Part 3 of the series Tosa and the Sea: how the people of Kochi helped open and change Japan.

Everyone in Kochi knows the name John Manjiro. Far fewer people remember the four men who were shipwrecked with him. They were ordinary fishermen from the town of Usa, and they shared the same storm, the same lonely island, and the same long journey into the unknown. Their story is quieter than Manjiro’s, but it is just as human, and it deserves to be told.

The marker at Usa for the cove where John Manjiro and his companions set sail

Five Men From Usa

Usa is a small fishing town on the coast a little west of Kochi City. In early 1841, five local fishermen set out to sea from here. They were the fourteen year old Manjiro and four others: a man named Fudenojo, his two younger brothers Jusuke and Goemon, and another fisherman called Toraemon. They were not explorers or samurai. They were working men trying to catch fish to feed their families. None of them could have guessed that this trip would take them across the world.

The Storm and the Island

A sudden storm caught their small boat and carried it far out into the Pacific, onto the same Kuroshio current that had once swept away the sailor Chohei. After days at sea, the five men washed up on Torishima, the empty bird island. There they survived together for about five months on seabirds and rainwater, sharing what little they had, until an American whaling ship, the John Howland, found them and took them aboard.

The open Pacific where the fishermen were lost

A Hard Choice in Hawaii

The American ship carried the men to Hawaii. Young Manjiro decided to sail on to the United States with the kind captain, but the four older fishermen stayed behind in Hawaii. They were a long way from home, in a place where they did not speak the language and knew no one. Yet they did not simply wait to be helped. They worked. They drew water and cooked and helped in the homes that took them in. They even tried bonito fishing, the same skill they had used in Tosa, and helped with farm work. They kept their dignity through hard and uncertain days.

There is something remarkable here that is easy to miss. By staying in Hawaii in the 1840s, these men from Usa were among the very first Japanese ever to live there. This was decades before the first waves of Japanese immigrants reached Hawaii from the 1860s onward. In a real sense, ordinary fishermen from a small Tosa town may have been among the first Japanese to make their home in the Hawaiian Kingdom, long before Hawaii became a place that so many Japanese would later call home.

Museum displays about the Tosa castaways and their journey

Different Roads Home

In time the four men took very different paths. Jusuke, one of the brothers, fell ill and died in Hawaii, cared for to the end by his brothers Fudenojo and Goemon. Toraemon chose to stay in Hawaii for good and made a new life there as a carpenter. Fudenojo, who took the name Denzo, and his brother Goemon decided to risk the dangerous return to Japan. In 1851 they came home together with Manjiro, after ten years away. It is said that after returning, the brothers lived quietly in the Usa area and rarely left it again.

Among the First Japanese in Hawaii

There is one more reason these men matter. When they were brought to Hawaii in 1841, Hawaii was still an independent kingdom, and almost no Japanese had ever lived there. Toraemon, who chose to stay, may have been one of the very first Japanese people ever to settle in Hawaii, becoming in effect a resident of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This was decades before the first large groups of Japanese immigrants arrived in the late 1800s. In other words, ordinary fishermen from Usa were quietly making a home in Hawaii long before the history of Japanese Hawaii is usually said to begin.

Exhibits telling the story of the Tosa fishermen

Why the Companions Matter

History often remembers only the most famous name and forgets the others. But the four fishermen of Usa were part of the same brave story. They survived the same shipwreck, faced the same fears, and made their own hard choices far from home. One died abroad, one stayed and built a new life, and two came home to live simply by the sea. Their courage was the quiet kind, the courage of ordinary people meeting an extraordinary fate. Remembering them gives the famous story of John Manjiro its full human shape.

The cove at Usa where the fishermen set out to sea

Strangers in a New Land

It is worth stopping to imagine what life was like for these four men in Hawaii. They came from a small fishing village where almost everyone knew each other. Suddenly they were among people of a different language, food, and faith, with no map for how to behave. Yet the records suggest they did not lose heart. They made themselves useful, learned a little of the new ways, and kept the steady work habits of Tosa fishermen. In a time when most Japanese had never met a foreigner, these ordinary men were quietly living side by side with the wider world, years before Japan officially opened its doors.

The working fishing harbor of Usa today

The Town of Usa Today

Usa is still a working fishing town. Boats come and go from the harbor, and the smell of the sea is everywhere, much as it was in 1841. Standing by the water here, it is easy to picture five local men setting out on what they thought would be a normal day of fishing. The town does not make a big show of its history, which is part of its honest charm. For travelers who like to feel a place rather than just look at it, a short stop in Usa connects you directly to where this whole remarkable chain of events began. From this quiet harbor, the story would travel across the Pacific and, in time, help shape the future of Japan itself.

A Personal Connection

This story means a lot to me for a personal reason. I am from Usa myself. Like John Manjiro and his companions, I too left this small town and crossed the ocean to the United States. So when I guide visitors and share these stories, I am also telling a little of my own. Standing in Usa with my guests and looking out at the same sea, I feel how close this old history really is.

A Personal Connection

This story is close to my heart for a simple reason. I am from Usa myself. Like John Manjiro and his companions, I too left this small fishing town and traveled to the United States. When I bring visitors here and stand by the water where these men once set out, I feel a real connection to them. It is a quiet reminder that even from a small place like Usa, people can reach far across the world.

A Note for Cruise Passengers

Usa is on the coast about forty minutes from the Kochi cruise terminal, on the way toward the Yokonami coast and the Niyodo River. There is no large museum here just for the four fishermen, but the fishing town itself still has the feeling of the place they left behind. The full story of all five castaways is told at the John Mung Museum in Tosa Shimizu, further to the southwest. If you enjoy history, I can include a stop near Usa as part of a guided day, with door to door service from the cruise terminal.

See the John Manjiro Shore Excursion →

The Full Series: Tosa and the Sea

This is part of a five part series about the people of Kochi, the old land of Tosa, who helped connect Japan to the world and change its future.