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Senior Fourth Rank Takasugi Shinsaku | |
|---|---|
 Takasugi Shinsaku | |
| Native name | 高杉 晋作 |
| Other names |
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| Nickname | Tōgyō |
| Born | (1839-09-27)September 27, 1839 |
| Died | May 17, 1867(1867-05-17) (aged 27) |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | Chōshū Domain |
| Rank | Shoshi’i (正四位,Senior Fourth Rank) |
| Commands | Kiheitai |
| Battles / wars | Shimonoseki Campaign First Chōshū expedition Second Chōshū expedition |
| Memorials | Yasukuni Shrine Tōgyō-an[1] |
| Spouses | O-Uno (1863–1867) |
| Children | Takasugi Toichi [jp] (son) |
| Relations | Takasugi Kochuta (father) Michi (mother) Takasugi Tomo (sister) Takasugi Sachi (sister) Takasugi Mei (sister) |
Takasugi Shinsaku (高杉 晋作; 27 September 1839 – 17 May 1867) was asamurai from theChōshū Domain of Japan who contributed significantly to theMeiji Restoration. He used several aliases to hide his activities from theTokugawa shogunate.
Takasugi Shinsaku was born in the castle townHagi, the capital of theChōshū Domain (present-dayYamaguchi Prefecture) as the first son of Takasugi Kochūta, a middle-ranked samurai of the domain and his mother Michi (道). He had three younger sisters by the name of Tomo (智), Sachi (幸) and Mei (明). He hadsmallpox at the age of ten, but recovered from it.
Takasugi joined theShōka Sonjuku, the famous private school ofYoshida Shōin. Takasugi devoted himself to the modernization of Chōshū's military, and became a favorite student of Yoshida. In 1858, he entered theShōheikō (a military school under direct control of theshōgun atEdo). When his teacher was arrested during theAnsei Purge in 1859, Takasugi visited him in jail. Shōin was later executed on 21 November 1859. In December 1859 he returned home by the clan's command.
In January 1860, Takasugi marriedInoue Masa [jp] (1845–1922), the second daughter of Yamaguchi retainer and magistrate Inoue Heiemon who was also the friend of his father. Masa was said to be the most beautiful lady inSuō andNagato provinces. Their marriage was arranged by his parents, with hope that he would take his mind off of his teacher's death in 1859 and to settle down with his new bride.
However, in April 1861, Takasugi would leave his home and undertake naval training on the clan's warship Heishinmaru, and travelled toEdo. Later in September he went to study at theTōhoku region, and there he was associated withSakuma Shōzan andYokoi Shōnan.
Takasugi, in spite of his young age, was an influential factor within Chōshū as one of the most extreme advocates of a policy of seclusion and expelling the foreigners from Japan.
In spite ofJapan's policy of national isolation in theEdo period, in 1862 Takasugi was ordered by the domain to go secretly toShanghai inGreat Qing Empire to investigate the state of affairs and the strength of the Western powers. Takasugi's visit coincided with theTaiping Rebellion, and he was shocked by the effects of Europeanimperialism even on the Chinese Empire. Takasugi returned to Japan convinced that Japan must strengthen itself to avoid being colonized by the western powers, or to suffer a similar fate as the Qing Empire. This coincided with the growingSonnō Jōi ('expel the barbarians and revere the Emperor') movement, which attracted certain radical sections of Japan's warrior class and court nobility, and Takasugi's ideas found ready support in Chōshū and other parts of Japan. Takasugi was implicated in the 31 January 1863 attack on the British legation in Edo.
Takasugi originated the revolutionary idea of auxiliary irregularmilitia (shotai). Under the feudal system, only the samurai class was allowed to own weapons. Takasugi promoted the recruitment of commoners into new, socially-mixed paramilitary units. In these units, neither recruitment nor promotion depended (at least in theory), on social status. Farmers, merchants, carpenters and evensumo-wrestlers andBuddhist priests were enlisted, although samurai still formed the majority in most of theShotai. Takasugi clearly saw that utilization of the financial wealth of the middle-class merchants and farmers could increase the military strength of the domain, without weakening its finances. Since the leaders of Chōshū were unable - and unwilling - to change the social structure of the domain, limited use of peasants and commoners enabled them to form a new type of military without disturbing the traditional society.
In June 1863, Takasugi himself founded a specialShotai unit under his direct command called theKiheitai, which consisted of 300 soldiers (about half of whom were samurai). Later on, while hiding away from assassins, he encountered ashamisen-playing geisha namedO-Uno (1843–1909) at a brothel Sakai-ya in Akamaseki,Shimonoseki and went into a relationship with her.
After Chōshū fired upon Western warships in theStraits of Shimonoseki on 25 June 1863,British,French,Dutch andAmerican naval forces bombardedShimonoseki, the main port of the Chōshū domain the following summer in what was later called theBombardment of Shimonoseki. Takasugi was put in charge of the defense of Shimonoseki.
An anti-Chōshū coup inKyoto in the 18 August 1863 threatened to jeopardize Chōshū's leading role in national politics, and Chōshū was ousted by a coalition of theSatsuma andAizu in the imperial court.
Following theKyohoji incident [jp] on 16 August which involved a conflict between the Chōshū's forcesKiheitai andSenkitai (撰鋒隊) at the Kyohoji temple which left two people dead, Hikosuke Miyagi, who was an inspecting officer of theKiheitai, was forced to commitseppuku at the temple on 27 August. Although Takasugi narrowly escaped the seppuku, he was held liable for the incident and was dismissed as the leader of theKiheitai, only about two months after its formation. TheKiheitai was taken over byKawakami Yaichi and Taki Yataro, followed byAkane Taketo andYamagata Aritomo on October.
In February 1864, Takasugi tried to dissuadeKijima Matabei from his plan to fight Satsuma and Aizu in Kyoto, but failed and then left the domain to hide in Kyoto himself. He was persuaded byKatsura Kogorō to return, but upon arrival he was put in Noyama-Goku Prison for the charge of leaving the domain. He was later released in July and ordered to confine himself at home.
In September 1864, a fleet of warships of British, French, Dutch and American naval forces attacked Shimonoseki again and occupied the gun battery there. This was followed by the landing of French marines. Their fighting against Chōshū units demonstrated the inferiority of traditional Japanese troops against a Western army, and convinced the leaders of the domain of the absolute necessity for a thorough military reform. Chōshū soon had no choice but to call on Takasugi again. Shinsaku was then forgiven and put in charge of peace negotiations. The Chōshū domain's administration called on Takasugi not only to carry out this reform as ‘Director of Military Affairs’, but he - only 25 years of age - was also entrusted with negotiating peace with the four Western powers.
In view of the humiliation of Chōshū forces against the Western powers, Takasugi had come to the realization that direct confrontation with the foreigners was not an option. Instead, Japan had to learn military tactics, techniques and technologies from the West. Takasugi reorganized hisKiheitai militia into a rifle-unit with the latest modernrifles, and introduced training in Western strategy and tactics. Moreover, Takasugi used his influence with the Sonnô Jôi-movement to promote a more a conciliatory policy towards the West and thus, the ‘movement to expel the barbarians and revere the Emperor’ evolved into an anti-Bakufu movement with the overthrow of theTokugawa bakufu as a necessary means to strengthen Japan against the foreigners.
Weakened by the punitive attack by the Western powers, Chōshū was unable to withstand theexpedition mounted by theBakufu in autumn 1864 in retaliation for previous Chōshū attempts to seize control ofKyoto. At first, conservative forces, which favored conciliation with theBakufu in order to secure the domain, were dominant in Chōshū politics, and Takasugi and some of his compatriots had to leave the domain to avoid renewed imprisonment. Takasugi, with only about a dozen followers, including future political leaders Yamagata Aritomo,Itō Hirobumi andInoue Kaoru, gathered inKokura inKyūshū and prepared an attack on the conservative forces in Chōshū. The subsequent Chōshū civil war began on 13 January 1865.
Takasugi played a major role in this civil war and his formerKiheitai militia proved its superiority over old-fashioned samurai forces. With a series of quick strikes and the support of Katsura Kogorō, Takasugi achieved victory by March 1865. He became one of the main arbiters of the Chōshū domain's policy and continued to act as the domain's expert on Western military science, devoting his efforts to importing arms and raising troops. These reforms proved to be successful when Chōshū was victorious on four fronts against theBakufu'sSecond Chōshū expedition on 7 June 1866, with theKiheitai itself securing victory on two fronts. Takasugi's efforts had made a small-scale 'nation in arms' out of Chōshū, giving it a military strength out of proportion to its relatively small size. With its victory over the Tokugawa forces, the military power of theBakufu was discredited, and traditionally rival domains decided to join forces with Chōshū in the subsequent battles which eventually led to the end of the Tokugawa bakufu and the start of theMeiji Restoration in 1868.
Takasugi did not live to see this success as histuberculosis got worse in October 1866, after which he was moved to a residence of the bar manager Hayashi Sankuro. His mistress O-Uno and the Buddhist nun and poetNomura Bōtō nursed him there.
Around February 1867, his wife Masa and their three year-old sonTōichi [jp] (aka Takasugi Umenoshin) (1864–1913) arrived fromHagi to visit him. Due to the presence of his wife and not wishing to sully Takasugi's name, O-Uno left and became a Buddhist nun under the name of Tani Baisho, but was later summoned back by Masa to look after him. However in March 1867, Takasugi's illness worsened yet again, Masa and Tōichi were summoned back to Hagi, while Baisho and Nomura stayed with him until his death on 17 May 1867.
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Under his will, Takasugi was buried near theKiheitai's camp at the Mt. Kiyomizu in Yoshida. Only a year later, Takasugi's dream of overthrowing the Tokugawa Shogunate, which found obvious manifestation in his nickname Tōgyō (東行), was fulfilled with theMeiji Restoration. Before leaving for Europe in 1869, Yamagata Aritomo presented his thatched hut named Murin-an (無鄰菴) which is also at Mt. Kiyomizu to Takasugi's former mistress and nun Baisho to dwell in and to look after his grave.Kido Takayoshi (formerly Katsura Kogorō) and his wifeMatsuko would later take his young son Tōichi under their wings in 1871.
In 1884, Takasugi's friends and comrades whom included Yamagata Aritomo,Yamada Akiyoshi, Itō Hirobumi, and Inoue Kaoru among others, raised funds to have a hermitageTōgyō-an (東行庵), named after Takasugi's nickname, built close to his gravesite, there Tani Baisho stayed and looked after his grave until her death in 1909.[2] The grave itself was designated aNational Historic Monument in 1934.[3]
Takasugi Shinsaku, a central figure of the earlyMeiji Restoration, is as well known for his military talents as he is for his skills as a politician. However, dying at the young age of 28, Takasugi was not to become one of Japan's famous leaders in the subsequent Meiji era. Many of Takasugi's friends and followers would become members of thegenrō, also known as theMeiji oligarchy, a group of senior statesmen that became the be ruling class of Japan.
In his hometown, the castle town Hagi, Yamaguchi in south-western Japan - he is still remembered as a mystical and energetic hero, who put all his efforts into opening the way to modernization, westernization and reforms, not only in military matters but in political and social matters as well.
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