samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

Arima clan The is a Japanese samurai family. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)">DF 6-7 of 80">"Arima," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', pp. 2-3

Kurume is a city in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 295,367 in 137,140 households, and a population density of 1309 people per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kurume is located in the Chikugo Plain ...

in northern Kyūshū. He was also a Shinto priest of the Kurume Suitengū, Suitengū shrine in Kurume. Maki, also known by his court title of or simply , was a student of the Mito school's ''sonnō-jōi'' ideology, and in particular,

Aizawa Seishisai , born , was a Japanese samurai (retainer of the Mito Domain) and a nationalist thinker of the Mito school during the late shogunate period. In 1799 he became involved in the compilation of the '' Dai Nihon-shi'' (Great History of Japan) bein ...

's philosophy. Maki took part in the

Kinmon Incident The , also known as the , was a rebellion against the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan that took place on 20 August unar calendar: 19th day, 7th month 1864, near the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. History Starting with the Convention of Kanagawa in ...

of 1864 and committed suicide near

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

with his men, after being chased and surrounded by

Aizu is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The princ ...

and

Shinsengumi The was a small secret police organization, elite group of swordsmen that was organized by commoners and low rank samurai, commissioned by the (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was ac ...

troops.

Early life

Maki was born in

Kurume is a city in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 295,367 in 137,140 households, and a population density of 1309 people per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kurume is located in the Chikugo Plain ...

in 1813, to Maki Toshiomi, the family head of the hereditary line of Shinto priests who cared for the Suitengū shrine. It was during Maki's childhood that his father was made a full-fledged

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

by

Arima Yorinori Arima, officially The Royal Chartered Borough of Arima is the easternmost and second largest in area of the three boroughs of Trinidad and Tobago. It is geographically adjacent to Sangre Grande and Arouca at the south central foothills of the ...

, the lord of Kurume.Calman, p. 81. When Maki was eleven, his father died, leaving him in charge of the family as well as the shrine.

Intellectual and political career

Combining the teachings he had received from

Mitogaku refers to a school of History of Japan, Japanese historical and Shinto studies that arose in the Mito Domain (modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture). Early history The school had its genesis in 1657 when Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628–1700), second head o ...

and elsewhere, Maki created a new school of thought called Tenpōgaku, named after the era in which it was founded.

Activity in Kyoto

Maki worked with

Okubo Toshimichi , also Okubo, Ookubo and Ohkubo, is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Ōkubo clan **Ōkubo Tadayo (1532–1594), Japanese daimyō of the Sengoku period ** Ōkubo Tadasuke (1537–1613), Japanese daimyō of the Sengoku a ...

of

Satsuma Satsuma may refer to: * Satsuma (fruit), a citrus fruit * ''Satsuma'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails Places Japan * Satsuma, Kagoshima, a Japanese town * Satsuma District, Kagoshima, a district in Kagoshima Prefecture * Satsuma Domain, a ...

, in setting up

Shimazu Hisamitsu Prince , also known as , was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period. The younger brother of Shimazu Nariakira, Hisamitsu was the virtual sovereign and strongman of Satsuma Domain while serving as regent for his underage son Tadayoshi, who be ...

's trip to Kyoto. In 1862, Maki was implicated in the

Teradaya incident The Teradaya Incident is the name used for two clashes between samurai during the ''bakumatsu'' period. Both of them took place in Teradaya, a ryokan inn in Fushimi, south of Kyōto. The first one, in May 1862 (also called the Teradaya Disturba ...

, and briefly imprisoned.

Last battle and death

Maki took part in the

Kinmon Incident The , also known as the , was a rebellion against the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan that took place on 20 August unar calendar: 19th day, 7th month 1864, near the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. History Starting with the Convention of Kanagawa in ...

of 1864, and joined in Chōshū's attack on

Aizu is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The princ ...

-

Satsuma Satsuma may refer to: * Satsuma (fruit), a citrus fruit * ''Satsuma'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails Places Japan * Satsuma, Kagoshima, a Japanese town * Satsuma District, Kagoshima, a district in Kagoshima Prefecture * Satsuma Domain, a ...

allied forces in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

; however, he was beaten back. He committed suicide with his troops on Mount TennōzanYamakawa, pp. 94-95. when he was surrounded by Aizu forces under Hayashi Gonsuke and

Jinbo Kuranosuke was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period who was a retainer of the Matsudaira clan of Aizu. He served in the Aizu administration as a ''karō''. He fought in the Boshin War, and led the defense of Wakamatsu against the Imperial Japanese Arm ...

, and

Shinsengumi The was a small secret police organization, elite group of swordsmen that was organized by commoners and low rank samurai, commissioned by the (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was ac ...

forces under

Kondō Isami was a Japanese swordsman and samurai of the late Edo period. He was the fourth generation master of Tennen Rishin-ryū and was famed for his role as commander of the Shinsengumi. Background He was born Miyagawa Katsugorō to a farmer Miyagawa ...

. His death poem was: . Maki was buried in Ōyamazaki-chō,

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. The writer Mitsumasu Kimiaki is Maki's descendant.

Popular portrayals

Maki has appeared in several works of fiction which depict the events of the

Bakumatsu were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate Meiji Restoration, ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a Feudali ...

era. He is a minor character in Kenji Morita's

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

''Getsumei Seiki'' and Minamoto Tarō's manga ''Fūunjitachi Bakumatsuhen''. He also appeared in the 1986 Asahi TV miniseries ''Byakkotai''.

References

*Calman, Donald (1992). ''The Nature and Origins of Japanese Imperialism''. London: Routledge. *Harootunian, H.D. (1991). ''Toward Restoration''. Berkeley: University of California Press. *Hoshi, Ryōichi (2001). ''Bakumatsu no Aizu-han''. Tokyo: Chūōkōron-shinsha. *Yamaguchi Ken (1876). ''Kinse Shiriaku''. Trans. by

Ernest Mason Satow Sir Ernest Mason Satow (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British diplomat, scholar and Japanologist. He is better known in Japan, where he was known as , than in Britain or the other countries in which he served as a diplomat. He was ...

. Yokohama: F.R. Wetmore. *

Yamakawa Hiroshi Baron was a Japanese general, samurai, politician and educator. Originally a samurai from Aizu Domain during Bakumatsu, he became a general in the early Meiji era Imperial Japanese Army. He was also one of the first persons, together with his br ...