An Extraordinarily Great Man who Strove to Modernize Japan

SAKAMOTO Ryoma

There are two great figures that Japanese like the most who strove to unify Japan using two different approaches. One is ODA Nobunaga (1534~1582), a revolutionist in the middle ages, and the other is SAKAMOTO Ryoma (1835~1867), a hero of the Meiji Restoration. Nobunaga destroyed the old establishment by smashing the regional lords spread throughout Japan using his wisdom and power. Meanwhile, about 300 years after Nobunaga's death, Ryoma struggled for co-coexistence during the power struggle between the Emperor factions and the Shogun factions while under pressure of an impending foreign military invasion.

In the late 19th century when Ryoma was actively working to unify Japan, colonization of Asia by European countries was taking place. In Japan at the time, the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled the country. Breaking the self-isolation policy that had lasted for 250 years, an American emissary who wanted to conclude a trade treaty suddenly appeared near Tokyo Bay. Japanese were astonished to see the emissary's huge black ships with loaded cannons. The Shogunate fell into a state of confusion over whether the ports should be opened or not.

In Japan, a new power was on the rise. Its aim was to overthrow the Shogunate to enable the Emperor to reign, and to be free of foreign powers. Tosa (present day Kochi prefecture)-born Ryouma was one of the people involved. He departed for Edo (present day Tokyo) to train in swordsmanship, and became a master. Later he was aroused by the thoughts of KATSU Kaishu, a high official of the Shogunate, and became his disciple. Kaishu advocated that "Forget about the Shogunate or domains. What we should think now is what Japan should be."

Proposing a regime transfer from Shogunate to Emperor
Ryoma created an organization called "Kaientai" that had a role of a navy and a trading company, and started his activities utilizing this organization. At that time, the Shogunate was confronting the resistant power of the Choshu domain (present day Yamaguchi prefecture). To fight with the Shogunate, Ryoma thought assistance from the powerful Satsuma domain (present day Kagoshima prefecture) was indispensable. He was successful in allying the two domains which were like cat and dog. With this alliance, anti-Shogunate forces became stronger and more vigorous.

At the time, many talented young men joined the movement to help create a new nation. They planned to completely destroy the Tokugawa Shogunate, but Ryoma thought a collision should be avoided by letting the Tokugawa family remain as a member of the emerging congress. Then he made a bold proposal that the Shogunate should voluntarily return the regime to the Emperor.

Then, Shogun TOKUGAWA Yoshinobu accepted Ryoma's plan and ended the Tokugawa Shogunate by himself. In spite of the fact that Ryoma was the greatest hero of the Meiji Restoration, he had no ambition to join the new cabinet. He had only strove to build an ideal country. However, like Nobunaga, who was killed when Japan's unification was almost completed, Ryoma was assassinated one year before the birth of the modern nation. He died at the age of 33. The sword master had never killed anyone in his life.

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