In Third Month of the Japanese year corresponding to 1868, around three months after the fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu (Shogunate), the forces of the new Imperial government were set to launch a general attack on the shogun’s capital of Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Meanwhile, Katsu Kaishu, commander-in-chief of the fallen shogun’s military, appealed to Saigo Takamori of Satsuma, the commander of the Imperial forces, to call off the attack, which would have resulted in a bloodbath in that city of well over one million people. Kaishu asked Saigo to meet to discuss terms for a peaceful surrender of Edo and its mighty castle that would be acceptable to both sides. The two commanders met twice, once each on the 13th and 14th of that month.
This letter from Saigo to Kaishu, dated 3/14, was in reply to a letter from Kaishu informing Saigo that he was waiting to meet him a second time at Satsuma’s warehouse facility (kurayashiki) in the Tamachi district of Edo. Replying that he would arrive shortly, Saigo asked Kaishu to wait for him. Saigo arrived as promised, and as a result of the ensuing “Meeting of the Two Heroes” the attack was called off.
[The letter from Saigo to Kaishu is exhibited in the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Tokyo, Japan.]
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Katsu Kaishu of course is the “shogun’s last samurai” of my book Samurai Revolution, in which I wrote in detail (Chapters 27-30) about his role in averting civil war, including his talks with Saigo.
