Thread by @toranosukev

Those who have been following me know I'm working on a translation of a chronology of events of the Bakumatsu period - the years leading up to the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate + the Meiji Restoration.

Today, I came across an exciting line:

Kagoshima domain retainers Arima Shinshichi and Tanaka Kensuke; Ronin Tanaka Kawachinosuke, Maki Izumi, Yoshimura Torataro; and others gather around dawn and depart Osaka for Kyoto. They go up the Yodo River, arrive at Fushimi around dusk, and rest at the Teradaya inn.

The Teradaya Incident which resulted on 1862/4/23 is easily one of the favorite, romanticized, bad-ass fights for samurai weeaboos.

I'll give the text I'm translating, my rough translation, and then just a little extra comments :)

wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?titl…

From the Ishin Shiryo Koyo 維新史料綱要:
鹿児島藩士有馬新七、同田中謙助、浪士田中河内介、同真木和泉、同吉村寅太郎等、まさに京に向はんとし、黎明結束して大坂を発し、淀川を遡り、薄暮伏見に達し、逆旅寺田屋に憩う。

鹿児島藩主茂久生父島津久光、報を得て、侍士奈良原喜八郎「繁」、同道島五郎兵衛「正邦」同大山格之助「綱良」等九人を遣りて諭旨鎮静せしむ。新七等聴かず。すなわち新七「正義」、謙助「盛明」及同藩士柴山愛次郎「道隆」、同橋口伝蔵「兼備」、同橋口壮助「隷三」、同森山新五左衛門「永治」、...

... 同弟子丸龍助「方行」、同西田直五郎「正基」を斬る。五郎兵衛また之に死す。喜八郎等、即夜、さらに河内介、和泉等を京都藩邸に収容す。旦日、岡藩士小河弥右衛門等、また伏見に達して変を聴き、同所の鹿児島藩邸に入る。

As always, the Ishin Shiryo Koyo database is available through the website of the Historiographical Institute (Shiryohensanjo) of the University of Tokyo. Just click on データベース検索, and then on 維新史料綱要データベース:

hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp

My rough translation:
Kagoshima retainers Arima Shinshichi and Tanaka Kensuke; Ronin Tanaka Kawachinosuke, Maki Izumi, Yoshimura Torataro; and others gather at dawn and depart Osaka for Kyoto. They go up the Yodo River, arrive at Fushimi around dusk, and rest at the Teradaya inn.

Shimazu Hisamitsu, father of lord of Kagoshima domain Shimazu Mochihisa, receives a report of this. He dispatches nine warriors including Narahara Kihachiro (Shigeru), Michijima Gorobei (Masakuni), and Oyama Kakunosuke (Tsunayoshi) to instruct them to remain peaceful.

Shinshichi and the others refuse to comply. The nine men dispatched by Hisamitsu kill Kagoshima domain retainers Shinshichi (Masayoshi), Kensuke (Moriaki), Shibayama Aijiro (Michitaka), Hashiguchi Denzo (Kenbi), Hashiguchi Sosuke (Reizo), Moriyama Shigozaemon (Eiji), ...

Deshimaru Ryusuke (Hoko), and Nishida Chogoro (Seiki). Gorobei also dies. This same evening, Kihachiro then takes Kawachinosuke, Izumi, and others into custody at the domain mansion in Kyoto.

The following morning, Oka domain retainer Ogo Yaemon and others also arrive in Fushimi, hear of this incident, and enter the Kagoshima domain mansion in Fushimi. (end translation)

Alright. So, I'll leave it to others to talk about the historical significance and ramifications and so forth of this event. What I'll say is I always enjoy seeing famous individuals cross paths, connections that can be drawn with places I've been or could visit...

A lot of these figures I've been seeing come up time and again in small events as I've made my way through the chronology. I'm not an expert in this period, nor a samurai weeaboo so much, so I wasn't familiar with where, ex. Hashiguchi Denzo, was going to end up.

Hashiguchi Denzo, Shibayama Aijiro, Deshimaru Ryusuke, and many of these other names had been coming up quite often, gathering allies, meeting at this place or that place, making plots, departing for Kyoto...

This is where their story ends: at the Daikoku-ji 大黒寺, a Shimazu family temple just down the street from the Teradaya, in Fushimi.

If I'm reading this right, I believe the inscriptions on the tombstones are in the hand of Saigô Takamori.

The Shimazu family (Kagoshima domain) mansion was also just down the street; hence the close connections with the temple, and with the inn. The former site of the mansion is now a saké brewery (Fushimi being a major site of saké production, supposedly bc of its very good water).

The Teradaya itself is a popular tourist destination today. Though filled with labels ID'ing bulletholes or sword marks in the pillars made during a later famous incident involving Sakamoto Ryôma, in fact the bldg burned down in 1868 and is entirely a reproduction.

Anyway, Ôyama Tsunayoshi is an interesting figure to see here. I'd known him as the first governor of Kagoshima prefecture, appt'd in 1874 and then removed from the post in 1877 when it was found out he was supplying Saigô's anti-gov't rebels with weapons (see Satsuma Rebellion).

Here's Ôyama's grave at the Nanshû Cemetery in Kagoshima, alongside many who died in that rebellion. Makes sense that 15 years earlier he'd be on one side or the other at Teradaya, but I hadn't known. Always interesting to see names come up across multiple events across history.

Finally, Narahara Kihachirô (Shigeru). Not to be confused with his elder brother Narahara Kizaemon, who is believed to have been the man who killed British merchant Charles Richardson in the Namamugi Incident which led to the Royal Navy shelling the city of Kagoshima (oops.)

Shigeru, one of the men who led the effort to apprehend the rebels at the Teradaya (or kill them in the process, which is largely what ended up happening), was understandably still not on good terms with the rebel side by the time of the Meiji Restoration / Boshin War in 1868.

However, as early as four years later, he was good with the new Meiji gov't, which dispatched him along with Ijichi Sadaka (another prominent name) to Ryukyu in Jan 1872 to talk with regents about a number of things; a few mos later the Emperor would declare the kingdom annexed.

Shigeru and Sadaka said the king should go pay formal respects to the Emperor in Tokyo; a few months later, a royal prince would be dispatched as his representative. That's a story I think I've tweeted about before, and will again.

https://twitter.com/toranosukev/status/1220507371589570561

They also talked about coal mining in the Yaeyamas and the incorporation of the Amami Islands into Kagoshima prefecture (though administered by Kagoshima domain since 1609, the Amamis were still regarded as kingdom territory).

The kingdom was abolished entirely by unilateral declaration by Tokyo in 1879, and annexed as "Okinawa prefecture." (image from Ishikawa Mao's "Photo Scroll of Great Ryukyu" 大琉球写真絵巻)

Shigeru went on to serve as the first president of Nippon Railway, a member of the House of Peers, an in a number of Ministry positions before becoming the 8th governor of Okinawa prefecture in 1892.

He served as governor from 1892 to 1908, and specialists in that period of Okinawan history would have tons to say about his administrative style & assimilationist policies, which even the Asahi encyclopedia describes as "autocratic and imperialistic." kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A5%88…

Someday I'll learn more deeply (in more detail) the stories of Jahana Noboru and the Kôdôkai opposing him, the Okinawan version of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement 自由民権運動, and so forth.

In the meantime, I look forward to the next time I get to visit Kagoshima, and go find the graves of Narahara Shigeru and his brother Kizaemon, at the Tsuyushige (Namidabashi) Cemetery.
kagopic.com/grave-of-narah…

That's it for now (phew). Hope you found some of this interesting!