I’ve written in other posts about my inspiration in writing about Bakumatsu history – which I call “the samurai revolution at the dawn of modern Japan.” Ryoma was my first book on the subject. I was inspired to write it by certain authors, but mostly by Ryoma’s personality, as is summed up nicely, I think, in this famous poem by Sakamoto Ryoma:

世の人はわれをなにともゆはゞいへわがなすことはわれのみぞしる

It matters not what people say of me, I am the only one who knows what I must do. [my translation]

Also see this related post.

[This tablet inscribed with the poem is from the Ryozen Museum in Higashiyama, Kyoto, near Ryoma’s gravesite.]