The Life of Sho Nemoto (1850-1933)
“The world is gradually becoming a single room. ”
Frederick Billings
It is impossible to know Sho Nemoto without first mentioning his mentor and benefactor, Frederick Billings. Frederick was twelve when he moved to Woodstock, Vemont. He attended its public school and then was sent to Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire. He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1844 and shortly after studied law in Woodstock and was admitted to the bar in 1848. During two years at this time he was Civil and Military Secretary to the Governor, a position charged with duties equivalent to our Secretary of State. After hearing about the great fortunes to be made out West, Frederick made his way to California in 1849. Upon arrival in San Fransisco, he opened a law office and eventually became successful and influential. He married his wife Julia Parmly of New York City in 1862. He became connected to the Northern Pacific Railroad and became its President in 1879. He also became connected as a Director in a dozen corporations, including banks, trust companies, canal and railroad companies scattered from New York City to the Pacific Coast. He eventually moved back to Woodstock, Vermont where he purchased the Marsh estate and later died at the age of 67. He was a generous benefactor of many organizations over the years stretching from coast to coast, including the University of Vermont. At UVM, Billings paid for the building of the Marsh Library, the Billings Library Building and its endowment of over a quarter million dollars.
Sho Nemoto. In his own words…
“When a youth of less than eighteen years of age I came from Mito, my native province, to Tokyo in 1870, bent on securing a knowledge of the English language. After arriving in Tokyo I entered the Doninsha, at the head of which was the noted educator, Dr. K. Nakamura, which school was located at No. 17 Yodokawa-cho, and in order to support myself I drew a jinrikisha at night. Here I joined a Bible class that was taught by a foreign teacher for half an hour each morning before the regular school work began for the day.
The government had prior to this opened foreign post-offices in Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki and Shanghai, and seven Americans were appointed to superintend them, two in each of the three offices in Japan, and one in Shanghai. Believing this work offered a good opportunity for the study of English I secured a position in the office at Kobe. The shifts were twenty four hours each, and I employed my spare time in the pursuit of my main object, attending classes in English and meeting and conversing with foreigners, one of whom was Dr. Gulick
At the end of three years I was transferred to the Yokohama office. Here I joined the school carried on by Dr. Hepburn and J C Ballagh. I was baptized by Dr. D C Greene.
After three years in this office I decided to go to America. Mr. Farr, head of the office in Yokohama gave me a letter of introduction to Mr. Alfred Barstow in Oakland, Calif one of the pioneers of that state. I left Japan in the spring of 1879, now just fifty years ago. Mr. Barstow took me into his family, and for two years I attended the public school. Then I spent four years in Hopkins Academy, graduating in 1885. Mr. Barstow now introduced me to Mr. Billings who took me into his family in Woodstock, Vermont, and sent me to the University of Vermont. I graduated in 1889, and returned to Japan the following year. After reaching my native land I was appointed to go as Commissioner for Investigation of Commerce and Industry to Mexico.
In the meantime Mr. Billings had died; and on my way to Mexico I revisited Woodstock and placed a wreath on the grave of my dear benefactor whose last resting-place was at the foot of Mt. Tom.
The following year I was sent on a similar errand to Central America; and again the next year, to Brazil, and later also to India.”
“I wish you to be useful to Japan. ”
“Sho Nemoto was a regular houseguest of the Billings' during the 1880s and a student with Fritz Billings at the University of Vermont between 1885 and 1889. Nemoto, from Mito, Japan, met Frederick Billings in California in 1879, and Billings arranged for him to study at his alma mater and paid his tuition. Nemoto spent his summers and school vacations with the Billings. After his graduation and a trip around the world that Frederick Billings gave him, Nemoto returned to Japan, where he entered politics and participated in Christian church work. Nemoto and the Billings maintained a long friendship, and he later referred to Frederick Billings as "my dear father in America."
“In gratitude to his old patron and to his college, Nemoto in 1895 had ‘the best Imperial artist in Japan,’ Mr. U. Okuma, execute a bronze bust of Billings which, thanks to the tenacious way that art has of looking like itself, has the slanting almond eyes of a oriental because the sculptor was oriental.” Nemoto gifted the bust to the University of Vermont.
“The best hours I have spent in my life were when I was in the University, and the happiest days I now enjoy, are all due to the University, I am sure. ”
“Sho Nemoto married and had a large family and property in Toyko. He wrote his classmates frequently and sent them fine wood-cut paintings, of which he had become a collector. When the great earthquake and fire of 1923 destroyed nine-tenths of the city of Tokyo and took a toll of 59,069 lives, Sho sold block prints from his collection to Americans, for the benefit of the sufferers.”
“That he never forgot Vermont and his feelings for the University were expressed in one of his letters near the close of his life when he wrote, ‘I live at the south end of the city near the Yedo Bay where I can get the sweet and fresh air coming swiftly from the U.V.M. through Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.”
In 1969, his daughter recounted that he had wished to visit the States again in his later years. Unfortunately, he was unable to make the journey. She stated, “I never forget the sweet taste of the maple syrup cakes his friends sent us.” Sho Nemoto died January 5, 1933, at the age of eighty-three.
Sho Nemoto wearing his Order of the Empire of Japan medal, awarded to him for his contributions through his charity work and membership in the Japanese Diet. Image courtesy of the Billings Family Archives, The Woodstock Foundation, Inc.
Frederick Billings and Sho Nemoto.
Billings family and friends on the south lawn of the Mansion with the Belvedere and greenhouse complex in the background. 1887.
From left to right front: Grace Oakes, Ehrick Billings , Lily White, and Richard Billings holding a puppy. In the middle row left to right are Mary Montagu Billings French, Elizabeth Billings, Julia Parmly Billings and Frederick Billings. The back row includes: Thomas Oakes, Laura Billings, Parmly Billings and Sho Nemoto. At the time, Thomas Oakes was the vice president of the Northern Pacific Railroad; Grace is his daughter. Image courtesy of the Billings Family Archives, The Woodstock Foundation, Inc.
Billings family and friends gathered near the back door of the mansion hall (west end). The image taken in the summer of 1889 shows, back row from left to right: Ehrick Billings, Sho Nemoto, Elizabeth Billings, an unknown woman, John French, Sr. In the middle are an unknown man and woman with Mary Montagu Billings at far right. The front row are unknown friends of the family. Image courtesy of the Billings Family Archives, The Woodstock Foundation, Inc.
An image of Sho Nemoto, possibly taken in his room at UVM. It was mailed to Julia Billings and postmarked as August, 1899. Image courtesy of the Billings Family Archives, The Woodstock Foundation, Inc.
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. Moonlight Patrol, December 1885.One of the twenty-eight prints in the collection of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park which were given by Sho Nemoto to Elizabeth Billings in 1898.
Three laws, seen below, that Sho Nemoto championed during his time at the Japanese Diet (the national legislature of Japan). In 1922, the Juvenile Alcohol Act was passed. Nemoto had introduced the bill every year for twenty-three years in order to secure its passage. He was also the author of a bill prohibiting the smoking of tobacco by minors (1900), the national free education law (1900), and several other acts which furthered education. As a legislator, he was an ardent supporter of the development of the railroad in Japan. He also wrote, edited and translated books, invested in railroads and real estate, and championed many humanitarian causes. He remained close to the Billings family for the rest of his life, exchanging letters and gifts and welcoming the family to his country when they traveled around the world.
