As I wrote in Samurai Revolution, Saigo Takamori, one of the great leaders in Japanese history, practiced a religious philosophy informed by his cherished maxim: “revere Heaven, love mankind,” which represents a Confucian ethic that dictates the relationship between the people, the government, and the Emperor—in a universe ruled by Heaven. . . . Heavy is the responsibility of the officials who oversee the everyday affairs of the [government]. Since they directly control the fate of the people, one blunder by just one official can mean catastrophe for a great number. As a leader of the people, a government official must win the hearts and minds of the people. To do so, he must put aside self-interest for the benefit of the people, who have no choice but to obey him. If he shows any sign of selfishness, he will incur the enmity of the people and no longer be able to lead them. Since his only function is to benefit the people, based on the “will of Heaven,” the people’s suffering must be his suffering, and the people’s pleasure must be his pleasure. . . . Saigo, who hailed from a poor lower-samurai family, had served as a clerk in the tax collector’s office. He knew first-hand of the hardships of the people.

I think that this samurai born and bred in feudal Japan had a better sense of “the people” than the so-called Democrats who, in cahoots with the Democratic National Committee, just nominated a blatantly corrupt candidate for president of the United States.

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Read more about Saigo Takamori in my book Samurai Revolution.

Katsu Kaishu, “the shogun’s last samurai,” was a great statesman, an accomplished swordsman, and a national hero for his all-important role in averting civil war in the spring of 1868, soon after the fall of the shogun’s government. And he was also a philosopher, which is apparent in the collection of interviews he gave during the 1890s, the last decade of his life. The following, which I translated from the Japanese, is one of my favorites:

“Perseverance is the foundation of everything. It’s strange that while people nowadays make a big deal about [nourishing their bodies], they don’t know how to persevere.… Since human beings are living things, the most important thing [for a human being] is to nourish ki.* As long as a person’s ki is not starved, it doesn’t matter what he eats.”

* Ki (気): May be translated here as “vital energy.”

In Hikawa Seiwa (Katsu Kaishu Zenshu 21) Tokyo: Kodansha, 1973 (pp. 182-183), from a December 6, 1895 interview with the newspaper Kokumin Shinbun.

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Read more about Katsu Kaishu in my book Samurai Revolution, the only full-length biography of the great man in English.

“A hero is fond of the sensual pleasures,” goes an old Japanese saying. It has been suggested that Katsu Kaishu had numerous “concubines” precisely because he was a hero.[1] About such things, Kaishu had the following to say:

“Most of the mistakes a man makes in his youth come from sexual desire. . . . But try as he might, sexual desire is not something that a young man can easily suppress. On the other hand, the most vigorous [driving force] in a young man is the ambition to achieve greatness. It is extremely admirable if he can use the fire of his ambition to burn up his sexual desire. It is a true hero who can calm himself when his passion is aroused. Before he knows it, he will be driven by his ambition to achieve great things . . . no longer thinking of anything else.”[2]

Katsu Kaishu was certainly ambitious. And it is unarguable that he achieved greatness and that he was a hero. But it seems questionable that he ever burned up his sexual desire. He had multiple mistresses even into his old age. Nonetheless, he seems to have respected his wife, Tami. According to one writer, he once said, “Had Tami been born a man, she would have certainly made a fine politician. It is much to her credit that she never quarreled with any of the women I bedded.”[3]

Some of those women were live-in maids at the Katsu residence, including Masuda Ito, the master’s favorite. Ito was “graceful and attentive to detail,” Katsube Mitake reports in his biography.[4] Kaishu had two children with Ito. One died very young; the other one, Itsuko, grew up in the same house as Tami’s children.

Tami’s outward acceptance of her husband’s penchant for other women was probably not indicative of her true feelings, which are perhaps better demonstrated by her reported last words: “Don’t bury me next to Katsu. I want to be next to Koroku,”[5] their son who had died thirteen years earlier in 1892.[6] Tami’s request was not honored. She and Kaishu were buried side by side near Senzokuiké pond in Tōkyō.

[The photo was taken at the gravesite of Katsu Kaishu and his wife Tami in November 2015. With me are two of Kaishu’s descendants: Professor Douglas Stiffler and Ms. Minako Kohyama. Prof. Stiffler is the great-great grandson of Kaishu and his “Nagasaki mistress,” Kaji Kuma. Ms. Kohyama is the great-great granddaughter of Kaishu and Masuda Ito.]

[1] Katsube Mitake. Katsu Kaishū. Vol 1 (Tokyo: PHP, 1992), p. 44.

[2]Hikawa Seiwa (Katsu Kaishū Zenshū 21; Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1973), p. 295.

[3] Hiyane Kaoru, “Katsu Kaishū wo Meguru Onnatachi,” in Konishi Shiro, ed., Katsu Kaishū no Subeté (Tōkyō: Shinjinbutsu Ōraisha, 1985), p. 155.

[4] Katsube. Katsu Kaishū. Vol 1, p. 434

[5] Katsube, Katsu Kaishū, Vol. 2, p. 438.

[6] Tami died in Meiji 38 (1905), six years after Kaishū. (Takahashi Norihiko, “Henkakuki wo Ikita Josei 75-nin,” in Bakumatsu Ishin wo Ikita 13-Nin no Onnatachi (Bessatsu Rekishidokuhon, October 20, 1979; Tokyo: Shinjinbutsu Ōraisha), p. 290)

Read more about Katsu Kaishu, “the shogun’s last samurai,” in my book Samurai Revolution, the only full-length biography of the great man in English.

Saigo Takamori’s cherished slogan: “Revere Heaven, love mankind.” In Samurai Revolution (p. 301) I wrote the following:

“Revere Heaven, love mankind” represents a Confucian ethic that dictates the relationship between the people, the government, and the Emperor—in a universe ruled by Heaven. But Heaven cannot feasibly watch over each and every person, assuring peace and harmony in human society. That role, then, is allotted to the Emperor, the Son of Heaven. Assisting the Emperor in his holy obligation are the feudal lords. Assisting each feudal lord in assuring peace and harmony for the people in his domain are the government officials, selected from among the lord’s samurai vassals.

Heavy is the responsibility of the officials who oversee the everyday affairs of the feudal domains. Since they directly control the fate of the people, one blunder by just one official can mean catastrophe for a great number. As a leader of the people, a government official must win the hearts and minds of the people. To do so, he must put aside self-interest for the benefit of the people, who have no choice but to obey him. If he shows any sign of selfishness, he will incur the enmity of the people and no longer be able to lead them. The people’s suffering must be his suffering, and their pleasures his pleasure. [end excerpt]

Saigo’s philosophy, I think, is timeless. It demands attention even today – and it is of particular importance now, during the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States of America.

[The image of Saigo’s calligraphy is from the website of Kagoshima Prefectural Library (鹿児島県立図書館). The image of Saigo is used in Samurai Revolution, courtesy of Japan’s National Diet Library.]

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Read more about Saigo Takamori in Samurai Revolution.