O Sei San (JAPAN)

O Sei San, a Japanese samurai’s daughter taught Rizal the Japanese art of
painting known as su-mie. She also helped Rizal improve his knowledge of
Japanese language. If Rizal was a man without a patriotic mission, he would
have married this lovely and intelligent woman and lived a stable and happy life
with her in Japan because Spanish legation there offered him a lucrative job.

It was during Rizal’s second trip abroad when he met Seiko Usui. From Hong
Kong, he arrived in Japan in February 1888 and moved to the Spanish Legation
in the Azabu district of Tokyo upon the invitation of an official in the legation.

One day, Rizal saw Seiko passing by the legation in one of her daily afternoon
walks. Fascinated by her charm, Rizal inquired and learned from a Japanese
gardener some basic information about her. The next day, Rizal and the
Japanese gardener waited at the legation gate for Seiko. Acting as a go-between
and interpreter, the gardener introduced the gracious Filipino doctor and the
pretty Japanese woman to each other. The gardener’s role as intermediary was
cut short however when Seiko spoke in English. She also knew French, and so
she and Rizal began to converse in both languages.
O-Sei-San, as Rizal fondly called Seiko, voluntarily acted as Rizal’s generous
tour guide. She accompanied him to Japan’s shrines, parks, universities, and
other interesting places like the Imperial Art Gallery, Imperial Library, and the
Shokubutsu-en (Botanical Garden). Serving as his tutor and interpreter, she
helped him improve his knowledge of the Japanese language (Nihonngo) and
explained to him some Japanese cultural elements and traditions like the Kabuki
plays.

It was thus not surprising that Jose fell for the charming, modest, pretty, and
intelligent daughter of a samurai. Seiko subsequently reciprocated the affection
of the talented and virtuous guest who, like her, had deep interest in the arts.

Their more than a month happy relationship had to end nonetheless, as the man
with a mission Rizal had to leave Japan. His diary entry on the eve of his
departure illustrates what he had thrown away in deciding to leave O-Sei-San:

“Japan has enchanted me. The beautiful scenery, the flowers, the trees, and the
inhabitants – so peaceful, so courteous, and so pleasant. O-Sei-San, Sayonara,
Sayonara! I have spent a happy golden month; I do not know if I can have
another one like that in all my life. Love, money, friendship, appreciation, honors
–these have not been wanting.
To think that I am leaving this life for the uncertain, the unknown. There I was
offered an easy way to live, beloved and esteemed…”

As if talking to Seiko, Rizal affectionately addressed this part of his diary entry to
his Japanese sweetheart:
“To you I dedicate the final chapter of these memoirs of my youth. No woman,
like you has ever loved me. No woman, like you has ever sacrificed for me. Like
the flower of the chodji that falls from the stem fresh and whole without falling
leaves or without withering –with poetry still despite its fall – thus you fell. Neither
have you lost your purity nor have the delicate petals of your innocence faded –
Sayonara, Sayonara!
You shall never return to know that I have once more thought of you and that
your image lives in my memory; and undoubtedly, I am always thinking of you.
Your name lives in the sight of my lips, your image accompanies and animates
all my thoughts. When shall I return to pass another divine afternoon like that in
the temple of Maguro? When shall the sweet hours I spent with you return?
When shall I find them sweeter, more tranquil, more pleasing? You the color of
the camellia, its freshness, its elegance…
Ah! Last descendant of a noble family, faithful to an unfortunate vengeance, you
are lovely like…everything has ended! Sayonara, Sayonara!”

Onboard the steamer ‘Belgic’, Rizal left Japan on April 13, 1888 never to see
Seiko again. In 1897, a year after Rizal’s martyrdom, Seiko married Alfred
Charlton, British chemistry teacher of the Peer’s School in Tokyo. Mr. Charlton
died on November 2, 1915, survived by Seiko and their child Yuriko.
At the age of 80, Seiko died on May 1, 1947 and was buried in the tomb of her
husband at Zoshigawa Cemetery. Their daughter Yuriko became the wife of a
certain Yoshiharu Takiguchi, son of a Japanese senator

CONCLUSION: Rizal might not have left a promise that he will return to Japan to
be with O-Sei-San which was probably the reason that Seiko got married to
another man. She became the wife of Englishman, Alfred Charlton, who was an
English teacher in the Peer’s High School, then the Yamaguchi High School in
Imaguchi, and later taught chemistry in the prestigious Gakushuin High School.
He was decorated with the Japanese Order of Merit, 5th class, as indicated on
his tombstone. Charlton and Seiko had a daughter named Yuriko who married
the son of a senator named Yoshiharu Takiguchi. They had a son (no name) who
was a Japanese diplomat assigned in Geneva. Charlton died in 1925 while Seiko
survived World War II. Seiko died on May 1, 1947 in Hagi City in Yamaguchi
Prefecture in Western Japan where she relocated during the war from Tokyo to
avoid the bombing. She died at age 80.

REACTION:

A true love that showing care for each other and they both expressing the true
meaning of love but it won't succeed when Rizal want to leave japan to explore
other countries and have new knowledge, Rizal can sacrifice their love for the
study and ambitions that he want and Rizal never made a promises to O sei san
and never comeback to her because rizal have met another woman in other
country.