Katsu Kaishu is the “shogun’s last samurai” of my Samurai Revolution. His given name was Rintaro. Kaishu is a pseudonym, consisting of the Chinese characters for “ocean” and “boat.” It was given him by his teacher Sakuma Shozan, a celebrated military scientist and designer of big guns. In giving his student his own pseudonym, perhaps Sakuma foresaw in him an element of greatness, correctly anticipating that Katsu would play a leading role in developing a modern Japanese navy.Katsu Kaishu’s biographer Katsube Mitake reports a much earlier prophesy by a fortuneteller in Edo regarding a young Katsu Rintaro. “This is a handsome child, with girlish features,” the fortuneteller supposedly told the boy’s father, Katsu Kokichi. “But he has . . . flashing eyes—and there is something extraordinary about him. When he grows up, if he is evil he will cause chaos throughout the land. If he is good he will save the world from chaos.” (This is reported in Vol. 1 of Katsube’s 2-volume biography published by PHP in 1992.)

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Samurai Revolution is the only biography of Katsu Kaishu in English.