Kaishu and Ryoma: The Indispensable Relationship (Part 2)

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Romlus Hillsborough

Sakamoto Ryoma & Katsu Kaishu

Sakamoto Ryoma became a political outlaw upon fleeing his native domain of Tosa on a rainy night in the spring of 1862, amid unprecedented social and political upheaval. Following is a slightly edited excerpt from my Samurai Revolution, Chapter 11 (without footnotes):

The crime of fleeing one’s han (i.e., feudal domain) was among the most serious in samurai society. It not only entailed forsaking one’s feudal lord and clan, but also abandoning one’s family—cardinal sins in a society based on Confucian morals. But Ryoma, an extremely independent sort, was unlike most men of his time. He was an iconoclast who would prove to be an enigma to many of his confederates in Tosa and other clans. Few if any of his fellow Imperial Loyalists, for all their avowed loyalty to the Emperor (and indeed readiness to die for their cause), had the audacity to throw off their loyalty to their han. But Ryoma did. In fleeing, it seems, he demonstrated his dissatisfaction with feudalism, including feudal lord and clan, and intended to break the feudal bonds forever.

His dissatisfaction had sprung from a gnawing resentment of the iniquities in feudal society (particularly Tosa), and more recently from his rejection of the violence perpetrated by his fellow Tosa Loyalists. While many of his friends were ready and willing to kill men of the Bakufu (i.e., Tokugawa Shogunate) and their supporters, Ryoma, an original member of the Tosa Loyalist Party, would ultimately turn peacemaker, bristling at unnecessary bloodshed even as he opposed the Bakufu to the bitter end. And while other “patriots of high aspiration” clamored to expel the barbarians and overthrow the Bakufu, they were jealous of the position of one another’s han in a post-Tokugawa Japan. Few, however, had a viable plan for the future. But Ryoma did—based on an uncanny foresight by which he saw beyond the boundaries of the feudal domains toward a unified Japanese nation. And it was another famous outsider, Katsu Kaishu, who would nurture that vision in Ryoma’s very supple mind. [end excerpt]

[Part 1 of this series was posted on Sept. 30, 2015.]

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Katsu Kaishu is the “shogun’s last samurai” of my Samurai Revolution, in which I wrote a detailed account of his relationship with Ryoma.

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Bushido for the 21st Century

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Romlus Hillsborough

Makoto Aoyama of the Tokyo-based Bushido Kyokai (武士道協会) (http://www.bushido.or.jp/index.html) posted on his Facebook page (October 27, 2015) some very interesting ideas about self-discipline and bushido, focusing on the concept of “hikyo” (卑怯), which means something like “petty cowardice” or “meanness.” Through my research over the past thirty years, I have become very interested in and attracted to bushido, “the way of the warrior.” One of Mr. Aoyama’s lines struck me:

多くの人が『卑怯』を他の人に向けて発信しますが、『卑怯』は自分自身を律する為の基軸とし、自分自身が卑怯を行わない事が大事で、他に強要するものではないと考えます。

My translation:

Many people use the word “hikyo” about others, but I think that “hikyo” is a standard by which to judge oneself; and what is important is that a person himself does not act cowardly [in the sense of hikyo] and not that he demands the same of others.

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For more on bushido, see my Samurai Revolution, Chapter 8: A Brief Discussion on Bushido.

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Sakamoto Ryoma, Superstar

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Romlus Hillsborough

Sakamoto Ryoma, founder of Japan’s first trading company, was a swaggering swordsman who packed a Smith & Wesson, an outlaw, and leader in the “samurai revolution” at the dawn of modern Japan. And now, in the 21^st century, he’s a superstar.

Ryoma’s 180^th birthday is being celebrated this year through a series of events at his hometown of Kochi, including the annual gathering of “Ryoma fans” from around the country to be held November 14 and 15.

Ryoma’s grave is in the old cemetery at Ryozen Gokoku Shrine, in the hills of Higashiyama on the east side of Kyoto, where he was assassinated on his 32^nd birthday in 1867. The narrow, well-trodden pathway leading up to the grave is always lined with tiles inscribed with handwritten messages to Ryoma; and his grave is adorned with fresh flowers, incense, cups of sake, sweets and more handwritten notes. Each time I have visited the gravesite I’ve been struck with awe at the testimony of reverence and adoration—even love—by people of all ages come from all parts of Japan to pay their respects.

With the geopolitical and economic challenges facing Japan today, many people express their wish that a leader of Ryoma’s caliber would emerge. “Who from the past millennium of world history would be most useful in overcoming Japan’s current financial crisis?” a national newspaper once asked executives of 200 Japanese corporations. Ryoma received more mention than any other historical figure, topping such giants as Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Saigo Takamori, Oda Nobunaga and the founders of NEC and Honda.

So why does Ryoma command such respect and adoration? I think the answer lies, in part, in his charismatic personality, his love of freedom, and the ways he lived and died. Read about his life in my Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai, the only biographical novel about him in English.

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Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai, the only biographical novel about Sakamoto Ryoma in English, is available on Amazon.com.

Sakamoto Ryoma, the Foreteller

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Romlus Hillsborough

“I’ll only die when big changes finally come. . . .” 私が死日 (シヌルヒ) ハ天下大変にて生ておりてもやくにたゝず

Sakamoto Ryoma was truly a Renaissance man: outlaw-samurai, pistol-bearing swordsman, gifted writer,* freedom fighter, pioneering naval commander, founder of Japan’s first modern trading company, and leader in the “samurai revolution at the dawn of modern Japan.” And, as it turned out, he also foretold the future.

“I don’t expect that I’ll be around too long. But I’m not about to die like any average person either. I’ll only die when big changes finally come, when even if I continue to live I’ll no longer be of any use to the country. Though I was born a mere potato digger in Tosa, a nobody, I’m destined to bring about great changes in the country.”

The above is from a letter Ryoma wrote to his sister in the summer of 1863. Less than four and a half years later, in the fall of 1867, the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, announced his decision to abdicate and restore Imperial rule based on a peace plan from the “nobody” from Tosa. The next month, on his 32^nd birthday, Ryoma was assassinated.

* [Shiba Ryotaro, the popular historical novelist who immortalized Sakamoto Ryoma in the psyche of the Japanese people, called Ryoma’s famous letter depicting the near fatal attack at the Teradaya inn, “the first piece of nonfiction literature” of the times. (Qtd. in Miyaji Saichiro. Ryoma Hyakuwa. Tokyo: Bungei Shunshu, 1997, p. 152)]

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Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai, the only biographical novel about Sakamoto Ryoma in English, is available on Amazon.com.

Recently revealed document suggests Ryoma’s rank of “kaiden” with a sword

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Romlus Hillsborough

Sakamoto Ryoma’s level of expertise with a sword has long been a topic of debate among historians, writers and so-called “Ryoma fans” throughout Japan. That he was an accomplished swordsman has never been questioned. He practiced the Hokushin-Itto style of kenjutsu at Chiba Sadakichi’s school in Edo for several years, receiving the respectable rank of mokuroku. But he famously used a pistol to defend himself during an attack by Tokugawa police at the Teradaya inn in Fushimi in early 1866. And less than two years later, he was assassinated at his hideout in Kyoto. If he was an expert swordsman, some ask, why did he use his pistol instead of his sword at the Teradaya? And why wasn’t he able to defend himself at Kyoto?

The mokuroku is the only extant certificate that Ryoma received from Chiba. But notably it was for the halberd (naginata) and not the sword. Nor was it for the rank of kaiden, awarded to a swordsman who had mastered the style. And so, some argue, Ryoma wasn’t such a skilled swordsman after all. But as reported by Yomiuri Shinbun on October 14, 2015, a recently revealed handwritten list of certificates in the Hokushin-Itto style that Ryoma had supposedly received includes certificates of heiho kaiden (“expert in the art of warfare”) for the halberd and the sword, along with a mokuroku for the sword. The scrolled certificates were reportedly kept at the Hokkaido home of a Sakamoto family descendent, which was destroyed in a fire in the early part of the 20^th century.

Meiji Restoration historian Mamoru Matsuoka takes a cautious view of the above. While the list includes the mokuroku certificate for the sword, it does not include certificates for the subsequent ranks he would have received before kaiden. And so, Mr. Matsuoka suggests on Facebook, the “kaiden” in the list must have been a mistake for “mokuroku.”

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