Did you know? Jose Rizal inspired characters in Meiji era novels

Did you know that Jose Rizal inspired characters in Japanese novels written in the Meiji era during his lifetime? 

In a July 27, 1888 letter to his friend, Mariano Ponce, Rizal described his voyage on the ship SS Belgic from Yokohama to San Francisco:

“I became acquainted with a Japanese man who was coming to Europe after having been imprisoned for his radical views and having served as the editor of an independent newspaper. Since he spoke only Japanese, I acted as his interpreter until we arrived in London.”

Rizal provided no other details concerning this acquaintance. He mentioned no name. We are left only with the information that Rizal met someone who was a journalist and was considered a radical in Meiji Era Japan. They travelled across America by railroad and sailed to Europe together — a journey of just over 40 days. 

What did they talk about? What did they do? Surely, putting two intellectuals together would have led to some interesting conversations and shared experiences. Fortunately, the Japanese man was also a novelist: it’s in his later works where we find details of this chance encounter. 

His name was Suehiro Tetchō and he was chief editor of a newspaper that had a reputation for bold reporting — so bold that he was imprisoned twice for running afoul of press laws. He had written two novels that became bestsellers and with the money he earned from these, he was able to travel to the United States and Europe. 

A few years later he would write 2 novels set in the Philippines: “Nanyō no daiharan” (The Great Upheaval in the South Seas) and its sequel, “Arahi no nagori” (Remains of the Storm). In the foreword to “Nanyō,” Suehiro wrote:

“I met a gentleman from Manila… he had been working for Philippine independence… but he was arrested as a political offender and he escaped abroad. He talked to me about the policy of the Spanish government and the restless condition in the Islands. One day, I saw a picture of a beautiful lady and he told me that she was his sweetheart but because she was separated from him, she entered a convent. I was deeply moved by their affair so I decided to write a political novel by expanding his story… Some of the incidents are fictitious and I have disclosed in writing what I have long been dissatisfied with.” (translation from “Jose Rizal and Suehiro Tetchō: Filipino and Japanese Political Novelists” by Josefa Saniel)

In “Nanyō no daiharan,” the lead character is a Filipino named Takayama Takahashi who is troubled by how his countrymen are treated by the Spanish colonial government. After he gets mistreated himself, he starts a movement for freedom but is jailed; he escapes and flees to London. 

It’s there that he discovers, through a genealogy exhibit at the British Museum, that he’s a descendant of an upper-class, 17th-century, Japanese Christian. He eventually appeals to and receives support for the movement from the Japanese emperor. The Spanish are successfully driven out and the Philippines becomes a protectorate of the Japanese empire.

“Nanyō no daiharan” contains all the elements of an epic drama or anime series: a lady in distress, villains, political intrigue, a prison break, a river full of alligators, and exile to a faraway land. The author clearly took inspiration from aspects of Rizal’s person and story; he may have conflated details from his novel, “Noli Me Tangere,” as actual details from the national hero’s life. (The historian, Josefa Saniel, proposed that this may have been caused by the less-than-ideal way that Rizal and Suehiro communicated, which was a hybrid of whatever Japanese and English they shared.)

In another work, “Oshi no ryokō” (Travels of a Mute, 1889), Suehiro made more references to Rizal. Unlike “Nanyō,” this work was a non-political comical travelogue. The main characters are a Japanese man and a “Manila gentleman” who met on a ship bound for America with London as the final destination. 

They are robbed, get separated on the train, and collide with Western culture. The Japanese character misreads many foreign social cues and norms while the more-travelled Manila gentleman serves as his guide and often, his rescuer. 

After arriving in London, the Japanese man visits the Manila gentleman frequently, which may indicate that Rizal and Suehiro continued their friendship until they parted ways in December 1888.

Did they stay in touch afterwards? There are no accounts that these two men corresponded after London. Rizal then would not have known that he made such an impression that he became an inspiration for Suehiro’s novels. 

Both of them would have been hurtling towards their respective destinies: Suehiro would later on become a member of the Imperial Diet (the Japanese legislature) and die of cancer in 1896 — the same year Rizal was executed in Manila.

Because Suehiro’s books have never been translated into English, we must rely on excerpts and insights from history research papers such as “Daydreaming about Rizal and Techo: On Asianism as Network and Fantasy” by Caroline S. Hau and Takashi Shiraishi, and “Jose Rizal and Suehiro Techo: Filipino and Japanese Political Novelists” by Josefa Saniel. 

This brief chance encounter leaves us with a historical snapshot of two educated men, both from emerging Asian nations, thrown together by fate to become fellow travelers in a time of great change.