Rizal

ROMANTIC INTERLUDE in JAPAN (1888)
ROMANTIC INTERLUDE in JAPAN (1888)
Rizal Arrives in Yokohama
 February 28, 1888 (Tuesday morning) - Rizal arrived in Yokohama. He

registered at the Grand Hotel.
 March 2-7- Rizal proceeded to Tokyo and took a room at Tokyo Hotel.
Rizal in Tokyo
 Rizal was visited at his hotel by Juan Perez Caballero, secretary of the
Spanish Legation. The latter invited him to live at the Spanish legation.
 Macao is a Portuguese colony near Hong Kong.
 Spanish diplomatic authorities were instructed from Manila to monitor his
movements in Japan. He accepted the invitation for two reasons: (1) he could
economize his living expenses by staying at the legation and (2) he had nothing
to hide from the prying eyes of the Spanish authorities.
 March 7 – Rizal checked out of Tokyo Hotel and lived at the Spanish Legation.
He and Perez Caballero became good friend.
 During his first day in Tokyo, Rizal was embarrassed because he did not know
the Japanese language.
 Rizal studied Japanese language and he was able to speak it within a few
days. He also studied the Japanese drama (kabuki), arts, music, and judo
(Japanese art of self-defense).
Rizal and the Tokyo Musicians
 March 1888 – It was a beautiful spring afternoon; Rizal was promenading in a

street of Tokyo near a park.
 As he approached the park, Rizal heard the Tokyo band playing a classical
work of Strauss. He was impressed by the superb performances of the Western
music.
 Rizal admired and wondered how Japanese people have assimilated the
modern European music.
Rizal’s Impression of Japan
 Rizal was favorably impressed by Japan. He was a keen observer, taking

copious notes on the life, customs, and culture of the people.
 One thing which he did not like in Japan and that was the popular mode of
transportation by means of rickshaws.
Romance with O-Sei-San
 O-Sei-San (Seiko Usui) – A samurai’s daughter, 23 years old and a pretty

Japanese girl whom Rizal was attracted by her regal loveliness and charm.
 Rizal and O-Sei-San, as Rizal called her, met almost daily.
 Rizal saw in lovely O-Sei-San the qualities of his ideal womanhood – beauty,
charm, modesty, and intelligence.
 O-Sei-San helped Rizal in many ways. She guided him in observing the shrines
and villages around Tokyo. She improved his knowledge of Nippongo (Japanese
language) and Japanese history.
Rizal on O-Sei-San
 Riza’s great love for O-Sei-San is attested by the hero’s diary.

 With this tenderly tragic entry in his own diary, Rizal bade farewell to lovely
O-Sei-San.
Sayonara, Japan
 April 13, 1888 – Rizal boarded the Belgic, an English streamer, at Yokohama,
bound for the United States.
 He left Japan with a heavy heart, for he knew that he would never again see
this beautiful “Land of the Cherry Blossoms” and beloved O-Sei-San. Truly, his
sojourn in Japan for 45 days was one of his happiest interludes in his life.
O-Sei-San after Rizal’s Departure
 As everything on earth has to end, the beautiful romance between Rizal and
O-Sei-San inevitably came to a dolorous ending. Sacrificing his personal
happiness, Rizal had to carry on his libertarian mission in Europe; accordingly,
he resumed his voyage, leaving behind the lovely O-Sei-San, whom he
passionately loved.
 O-Sei-San was broken-hearted by the departure o fRizal, the first man to
capture her heart.
 About 1897, a year after Rizal’s execution, she married Mr. Alfred Charlton,
British teacher of Chemistry of the Peers’School in Tokyo.
Voyage across the Pacific
 On board the ship, he met a semi-Filipino family – Mr. Reinaldo Turner, his
wife Emma Jackson (daughter of an Englishman, their maid and servant from
Pangasinan.
Rizal and Tetcho
 Tetcho Suehiro, a fighting Japanese journalist, novelist, and champion of

human rights, who was forced by the Japanese government to leave the
country.
 Rizal, who knew many foreign languages, including Japanese, befriended him
and acted as his interpreter during their long trip from Yokohama to San
Francisco, across the U.S. to New York until they reached London, where they
parted.
 Rizal and Tetcho were kindred spirits.Both were men of peace using their
trenchant pens as formidable weapons to fight for their peoples’ welfare and
happiness.
 In 1890 Tetcho was elected as a member of the lower house of the first
Imperial Diet (Japanese Parliament), where he carried on his fight for human
rights.
 (1891) he published a political novel titled Nankai-no-Daiharan (Storm Overt
the South Sea) which resembles Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere in plot.
 (1894) he published another novel entitled O-unabara (The Big Ocean) which
was similar to El Filibusterismo.
 Tetcho died of heart attack in Tokyo in February, 1896 (ten months before
Rizal’s execution). He was then 49 years old.

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ROMANTIC INTERLUDE in JAPAN (1888)

ROMANTIC INTERLUDE in JAPAN (1888)

Rizal Arrives in Yokohama

 February 28, 1888 (Tuesday morning) - Rizal arrived in Yokohama. He

Rizal and the Tokyo Musicians

 March 1888 – It was a beautiful spring afternoon; Rizal was promenading in a

Rizal’s Impression of Japan

 Rizal was favorably impressed by Japan. He was a keen observer, taking

Romance with O-Sei-San

 O-Sei-San (Seiko Usui) – A samurai’s daughter, 23 years old and a pretty

 Riza’s great love for O-Sei-San is attested by the hero’s diary.

O-Sei-San after Rizal’s Departure

Voyage across the Pacific

 Tetcho Suehiro, a fighting Japanese journalist, novelist, and champion of

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