Misao Fujimura

Misao Fujimura
Born	(1886-07-20)20 July 1886 Hokkaidō
Died	22 May 1903(1903-05-22) (aged 16) Nikkō, Tochigi
Resting place	Aoyama Cemetery, Tokyo, Japan
Education	Hokkaido Sapporo Minami High School Tōyō Univ. Keihoku High School

Misao Fujimura’s suicide note

Misao Fujimura (藤村 操, Fujimura Misao, July 20, 1886 – May 22, 1903) was a Japanese philosophy student and poet, largely remembered due to his farewell poem.

Biography

Fujimura was born in Hokkaidō. His grandfather was a former samurai of the Morioka Domain, and his father relocated to Hokkaidō after the Meiji Restoration as a director of the forerunner of Hokkaido Bank. Fujimura graduated from middle school in Sapporo, and then relocated to Tokyo where he attended a preparatory school for entry into Tokyo Imperial University.

He later traveled to Kegon Falls in Nikko, a famed scenic area, and wrote his farewell poem directly on the trunk of a tree before committing suicide. His grave is at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.

The story was soon sensationalized in contemporary newspapers, and was commented upon by the famed writer Natsume Sōseki, an English teacher at Fujimura's high school. Sōseki later wrote on his death in Kusamakura.

Poem

Japanese

Translation in English

巌頭之感 悠々たる哉天壌、 遼々たる哉古今、 五尺の小躯を以て此大をはからむとす。 ホレーショの哲學竟に何等のオーソリチィーを價するものぞ。 萬有の眞相は唯だ一言にして悉す、 曰く「不可解」。 我この恨を懐いて煩悶、終に死を決するに至る。 既に巌頭に立つに及んで 胸中何等の不安あるなし。 始めて知る 大なる悲觀は大なる樂觀に一致するを

Thoughts on the precipice How immense the universe is! How eternal history is! I wanted to measure the immensity with this puny five-foot body. What authority has Horatio's philosophy? The true nature of the whole creation. Is in one word – “unfathomable”. With this regret, I am determined to die. Standing on a rock on the top of a waterfall. I have no anxiety. I recognize for the first time. Great pessimism is nothing but great optimism.

References

土門公記（Domon Kouki）: 藤村操の手紙－華厳の滝に眠る16歳のメッセージ. Shimotsuke Shimbunsha, 2002, ISBN 4-88286-175-5