Sakamoto Ryōma

Lore & Background

Sakamoto Ryōma was born on 3 January 1836 in Kōchi in the han of Tosa, located in Tosa Province (present-day Kōchi Prefecture) on the island of Shikoku. By the Japanese calendar, he was born on the 15th day of the 11th month of the sixth year of Tenpō. The Sakamoto family held the rank of country samurai or gōshi, the lowest rank in the samurai hierarchy, which previous generations had purchased by acquiring enough wealth as sake brewers. At age twelve, Sakamoto was enrolled in a private school but showed little scholarly inclination; his older sister enrolled him in fencing classes of the Oguri-ryū when he was 14 after he was bullied at school.

By adulthood, he was by all accounts a master swordsman. In 1853, Sakamoto traveled to Edo to train at the famous Hokushin Ittō-ryū Hyōhō Chiba-Dōjō, led by Headmaster Chiba Sadakichi Masamichi. He received a scroll declaring his mastery and became a shihan, teaching Kenjutsu alongside Chiba Jūtarō Kazutane, a close friend. During this time, he met Chiba Sana, Sadakichi's daughter, and the two became engaged.

Early Bakumatsu

In 1858, Sakamoto ended his training and returned to Tosa to further his studies, losing contact with Sana for several years. Politically, Sakamoto became active in the local Sonnō jōi movement after the Perry Expedition and the Convention of Kanagawa. In 1862, his friend Takechi Hanpeita organized the Tosa Loyalist Party, a Sonnō jōi organization of about 2000 samurai. Sakamoto participated in a plot to assassinate Yoshida Toyo but did not advocate for it; he believed the group should act for all of Japan, while Takechi demanded revolution only for Tosa.

Sakamoto left Tosa without authorization (dappan), and one of his sisters committed suicide because he left without permission. He used the alias Saitani Umetarō as he worked against the shōgun. That same year, he returned to the Chiba Dojo as a safe haven, reunited with Chiba Sana, and gifted her a sleeve with his family crest, considered a marriage. Sakamoto is mentioned under this alias in the diary of Ernest Satow for 30 September 1867: 'Mr. Saedani had to be sat up for laughing at the questions put by us, evidently with the object of ridiculing us out of our case, but he got a flea in his lug and shut up making the most diabolical faces.'

Late Bakumatsu

While a rōnin, Sakamoto decided to assassinate Katsu Kaishū, a high-ranking Tokugawa official, but Katsu persuaded him of the necessity of a long-term plan to increase Japan's military strength. Instead, Sakamoto became his assistant and protégé. In 1864, as the shogunate took a hard line, Sakamoto fled to Kagoshima in Satsuma Domain. In 1866, he took part in negotiating the secret Satchō Alliance between Satsuma and Chōshū, though the critical role was played by Komatsu Tatewaki.

He founded the private navy and trading company Kameyama Shachū in Nagasaki with Satsuma's help, later called kaientai. After Chōshū's victory over the Tokugawa army in 1866, Sakamoto was recalled to Kōchi with honours. He played a crucial role in negotiations leading to the voluntary resignation of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu in 1867, bringing about the Meiji Restoration.

First assassination attempt

In March 1866, several agents of the shogunate attempted to assassinate Sakamoto at the Teradaya ryokan in Kyoto. He was alerted by his future wife Narasaki Ryō (Oryō), who was surprised in her bath and ran across a garden to warn him. He used a Western firearm, a Smith and Wesson revolver, to fight off the attackers.

Assassination

Sakamoto was assassinated at the Ōmiya Inn in Kyoto on 10 December 1867, at age 31. Assassins knocked at the door; his bodyguard Yamada Tōkichi, a former sumo wrestler, answered and was fatally slashed when he turned his back. The assassins rushed upstairs, where Sakamoto and his associate Nakaoka Shintarō were resting. Hearing the scuffle, Sakamoto opened the door to yell at his bodyguard, and the assassins charged, tearing through paper doors in a confused melée as lamps were knocked over.

Reader's Guide

Sakamoto Ryōma's significance lies in his role as a bridge between rival domains and as a symbol of the transition from the Tokugawa shogunate to the Meiji Restoration. Though a low-ranking samurai from Tosa, he helped negotiate the Satchō Alliance, which united the Chōshū and Satsuma domains against the Bakufu, a key step in the collapse of the shogunate. His advocacy for democracy, nationalism, imperial restoration, and modernization reflected the shifting political currents of the Bakumatsu period.

His assassination in December 1867, just before the Boshin War, cemented his status as a martyr for the imperial cause. His role in the Satchō Alliance negotiations was less central than popular belief suggests, with Komatsu Tatewaki playing the critical part. Nonetheless, Sakamoto's life and death encapsulate the turmoil and transformation of late Edo Japan, and he remains a widely recognized figure in Japanese history.