Katsu Kaishū’s Portrait by US Navy Sailor Edward Kern

Posted on March 14, 2017 by Romulus Hillsborough

I really like this portrait of Katsu Kaishū. The artist was Edward M. Kern, one of the US Navy sailors under Lieutenant John M. Brooke who joined Capt. Kaishū and company on their historical journey aboard the warship Kanrin Maru, the first Japanese ship to reach North America upon landing at San Francisco on March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day), 1860. Based on the inscription on the backside of the painting, Kaishū was apparently known to the Americans as “Capt. Katzlintaro” (and at least one SF newspaper referred to him as Capt. Katsintarroh), Rintarō being his given name. Kern was a draftsman who had served in John Charles Fremont’s third expedition to the American West. Fremont named the Kern River in California after him. As I wrote in Samurai Revolution, the only full-length biography of Katsu Kaishū in English, the local San Francisco newspaper Daily Evening Bulletin described Katsu Kaishū as “a fine looking man, marvelously resembling in stature, form and features Colonel [John Charles] Fremont, only that his eye is darker, and his mouth less distinctly shows the pluck of its owner.”

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An Indispensable Document for Knowing the Facts Regarding Ryōma’s Assassination

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Romulus Hillsborough

The double assassination of Sakamoto Ryōma and Nakaoka Shintarō on the eve of the collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu is an unsolved mystery—but only to a certain extent. What is known of the details of the incident, including the circumstances surrounding Ryōma and Nakaoka just before the attack, their actual murders, and the aftermath, is based primarily on accounts from men representing the two opposing sides in the revolution. On the one hand are accounts from two men who claimed to have committed the assassinations. On the other hand are accounts from the victims’ friends, some of which is based on information heard directly from Nakaoka as he lay dying soon after the attack. Most of these accounts are included in a document entitled “Sakamoto to Nakaoka no Shi” (“The Deaths of Sakamoto and Nakaoka”).

I relied heavily on this document in writing “Part III: The Assassination of Sakamoto Ryōma” of Samurai Assassins. The distinguished Meiji Restoration historian Hirao Michio described it as “indispensable for arriving at a conclusion” as to the facts behind the double assassination of Sakamoto Ryōma and Nakaoka Shintarō, since it “uses every possible piece of historical material in pursuit of the facts.” This document was originally published in 1926 as part of the Sakamoto Ryōma Kankei Monjo, Vol. II (The image of the book shown below is from the from The National Diet Library Digital Collection.).

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Takéchi Hanpeita’s Letters from Jail

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Romulus Hillsborough

In writing Samurai Assassins, Part II: The Rise and Fall of Takéchi Hanpeita and the Tosa Loyalist Party, I referred heavily to the letters Takéchi’s wrote from jail to his wife and sisters, and to his cohorts who had not been imprisoned. The letters to his friends, written in formal language and tone befitting a samurai, provide an insight into Takéchi’s thinking, including his stoic philosophy. The letters to his wife and sisters, on the other hand, overflow with the tender feelings of a husband and brother, and include self-effacing humor, complaints, despondency, and melancholy absent in the other letters—and indeed in his entire persona observed through any other medium. To the best of my knowledge, Takéchi’s letters have rarely, if ever, been used by Western writers.The letters are published in Takéchi Zuizan Kankei Bunsho (武市瑞山関係文書; “Takéchi Zuizan-related Documents”; Zuizan was Takéchi’s pseudonym). The images of the book shown here are from the from The National Diet Library Digital Collection.

“The History of Tosa Loyalism in the Meiji Restoration” and the Writing of “Samurai Assassins”

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Romulus Hillsborough

Ishin Tosa Kinnō-shi (維新土佐勤王史; “The History of Tosa Loyalism in the Meiji Restoration”), based on a biography of Takéchi Hanpeita and biographical materials on other men associated with this history, was published in 1912 by a group of former Tosa Loyalists and other former Tosa samurai. 1912 corresponds to the last year of the Meiji era. Takéchi and his Loyalist Party, of course, played a major role in bringing about the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which was the beginning of the Meiji era.

I referred to this book in Samurai Assassins, particularly in Part II: The Rise and Fall of Takéchi Hanpeita and the Tosa Loyalist Party. The cover image shown here (but not the portrait of Takechi) is from The National Diet Library Digital Collection (国立国会図書館デジタルコレクション).

“Assassination” by Matsuura Rei, One of the Greatest Writers of This History

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Romulus Hillsborough

Matsuura Rei (松浦玲) is one of the most important writers of Bakumatsu-Meiji Restoration history. His work on Katsu Kaishu is particularly important. Kaishu is “the shogun’s last samurai” of my book Samurai Revolution. I referred to Matsuura’s Ansatsu (“Assassination” — above) in my new book, Samurai Assassins. Ansatsu was published in 1979, the same year I first set foot in Japan.