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.