On a great stone monument near a flower-strewn grave in the verdant Yamaguchi countryside is a telltale description of the most radical samurai hero to hail from the most radical of samurai domains: “Once he got moving, he was like a bolt of lightening. Once he got started, he was like the wind and the… Read More Takasugi Shinsaku – Choshu Han revolutionary and swordsman
My friend William Baerg is a contributor for the Kumamoto International Facebook page and has nicely agreed for me to post an article on my blog. Tani Tateki (谷干城) was a military leader during the Meiji Restoration who was for a crucial period in charge of the defense of Kumamoto. Even under mustache standards of… Read More Tani Tateki – Kumamoto Castle defender during the Seinan War.
Details of the museum in English as follows: http://www.ryoma-kinenkan.jp/en/ Copied from the museum’s introduction of Ryoma. Sakamoto Ryoma, born in Kochi in 1835, made a great contribution to Japan’s rapid modernization which marked the end of 700 years of feudal government. The modernized nation he pictured had laws, a parliamentary system and a diplomatic office.… Read More The Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum
An acclaimed chronicler of samurai history and folklore once wrote, Under Tokugawa law, it was an inalienable right of the men of the warrior class to inflict capital and swift retribution for an insult perpetrated by a commoner. The samurai held strength and courage as the ultimate forms of male virtue while cowardice and meanness… Read More Tokugawa Samurai
Many of you may look at this person’s name and wonder why I have chosen a foreigner in my Japanese history blog to write about. Yes Thomas is a foreigner to Japan but he made it his home when he arrived in Japan in 1859 and became one of the most influential people during the… Read More Thomas Glover – Scotsman in Japan
