Romulus Hillsborough - Samurai Revolution: The Dawn of Modern Japan Seen Through the Eyes of the Shoguns Last Samurai

Abbreviations of Sources Cited

Primary Sources from Katsu Kaish

BN: Bakumatsu Nikki ( Katsu Kaish Zensh 1). Tky: Kdansha, 1976.

HS: Hikawa Seiwa ( Katsu Kaish Zensh 21). Tky: Kdansha, 1973.

KG: Kaish Goroku ( Katsu Kaish Zensh 20). Tky: Kdansha, 1972.

KKZ: Kaish Nikki , Vols. III, IV ( Katsu Kaish Zensh , 20, 21). Tky: Keis Shob, 1973.

KR: Kaigun Rekishi , Vols. IIII ( Katsu Kaish Zensh 8, 9). Tky: Kdansha, 1973, 1974.

KYBN: Kei Yon Boshin Nikki (contained in BN).

SK: Shokan to Kengen ( Katsu Kaish Zensh 2). Tky: Kdansha, 1982.

Other Sources

KJ: Konishi Shir. Nihon no Rekishi 19: Kaikoku to Ji . Tky: Chkronsha, 1974.

KK1: Matsuura Rei. Katsu Kaish . Tky: Chkronsha, 1997.

KK2: Matsuura Rei. Katsu Kaish . Tky: Chikuma Shob, 2010.

KK, 1: Katsube Mitake. Katsu Kaish . Vol. 1. Tky: PHP, 1992.

KK, 2: Katsube Mitake. Katsu Kaish . Vol. 2. Tky: PHP, 1992.

MIJJ: Meiji Ishin Jinmei Jiten . Tky: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1982.

NSZ: Miyaji Saichir, ed. Nakaoka Shintar Zensh . Tky: Keis Shob, 1991.

SRZ: Miyaji Saichir, ed. Sakamoto Ryma Zensh (Zho Santeiban). Tky: Kfsha Shuppan, 1982.

TY: Matsuura Rei. Tokugawa Yoshinobu . Tky: Chkronsha, 1989.

APPENDIX

On the Value of Katsu Kaishs Histories, Biographies, and Memoirs

There is nothing so difficult in this world as history, Katsu Kaish told a magazine interviewer in the mid-1890s, some three decades after the fall of the Bakufu. Since human beings cannot see into the future, people surmise the future in light of written records of the past, which are called history. However, it is truly troubling that history, which is so important, is not easily believable.

Much of the history that Katsu Kaish wrote is, quite naturally, wrapped up in biography, including autobiography. The philosopher and historian R.G. Collingwood argues that biography is not a proper medium for history. He defines history as a science whose business is to study events not accessible to our observation, and to study them inferentially based on evidence.

But we should ask: Who is more worthy of writing history than a maker of history with keen insight? As an insightful historian and, indeed, history maker, Katsu Kaish probably would have replied, No one. And just as he stressed the difficulty of history, he set high standards in its writing:

Although it has only been thirty years since the Bakufu fell, there isnt one person who has written a perfect history of the final years of the Bakufu. There are still old men alive today who witnessed with their own eyes the situation back then. But although they were alive during that time, they didnt comprehend everything that was going on around them. So how are they supposed to be able to write about things that happened during that time, thirty years after the fact? Still more, in ten or twenty years from now, when all the old men are dead, theres no telling what kind of misinformation will be handed down to future generations.

Katsu Kaish was extremely critical of his colleagues during his years of service in the Bakufu, and later during his service in the Imperial government. And he had a high opinion of himself. Even if his evaluation of contemporary Japanese historians is correct, certainly he did not include himself among those who didnt comprehend everything that was going on around them. Im the only one [in Japanese history] who has gone to such great pains for fifty years for the country, he boasted in November 1898.

For all his self-esteem, he was nonetheless quick to give credit where credit was due. In his writings he recalled the deeds (and mis-deeds) of men representing both sides of the revolution, providing invaluable insight into some of the major players, and by so doing setting the record straight. As Iwamoto Yoshiharu observed: Not to mention the events of his own personal history throughout his lifetime, [Katsu Kaish] also recorded in his own hand all of the great events of the last years of the Bakufu and the Meiji Restoration. And since this discerning and scrupulous man wrote down the details in his own hand, there can be nothing better than his written work to hand down this living history of some fifty years to future generations.

Iwamoto was one of the journalists who visited the Hikawa residence to interview Katsu Kaish. Two important compilations of the Hikawa interviews, which shed light on his thinking during his final years, including his recollections of the Restoration, were born of those visits. One of them, Hikawa Seiwa , is a collection of interviews which previously appeared in newspapers and magazines. Re-edited into one volume by magazine editor Yoshimoto J, it was first published in November 1897, and followed by two sequels. Matsuuras annotated edition of Hikawa Seiwa , published by Kdansha in 1973, is my source.

The other compilation of Hikawa interviews, conducted and recorded by Iwamoto, has been published in one volume under three different titles, including Kaish Goroku , to which I refer in this book. The original title, Kaish Yowa yowa meaning waves which remain , as after a stormwas first published in March 1899, shortly after Katsu Kaishs death.

Interviews, i.e., oral history, often tend to be viewed with skepticism (as a form of Collingwoods tendentious history). We all know that interviews can be no better than a persons memory and that little is more treacherous than that, comments Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. in the foreword to his biography of Robert Kennedy. But in defense of using interviews in historical narrative, Schlesinger writes that historians have rarely hesitated to draw on written reminiscences, which are no less self-promoting; nor have they hesitated, in order to impart immediacy to narrative, to quote conversations as recalled in diaries, letters and memoirs, when the content of the conversation is plausibly supported by context or other evidence.

I should add that while Schlesinger interviewed many of his subjects directly, needless to say I did not. And regarding Iwamotos interviews, it was his practice to conduct them at Katsu Kaishs home without taking notes, then to write them down shortly afterwards based on memory. Nonetheless, the credibility of the Hikawa interviews, both Hikawa Seiwa and Kaish Goroku , is reinforced by their agreement with Katsu Kaishs journals, written memoirs, and historiesas if he had drawn on them for the interviewsand by the fact that the contents in both volumes, though recorded, edited, and published separately, often replicate each other.

HS, 293.

Collingwood, 25152.

Collingwood, 304.

Collingwood, 39798.

HS, 293.

KG, 215.

Hikawa no Otozur, in KG, 15.

HS, 118; Katsube, Commentary, in Kaish Zadan , 346.

Matsuura, KK2, 899.

Katsube, Commentary, in Kaish Zadan , 345.

KG, 356.

Katsube, Commentary, in Kaish Zadan , 345.

Iwamoto Yoshiharu, Authors Note, in Katsube, Kaish Zadan , 12; Katsube, ed., Kaish Zadan , 331 (note to 12).

Iwamoto Yoshiharu, Authors Note, in Katsube, ed., Kaish Zadan , 12; Katsube, Commentary, in Kaish Zadan , 345346; Iwamoto Yoshiharu, Hikawa no Otozur (A Visit to Hikawa), in KG, 12; KG, note, 19; KG, Commentary, 356.

Schlesinger, xv.

Katsube, Commentary, in Kaish Zadan , 345.

Praise for the writing of Romulus Hillsborough

Hillsborough deserves high praise for successfully combining high drama with meticulous scholarship.

The Daily Yomiuri

Hillsborough... has done a masterful job of bringing a chaotic period to life.

Booklist

With his easily readable and entertaining style, Hillsborough does a great job of elucidating the complex customs that ruled Edo Period life and politics.

The Japan Times

... not to be missed by anyone interested in Japanese history, the Meiji restoration or the spirit and determination of the warrior classes of feudal Japan.