Background
Shōnan Yokoi was born on 22 September 1809 in Kumamoto. He was a son of a samurai of the province of Higo; his personal name was Tokihiro, his common name Heishiro, and his literary names were Shonan and Shozan.
横井 小楠
Shōnan Yokoi was born on 22 September 1809 in Kumamoto. He was a son of a samurai of the province of Higo; his personal name was Tokihiro, his common name Heishiro, and his literary names were Shonan and Shozan.
He attended the school operated by the domain of Kumamoto and in 1839 was sent to Edo by his domain for further study.
At school he became acquainted with Fujita Toko, a samurai of the domain of Mito, and the shogunate official Kawaji Toshiakira. The following year he returned to Higo, where he opened a private school and formed a group known as the Jitsugakuto (Practical Party). His aim was to bring about reforms in the domain by emphasizing knowledge that was of practical application, but his efforts failed, and he set off upon a tour through various other parts of the country.
At this time he became acquainted with Hashimoto Sanai, a physician of Echizen. From 1855 on, as he learned more about the Western world, he became an advocate of the opening of the country. At the invitation of Matsudaira Yoshinaga (Shungaku), the lord of the domain of Echizen, he went to Echizen in 1858 to act as an advisor on political affairs.
After the death of Hashimoto Sanai in 1859, he acted as leader of the reform group in Echizen. In 1862, when Matsudaira Yoshinaga was given a high advisory post in the shogunate, Yokoi played an important role as his political planner, working for reform in the shogunate and a policy of cooperation between the shogunate and the imperial court. A sudden shift in the political situation in Echizen in 186S led him to return to Kumamoto, where he was looked upon as an advocate of dangerous ideas, was deprived of his samurai status, and placed under house confinement. While living in retirement, he was visited by such important young leaders of the time as Sakamoto Ryoma.
At the time of the Meiji Restoration, he was summoned by the new government and appointed as a Sanyo (junior councilor), being treated with great respect because oi his age. But he was attacked and assassinated in Kyoto by a party of six conservative samurai, who suspected him of being a Christian and of favoring republican thinking.
One of his disciples was Yuri Kimimasa, a samurai of Echizen who took part in the drafting of the five article Charter Oath that laid down the principles of the new government, and the document reflects Yokoi’s thinking.
Yokoi’s eldest son, Yokoi Tokio (1857-1928), was a Christian minister and president of Doshisha University in Kyoto. He edited a volume of his father’s posthumous works, which was published in 1889 under the title Shonan iko.