rizal homecoming

• First Homecoming


  1887-1888
• True that he studied abroad, acquired the lore and languanges of foreign nations, and enjoyed the friendship of many great men of the Western World.
• Thus, after five years, of memorable sojourn in Europe, he returned to the Philippines, and practice medicine in Calamba. He lived the quiet life of a country Doctor.


  August 1887
• Decision to Return Home

  Because of the publication of the Noli Me Tangere and the uproar it caused among the friars, Rizal was warned by Paciano (his brother), Silvestre Ubaldo (his brother-in-law), Chengoy (Jose M. Cecilio), and other friends not to return home.
• Reasons of Rizal


  • To operate on his mother's eyes
  • To serve his people who had long been oppressed by Spanish tyrants
  • To find out for himself how the Noli and his other writings were affecting Filipinos and Spaniards in the Philippines
  • To inquire why Leonor Rivera remained silent
• Blumentritt: 'Your advice that I live in Madrid and continue to write from where is very benevolent but I cannot accept it. I cannot endure the life in Madrid where everything is a voice in a wilderness. My parents want to see me, and I want to see them also. All my life I desire to live in my country by the side of my family. Until now I am not Europeanized like the Filipinos of Madrid; I always like to return to the country of my birth.'
• On the 15th of July, at the latest, he wrote, "I shall embark for our country, so that from the 15th to the 30th of August, we shall see each other".


  June 29, 1887
• Delightful Trip to Manila
• Rizal left of by train

  1. Marseilles, A French Port which he reached without mishap

  2. There were about 50 passengers, including: 4 Englishmen, 2 Germans, 3 Chinese, 2 Japanese, Many Frenchmen, 1 Filipino (Rizal)

  3. At, Saigon, on July 30, I transferred to another steamer Haiphong which was Manila-bound

  4. And, we left on August 2, to Manila.
• Arrival in Manila
• Happy Homecoming
• Doctor Ulliman


  He was called "Doctor Ulliman" because he came from Germany.
• Within a few months he was able to earn P900 as a physician. By February, 1888, he earned a total of P5000 as medical fees.
• He failed to see Leonora Rivera.
• Storm Over Noli
• The governor general asked the author for a copy of the Noli so that he could read it.

  Rizal visited the Jesuit fathers to ask for a copy he sent them, but they would not part with it. Fortunately, Rizal found a copy in the hands of a friend. He was able to get it and gave it to Governor General Terrero.
• The governor general, who was a liberal-minded Spaniard, knew that Rizal's life was in jeopardy because the friars were powerful. For security measure, he assigned a young Spanish lieutenant, Don Jose Taviel de Andrade, as bodyguard of Rizal.
• Governor General Terrero read the Noli and found nothing wrong with it. But Rizal's enemies were powerful.
• The report of this commission was rafted by ts head, Fr. Salvador Font, Augustinian cura of Tondo, and submitted to the governor general on December 29. It found the novel to contain subversive ideas against the Church and Spain.
• When the newspapers published Font's written report of the censorship commission, Rizal and his friends became apprehensive and uneasy.
• The banning of the Noli only served to make it popular. Everybody wanted to read it. News about the great book spread among the masses.
• Attackers of Noli


  • Father font printed his report and distributed copies of it in order to discredit the controversial novel
  • Another Augustinian, Fr. Jose Rodriguez, Prior of Guadalupe, published a series of eight pamphlets under the general heading Cuestiones de Sumo Interes (Questions of Supreme Interest)
  • Copies of these anti-Rizal pamphlets written by Fray Rodriguez wre sold daily in the churches after Mass.
• Defenders of Noli


  • Marcelo H. del Pilar, Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor , Graciano Lopez Jaena, Mariano Ponce, and other Filipino reformists in foreign lands, of course, rushed to uphold the truths of the Noli
  • Father Sanchez, Rizal's favorite teacher at the Ateneo, defended and praised it in public
  • Don Segismundo Moret, former Minister of the Crown; Dr. Miguel Morayta, historian and statesman; and Professor Blumentritt, scholar and educator, read and liked the novel
  • A brilliant defense of the Noli came from an unexpected source. It was by Rev. Vicente Garcia, a Filipino catholic priest-scholar, a theologian of the Manila Cathedral.
• Father Garcia's defense of Noli

  • Rizal cannot be an "ignorant man", as Fr. Rodriguez alleged, because he was a graduate of Spanish universities and was a recipient of scholastic honors
  • Rizal does not attack the Church and Spain, as Fr. Rodriguez claimed, because what Rizal attacked in the Noli were the bad Spanish officials and not Spain, and the bad and corrupt friars and not the Church
  • Father Rodriguez said that those who read the Noli commit a mortal sin; since he (Rodriguez) had red the novel, therefore he also commits a mortal sin.
• While the storm over the Noli was raging in fury, Rizal was not molested in Calamba. This is due to governor General Terrero's generosity in assigning a bodyguard to him.
• What marred Rizal's happy days in Calamba with Lt. Andrade were: (1) the death of his older siste, Olimpia, and (2) the groundless tales circulated by his enemies that he was "a Germany spy, an agent of Bismarck, a Protestant, a Mason, a witch, a soul beyond salvation, etc.
• Rizal had to leave the Philippines because he had already been a marked man for the friars. With a heavy heart, he left the country for his own good and the safety of the family, and friend. (February 3, 1888).
• Farewell to Calamba


  The friars asked Governor General Terrero to deport him, but latter refused because there was no valid charge against Rizal in court. Rizal was compelled to leave Calamba for two reasons: (1) his presence in Calamba was jeopardizing the safety and happiness of his family and friends, (2) He could fight better his enemies and serve his country's cause with greater efficacy by writing in foreign countries.
• Before Rizal left Calamba in 1888 his friend from Lipa requested him to write a poem in commemoration of virtue of the Becerra Law of 1888. He wrote a poem this was THE HIMNO AL TRABAJO (Hymn to Labor).He finished it and sent to Lipa before his departure from Calamba.
• December 29 1887 - The Permanent Board of Censure headed by Fr. Salvador Font issued a judgement absolutely prohibiting the circulation of the Noli Me Tangere in the Philippines. Upon the recommendation of the Governor General, Father Font said "…..Aside of attacking directly, as you have seen your Excellency, the Religion of the state, instructions and respectable persons for their official character, the book is replete of foreign teachings and doctrines; and the general synthesis of the same to inspire among the loyal and submissive sons of Spain in these distant islands, profound and furious hate to the mother country…'
• Rizal, after staying in the Philippines for almost six months, left Manila for Hongkong, bringing with him P5,000 which he earned from his medical practice.

  Febuary 3 1888
• Romantic Interlude in Japan
• Among the happiest moments of Rizal in his life was his sojourn in the Land of the Cherry Blossoms. He stayed in Japan for one month and a half from February 28 to April 13, 1888.


  1. He was charmed by the natural beauty of Japan, the manners of the Japanese people and the picturesque of shrines

  2. He also fell in love with a Japanese girl, who loveliness infused joy and romance in his sorrowing heart

  3. After his arrival in Tokyo, Rizal was visited by Juan Perez Caballero, secretary of Spanish Legation. The latter invited him to live at the Spanish Legation

  4. During his first day in Tokyo, Rizal could not speak the Japanese language. He had a hard time for shopping for he could not be understood and children laughed at him. With his situation, Rizal decided to study the Japanese language. He was able to speak within a few days

  5. At Japan he studied the Japanese drama, arts, music, and judo. He also visited museums, libraries, art galleries, and shrines

  6. He visited Meguro, Nikko, Hakone, Miyanoshita, and the charming villages of Japan

  7. During one time, Rizal went to the park and heard the Tokyo band playing a classical work of Strauss. He was impressed by the great performances of the Western music. He thought to himself how admirable their renditions are and wondered how they have assimilated the modern European music to the extent of playing the beautiful masterpieces of the European composers so well. The band stopped playing and to his surprised they were speaking Tagalog. He approached them and conversed with them. The musicians were delighted and also surprised to meet him.
• Sayonara Japan and Seiko Usui
• Rizal boarded the Belgic, an English steamer, at Yokohama, bound for the United States. He left Japan with a heavy heart for he knew that he will never see this beautiful land again, so as his beloved O-Sei-San. His sojourn in Japan for 45 days was one of the happiest interludes of his life.

  April 13, 1888
• Timeline of Rizal's experiences in Japan

  1. 28 February 1888

  2. 1 March 1888 - He cheked out of the Grand Hotel and entrained for Tokyo and there lodged at the Tokyo Hotel

  3. 4 March 1888 - He wrote Blumentritt about the honesty, courtesy,cleanliness and industry of the Japanese people. However, he also expressed his disgust on the use of the mandrawn jinrikisha

  4. 7 March 1888 - Rizal cheked out of Tokyo Hotel and moved to the Spanish Legation where he was offered free boar and lodging

  5. 15 March 1888 - Rizal first saw O-Sei-san walking past the gate of the Spanish Legation

  6. 7 April 1888 - Rizal wrote his family and envisioned that in the future the Philippines woukd have more contact and relations with Japan

  7. 13 April 1888 - Rizal left Yokohama for San Francisco, on board the Belgic.
• Big concept
• In Hong Kong and Macao (1888)
• White is the color of milk and fresh snow, the color produced by the combination of all the colors of the visible spec
• Sei-San

  Rizal's love interest in Japan