Many people are familiar with my idea of a Hollywood film based on my book about “Renaissance Samurai” Sakamoto Ryoma. And recently I’ve been contemplating a movie based on my “Samurai Revolution”— the story of the tumultuous and bloody conflict between the shogun’s government and samurai hell-bent on overthrowing it — co-narrated by the “shogun’s last samurai” Katsu Kaishu and his friend Ernest Satow, interpreter to the British minister to Japan.
Beside the forthcoming Spanish translation of Shinsengumi, the book has been translated into Polish, Indonesian, Romanian, Czech and Japanese. Samurai Tales is also published in Spanish, and a Chinese translation of Samurai Revolution is scheduled for release this summer. A Thai translation of Ryoma was published a few years ago. It is gratifying to know that people around the world are reading about “the samurai revolution at the dawn of modern Japan.”
The Katsu Kaishu Museum is under construction at Senzokuike pond in Tokyo’s Ota-ku, near the gravesite of Katsu Kaishu and his wife Tami. Kaishu, a founder of the Japanese Navy, is of particular importance for his role in the bloodless surrender of Edo Castle in the aftermath of the fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu in spring 1868. The Bakufu’s fall sparked a contained civil war that would have spread throughout the country, endangering Japan’s sovereignty, had Kaishu, as commander in chief of the fallen shogun’s still formidable military, not negotiated an eleventh-hour peace with Saigo Takamori, commander of the Imperial Army.
As the first memorial museum dedicated to Katsu Kaishu, the Ota-ku facility will celebrate “the relationship between Katsu Kaishu and Ota,” the Ota-ku website states. The museum will house some 4,000 documents and other historical items collected from Kaishu’s descendants, according to the national daily Asahi Shinbun.
[This photo at Katsu Kaishu’s grave was taken in November 2015.]
Katsu Kaishu is the “shogun’s last samurai” of my book Samurai Revolution.
A newly revealed document shows that Sakamoto Ryoma lost a kenjutsu match to Katsura Kogoro of Choshu by a score 2 points to 3 points, at the Tosa Han residence in Kajibashi, Edo, on Ansei 4/3/1 (1857). The tournament has been discussed in history books, novels and other media over the years. Until now it was suspected that perhaps it never really took place. This document changes that perspective.
The Japanese media seems to be making a big deal out of the fact that Ryoma lost the match to Kogoro, which I think is a bit ridiculous. Both were highly skilled swordsmen. Losing (or winning) one match doesn’t amount to very much, in my view.
非常に興味深い！ですが二人とも優れた剣士だったので, 龍馬が小五郎に負けた、とは別に驚くことはありません。
[from Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Oct. 30, 2107]
Two of the swords brandished in the attempted assassination of British Minister to Japan, Sir Harry Parkes, in Kyoto on the afternoon of March 23, 1868, will be put on display this fall at the Kyoto National Museum, Asahi Shinbun reported on September 6, 2016. Parkes was on his way to join his counterparts from France and Holland for an historical first audience with the Emperor at the Imperial Palace, when his procession was attacked. One of the exhibited swords (above) was used by one of Parkes’ two assailants, Hayashida Sadakata, alias Sujaku Misao. The other sword belonged to Nakai Hiroshi of Satsuma, who, with a British officer, led the mounted escort to Parkes’ procession. Nakai beheaded Hayashida with his sword.
I wrote about the incident in the Epilogue of my forthcoming Samurai Assassins, to be published by McFarland during the first half of 2017. Subscribe to my newsletter or follow me on Facebook for updates about the publication including pub date, book events, giveaways, and other pertinent information.
