Yonezawa, Yamagata Jun.21, 2019
Uesugi Jinzya Shrine and Caroline Kennedy
Yonezawa is the seat of Yonezawa clan which governed the south part of Yamagata during the Edo period ( 1603 – 1868 ). The land was not fertile. With large servants to feed and frequent orders for supports in terms of labor and money from the Tokugawa shogunate, they had been under financial difficulty all the time. Uesugi Yozan (September 9, 1751 – April 2, 1822), the 9th load of the domain, has been admired as a leader to turn around the situation through frugality and encouragement of business by growing agricultural produce. Late US. president John F. Kennedy mentioned about him as a Japanese stateman he admired at his press conference with foreign press in 1961. I think that surprised many Japanese when they heard about Uesugi Yozan from the mouth of the young president. Uesugi Yozan was not well-known even by many of us except who lived in Yamagata.
You can accomplish anything if you do it. Nothing will be accomplished unless you do it. If something was not accomplished, that’s because none did it. (Yozan Uesugi). This is his famous motto of his life. After Kennedy’s mention about him, this phrase has widely known.
It is not known what made him know Yozan Uesugi, whom even the Japanese press did not know when they asked who a Japanese statement he admires. It is largely believed that he had read Representative Men of Japan／Japan and the Japanese written by Uchimura Kanzo and Yozan Uesugi is one of the five men on the book. He assumed the domain at the age of 17. He devoted all his life to changing the land free from water shortage and encouraging people both farmers and Samurai alike to boost economy. He finally turned the domain free from huge debt at the age of 72.
You can find a statue of Uesugi Yozan in the shrine precinct, the former site of Yonezawa castle with the plaque of Caroline Kennedy, his daughter and the former ambassador to Japan(2013 – 2017 ) standing. U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy made a visit to the city of Yonezawa on Sept.27, 2014.
My young brother Hideki and I stopped by on our way to Takahata town to see my late mother’s cousins. I had stayed about a month to learn driving a car at driving school there over four decades ago. But I went between the school in Yonezawa and the hotel in Onogawa Onsen by the school bus. I remember I passed the shrine every morning. But, I did not even try to visit at that time.