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Ishin Shishi
, sometimes known as , were a group of Japanese political activists of the late Edo period. While it is usually applied to the samurai primarily from the southwestern clans of Satsuma, Chōshū, and Tosa, the term ''shishi'' is also used by some with reference to supporters of the shogunate, such as the '' Shinsengumi''. There were many different varieties of ''shishi''. Some, such as the assassins Kawakami Gensai, Nakamura Hanjirō, Okada Izō, and Tanaka Shinbei, opted for a more violent approach in asserting their views. Kawakami Gensai, in particular, is recalled as the assassin of Sakuma Shōzan, a renowned pro-Western thinker of the time. Several assaults on westerners in Japan have been attributed to the ''shishi'' and associated ''rōnin'' warriors. In a 2013 article, these assassins have been called "early terrorists" () since they opted to spread terror among the foreigners. Other more radical ''shishi'', such as Miyabe Teizō, plotted large-scale attacks wit ...
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:Category:Japanese Words And Phrases
{{Commons Words and phrases by language Words Words Words A word is a basic element of language that carries meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its ...
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Ikedaya Incident
The , also known as the Ikedaya affair or Ikedaya riot, was an armed encounter between the Shishi (organization), ''shishi'' which included masterless samurai (''rōnin'') formally employed by the Chōshū Domain, Chōshū, Tosa Domain, Tosa and Higo Domain, Higo domains (Han (Japan), han), and the Shinsengumi, the Bakufu's special police force in Kyoto on July 8, 1864, at the Ikedaya Inn in Sanjō-Kawaramachi, Kyoto, Japan. History At the end of the Edo period, Kyoto attracted unemployed ''rōnin'' of varying allegiances. Those from the Chōshū Domain, Chōshū, Tosa Domain, Tosa and Higo Domain, Higo clans were heavily influenced by the sonnō jōi (revere the Emperor, expel the foreign barbarians) philosophy and supported forcibly removing all western influences from Japan. Emperor Kōmei and the Aizu and Satsuma Domain, Satsuma clans preferred a unification of the bakufu and the imperial court. The bakufu tried to retain their centralized power. In this political chaos, r ...
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Meiji Government
The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji oligarchy, who overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate. Early developments After the Meiji Restoration, the leaders of the ''samurai'' who overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate had no clear agenda or pre-developed plan on how to run Japan. They did have a number of things in common; according to Andrew Gordon, “It was precisely their intermediate status and their insecure salaried position, coupled with their sense of frustrated ambition and entitlement to rule, that account for the revolutionary energy of the Meiji insurgents and their far-reaching program of reform”. most were in their mid-40s, and most were from the four '' tozama'' domains of western Japan (Chōshū, Satsuma, Tosa and Hizen). Although from lower-ranked ''samurai'' families, ...
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Satsuma Province
was an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Satsuma" in . Its abbreviation was . History Satsuma's provincial capital was Satsumasendai. During the Sengoku period, Satsuma was a fief of the Shimazu ''daimyō'', who ruled much of southern Kyūshū from their castle at Kagoshima city. They were the initial patrons of Satsuma ware, which was later widely exported to the West. In 1871, with the abolition of feudal domains and the establishment of prefectures after the Meiji Restoration, the provinces of Satsuma and Ōsumi were combined to eventually establish Kagoshima Prefecture. Satsuma was one of the main provinces that rose in opposition to the Tokugawa shogunate in the mid 19th century. Because of this, the oligarchy that came into power after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 had a strong representation from the Satsuma province, with leaders such as Ōkubo Toshimichi and ...
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Katsu Kaishū
Count , born , best known by his nickname , was a Japanese statesman, naval engineer and military commander during the late Tokugawa shogunate and early Meiji period. Kaishū was a nickname which he took from a piece of calligraphy (Kaishū Shooku ) by Sakuma Shōzan. He went through a series of given names throughout his life; his childhood name was . He was often called from his ceremonial title during the late Tokugawa shogunate and later changed his name to Yasuyoshi after the Meiji Restoration. An advocate of modernization and westernization, Katsu was an influential figure during the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate (''Bakumatsu'') and subsequent Meiji Restoration. He eventually rose to occupy the position of commissioner ''(Gunkan-bugyō)'' in the Tokugawa navy and was a chief negotiator of the ''bakufu''. As a major Tokugawa commander during the Boshin War, he is particularly known for his surrender of Edo to Imperial forces commanded by Saigō Takamori. Early life ...
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Kawai Tsugunosuke
was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period, who served the Makino clan of Nagaoka Domain, Nagaoka. Kawai was a senior military commander of Nagaoka forces during the Boshin War of 1868–1869. He escaped to nearby Aizu after his domain's fall; however, he contracted gangrene from an untreated leg wound, and died in Aizu. References

*Sasaki Suguru (2002). ''Boshin sensō: haisha no Meiji ishin.'' Tokyo: Chūōkōron-shinsha. 1827 births 1868 deaths People of the Boshin War Samurai Karō People from Nagaoka Domain Deaths from gangrene 19th-century Japanese philosophers {{samurai-stub ...
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Bakumatsu Era
were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government. The major ideological-political divide during this period was between the pro-imperial nationalists called and the shogunate forces, which included the elite swordsmen. Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of to seize personal power. Furthermore, there were two other main driving forces for dissent: first, growing resentment on the part of the (or outside lords), and second, growing anti-Western sentiment following the arrival of Matthew C. Perry. The first related to those lords whose predecessors had fought against Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, after which they had been permanently excluded from al ...
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Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands—Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu—and List of islands of Japan, thousands of smaller islands, covering . Japan has a population of over 123 million as of 2025, making it the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh-most populous country. The capital of Japan and List of cities in Japan, its largest city is Tokyo; the Greater Tokyo Area is the List of largest cities, largest metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37 million inhabitants as of 2024. Japan is divided into 47 Prefectures of Japan, administrative prefectures and List of regions of Japan, eight traditional regions. About three-quarters of Geography of Japan, the countr ...
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Meiji Era
The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudalism, feudal society at risk of colonization by Western world, Western powers to the new paradigm of a modern, industrialized nation state and emergent great power, influenced by Western scientific, technological, philosophical, political, legal, and aesthetic ideas. As a result of such wholesale adoption of radically different ideas, the changes to Japan were profound, and affected its social structure, internal politics, economy, military, and foreign relations. The period corresponded to the reign of Emperor Meiji. It was preceded by the Keiō era and was succeeded by the Taishō era, upon the accession of Emperor Taishō. The rapid modernization during the Meiji era was not without its opponents, as the rapid changes to society cause ...
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Yoshida Shōin
, commonly named , was one of Japan's most distinguished intellectuals in the late years of the Tokugawa shogunate. He devoted himself to nurturing many '' ishin shishi'' who in turn made major contributions to the Meiji Restoration. Early life Born Sugi Toranosuke in Hagi in the Chōshū region of Japan, he was the second son of Sugi Yurinosuke (1804–1865), a modest rank Samurai and his wife Kodama Taki (1807–1890). Yurinosuke had two younger brothers, Yoshida Daisuke and Tamaki Bunnoshin. Sugi Toranosuke's eldest brother was Sugi Umetarō (1828–1910), his four younger sisters were Sugi Yoshiko (later Kodama Yoshiko) (1832–1924), Sugi Hisa (later Odamura Hisa) (1839–1881), Sugi Tsuya (1841–1843), and Sugi Fumi (later Katori Miwako) (1843–1921), his youngest brother was Sugi Toshisaburō (1845–1876). Sugi Toranosuke was later adopted at the age of four by Yoshida Daisuke and was renamed to Yoshida Shōin. The process of adopting younger sons from the Sugi ho ...
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Tengutō Rebellion
The , also called the Kantō Insurrection or the , was a civil war that occurred in the area of Mito Domain in Japan from May 2, 1864 to January 14, 1865. It involved an uprising and terrorist actions against the central power of the Shogunate in favour of the ''sonnō jōi'' ("Revere the emperor, expel the barbarians") movement. Outline A shogunal pacification force was sent to Mount Tsukuba on 17 June 1864, consisting of 700 Mito soldiers led by Ichikawa, with 3 to 5 cannons and at least 200 firearms, as well as a Tokugawa shogunate force of 3,000 men with over 600 firearms and several cannons. As the conflict escalated, on 10 October 1864 at Nakaminato, the shogunate force of 6,700 was defeated by 2,000 insurgents, and several shogunal defeats followed. The insurgents were weakening, however, dwindling to about 1,000. By December 1864 they faced a new force under Tokugawa Yoshinobu (himself born in Mito) numbering over 10,000, which ultimately forced them to surrender. The ...
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