Part II of my new book, Samurai Assassins, is the first in-depth biographical treatment in English of Takéchi Hanpeita, charismatic leader of the Tosa Loyalist Party and mastermind of “divine punishment,” which wreaked terror on the streets of Kyōtō. Takéchi’s important role in the “samurai revolution” is covered in detail, including his meteoric rise to power and his sudden arrest and imprisonment ending with his stunning seppuku (self-disembowelment). I referred to Takéchi’s journals, contained in an early biography published in 1912; and more heavily to his letters from jail to his wife and cohorts on the outside. To the best of my knowledge, Takéchi’s letters have rarely, if ever, been used by Western writers. (Takéchi Hanpeita’s self-portrait, painted in prison at Kōchi in 1864, is courtesy of Kochi Prefectural Museum of History.)