Earlier this month my friends Minako Koyama and Michio Tsuda and I visited the Hikawa Shrine in Tokyo’s Akasaka district, near the site of Katsu Kaishu’s residence. (Ms. Kohyama is a great great grandchild of Katsu Kaishu. Mr. Tsuda is a direct descendent of Katsu Kaishu’s friend, Tsuda Sen.) We had the special opportunity to view these hanging scrolls with calligraphy written by Katsu Kaishu, Yamaoka Tesshu and Takahashi Deishu – “Bakumatsu no Sanshu.”
It’s common knowledge that Ryoma knew Kaishu. But until I had read a recent book by my good friend Kiyoharu Omino, “Ryoma no Yuigon,” I did not know that Ryoma had actually met Tesshu and Deishu.
From the shrine we walked to the nearby statue of Katsu Kaishu and Sakamoto Ryoma, unveiled last month at the site of Kaishu’s residence. (Ms. Kohyama is in the photo below.)
先日、高山みなこさん（勝海舟のご子孫）と津田道夫さん（海舟の友人、津田仙のご子孫）と共に赤坂の氷川神社に行った際、幕末三舟の書の掛け軸を拝見させてもらいました 。私の親友である小美濃清明氏が去年出された「龍馬の遺言」の第4章「龍馬はなぜ三舟と会ったのか」に書いてあるように、龍馬が山岡鐵舟と高橋泥舟に江戸で会ったことを思い出して感動しました。氷川神社の近くにある、海舟の屋敷跡に最近建てられた海舟と龍馬の師弟像も見物できました。銅像の前に立っているのは高山さんです。
(I wrote about “Bakumatsu no Sanshu” in my forthcoming Samurai Assassins, to be published by McFarland next year.)
Read about Kaishu’s relationship with Ryoma in my Samurai Revolution, the only full-length biography of Kaishu in English.
