Amid the national upheaval of the Samurai Revolution of the 1860s, Sakamoto Ryōma left behind prophetic words in his final letter—speaking not only to the Japan of his time but also to the timeless struggle for meaning and direction in times of change.

At the height of the tumult of the revolution, and less than one month since the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, had announced his intention to abdicate and restore Imperial rule based on an historic peace plan, the author of that plan was engrossed in yet another plan to send men to Ezo (modern-day Hokkaido) in the far north of Japan to settle and exploit that mineral-rich wilderness, train them in the naval sciences, and save them from dying in the revolution.

Ryōma was working on the plan with Hayashi Kenzō, a Hiroshima samurai in the employ of Satsuma. In the eerily prophetic closing to a letter to Hayashi, Ryōma, just four days before his assassination, advised his friend to be very careful for his life, then wrote, “Now is the time for us to act. Soon we must decide on our direction, whether it lead to pandemonium or paradise” (my translation).

Early in the morning five days later, Hayashi, summoned by Ryōma from “an urgent discussion” at his hideout in Kyoto, encountered the aftermath of that pandemonium. Entering the house Hayashi saw “bloody footprints here and there”; then “dashing up the stairway to see if Sakamoto was okay,” he found Ryōma’s corpse, “his sword drawn, lying in a pool of blood.”

[Sakamoto Ryōma’s letter written days before his assassination (dated the 11th day of the 11th month of Keiō 3 (December 1, 1867). Source: Sakamoto Ryōma Memorial Museum.]

Samurai Swordsmen: The Definitive History of the Shinsengumi (Helion, 2026) is now in production.
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