry out my will," he writes.
4: He entrusted his head to an executioner named Asaemon, and ended his life at the young age of 30 years--
5: dying with a smile on his face--
THE END