The founder of Japan's first modern corporation was a swaggering swordsman who packed a Smith and Wesson, an outlaw who led a band of samurai to overthrow the shogun, and one of the most colorful figures in Japanese history. His name was Ryoma, which is the title of the only biographical novel of Japan's greatest samurai in English.
The founder of Japan’s first modern corporation was a swaggering swordsman who packed a Smith and Wesson, an outlaw who led a band of samurai to overthrow the shogun, and one of the most colorful figures in Japanese history. His name was Ryoma, which is the title of the only biographical novel of Japan's greatest samurai in English.
This is the authentic story of Ryoma's key role in Japan’s bloody revolution, by which the country was transformed from a land ruled by feudal lords and samurai, under the hegemony of the shogun, into a modern industrialized nation under the unifying rule of the Emperor.
Mid-19th-century Japan was a caldron of political upheaval and intrigue and bloody inner-fighting among samurai. This most enthralling age in the annals of Japan brought forth some of the most fascinating men in that nation’s history. Those men modernized Japan, and laid the foundation for the militarism of WWII and the economic powerhouse of today. This close look into the hearts and minds of those two-sworded men provides a deep insight into the political, cultural, and psychological roots of modern Japan.
Excerpt
Preface
I owe my inspiration for this book to Shiba Ryotaro, whose popular novel, Ryoma ga Yuku, published in the 1960s, immortalized Sakamoto Ryoma in the psyche of the Japanese people. Ryoma must be the most popular figure in Japanese history. He is depicted in a wide variety of Japanese media, including biographies, novels, plays, film, and TV documentaries and dramas. Societies and clubs of so-called “Ryoma fans” reside in cities throughout Japan. The city of Kochi on Shikoku in western Japan has at least two museums dedicated to its favorite son, which along with his famous bronze statue on Kochi’s Katsurahama beach, attract tourists from all over the country. Witness to Ryoma’s enduring popularity are the many and constant offerings of flowers, incense and the like left at his gravesite in the hills on the east side of Kyoto, and the countless tiles containing handwritten messages to Ryoma lining the narrow path leading up to the grave.
So what was it about Sakamoto Ryoma that commands such adoration among the Japanese people nearly 150 years after his death? I don't think it was only his indispensable role in Japan’s modern revolution, the series of tumultuous events known as the Meiji Restoration, by which the country was transformed from a land ruled by feudal lords and samurai, under the hegemony of the shogun, into a modern industrialized nation under the unifying rule of the Emperor. No, there was something else about the young outlaw who brokered a military alliance between two bitter rivals to force the last shogun to abdicate based on a plan of his own design, while establishing Japan's first modern trading company to run guns for the revolution. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Ryoma's contemporary, knew that a man who "resists his whole age and stops it at the gate to demand an accounting" must have influence. Sakamoto Ryoma was such a man and the Herculean strength by which he influenced an entire age and nation derived, I think, from an endearing yet compelling personality, intense individualism, the vision to realize that the old way of life could not endure in the modern world, and the courage–both moral and physical–to act on that vision. And all of this was bolstered by a love of freedom–which is the theme of this only biographical novel in English about Sakamoto Ryoma.
I wrote this book during the latter half of the 1980s and the early 1990s, while living in Tokyo. It was my first book and since then I have learned much more about the craft of writing and the history, culture and samurai of the Meiji Restoration. Had I written this book twenty years later, I would have taken a much different approach–rather than the novel I would have chosen the genre of historical narrative.
So why republish Ryoma as an ebook? Two reasons. First of all, I am informed that readers have enjoyed it–describing it as “masterful,” "definitive," "clear and thorough," “entertaining,” “elucidating” and “easily readable.” The other reason is the opportunity to reach a worldwide readership through electronic publishing. Of course I was also determined that the printed edition would be widely read. Which was why in December 1999, the year Ryoma was originally published, I met then-Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi at his official residence in Tokyo.
Mr. Obuchi was a famous “Ryoma fan.” I was accompanied to the meeting by five distinguished Japanese gentlemen, all with a unique relationship to Sakamoto Ryoma: Saichiro Miyaji and Kiyoharu Omino, both eminent Ryoma biographers; Dr. Kanetoshi Tamura, then-chairman of the Tokyo Ryoma Society; Kunitake Hashimoto, the “godfather” of Ryoma societies around Japan; and Yasuhiko Shingu, a descendent of Shingu Umanosuke, an original member of Ryoma’s famed Kaientai (Naval Auxiliary Corps), precursor to Mitsubishi.
It was freezing cold that evening in Tokyo shortly after dark, when we arrived at the prime minister’s official residence. As we entered the building we were met by an army of reporters. "Who are you and where are you from?" they asked the only foreigner among us. "What is your purpose for meeting the prime minister?" I brushed off their questions, and soon we were shown to a spacious room. When the prime minister finally appeared, he shook my hand and commended my book. Then he smiled and said that he had always wanted to be like Ryoma, who had influenced the way he had lived his life.
Soon we were seated, I next to the prime minister. After we exchanged pleasantries with our host, I got to the point of my visit. Mr. Obuchi was supposed to host the Group of Eight Summit to be held in Okinawa in the following summer. So I asked him if he would speak about Ryoma at the Okinawa Summit and hand out copies of my book to the other leaders of the free world. His reply: "I'll think about it." I wasn’t sure what that meant. But after the meeting I was assured by my friends that by the terse remark the prime minister meant that he would honor my request. I thought that Ryoma’s claim to international fame was a done deal.
But a few months later, on April 1, 2000, as I was making plans to travel to Okinawa for the summit, Mr. Obuchi suffered a stroke. He passed away the following month. Ryoma remained all but unknown outside of Japan–and as of the publication of this ebook, he still has not gained his rightful notoriety. I hope that this new edition of Ryoma will change that.
Romulus Hillsborough
San Francisco
May 2013
Professional Reviews
from The Daily Yomiuri
Romulus Hillsborough s fictionalized account of the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (1836 67) paints a vivid picture of the background to Japan s first revolution-the tumultuous period that preceded the wresting of political power from the Tokugawa shogunate and its restitution to the throne. Compared wit the political subterfuge and maneuvering that went on in the years before the Meiji Restoration, the internecine feuds among parties and factions in the Diet today seem like children squabbling in a sandbox. At 639 pages, Ryoma qualifies as an epic. The subject matter demands nothing less. The author spent seven years researching and writing this first novelized English-language biography of Sakamoto. Obviously, it was a labor of love. At the end of his preface he write: The greatest hardship I faced was not the heavy responsibility of adhering to historical and cultural fact. Rather, it was fathoming the depths of the heart and soul of a genius who had lived and died in a culture completely foreign to my own, nearly a full century before my birth. Hillsborough deserves high praise for successfully combining high drama...with meticulous scholarship. On the whole he has achieved what must have been the enormously difficult task of maintaining narrative tension while simultaneously drawing the fine details of the ever-changing political and social landscape in the years leading up to 1868. Ryoma is a fascinating and affectionate portrayal of a man who helped create modern Japan, and the turbulent times in which he lived. Unfortunately, we will never see his like again. --
from The British Kendo Association Newsletter
This is a substantial and readable book. While well researched, the style is reminiscent of the historical novels of Yoshikawa Eiji, of which Musashi is well known in English translation. The book begins by covering briefly the early life of Sakamoto Ryoma as a low ranking Samurai of Tosa han, his dissatisfaction with the lot of his class, and his decision to move away without permission and so become a Ronin. This was the time of the arrival of Commodore Perry s black ships, the failings of the Tokugawa Bakufu to find a way of expelling them, and the years of uncertainty and growing dissatisfaction of the lower ranking Samurai in the face of inaction by their superiors. The character of Ryoma is brought to life by the imagination of the author and what is historically recorded about him, including research into hundreds of letters written by him and to him. Not surprisingly other Men of high purpose feature prominently in this book including Takechi Hanpeita, Nakaoka Shintaro , Takasugi Shinsaku (who led his special force of elite warriors into battle while he was dying of Tuberculosis), Katsu Kaishu the Tokugawa s Naval commissioner who ran his own private naval academy and supported the men who were trying to topple the Bakufu, and of course Saigo Kichinosuke (Saigo Takamori) of Satsuma han. The narrative moves around the country, from Kyoto to Edo, Satsuma to Choshu. There are battles in the palace grounds, naval battles in the inland sea, duels, assassinations, naval blockades and diplomatic negotiations. There are political intrigue, reprisals, suicides. The central issue of Ryoma s vision: a collaboration between Choshu and Satsuma, and ultimately Tosa, to produce a military force equipped with British Guns to intimidate the French equipped Tokugawa, and ultimately his design of a united democratic Japan unfolds gradually and logically to the extent that we feel the frustration when plans don t come together, and the elation of success and victory when they do. These were turbulent times, and the growing tension is maintained well by the author despite some annoying repetitive mannerisms in his writing. This is obviously due to his lack of experience as a novelist, but should not in any way dissuade the reader. There are constant reminders of the dangers of the Tokugawa police hunting Ronin, of the Shinsengumi, a crack squad who were elevated to the rank of direct retainers of the Shogun and commissioned to hunt and kill any Ronin they find. Hillsborough has painted a clear and thorough picture of the times and overlaid it with a compelling story of ingenuity and bravery, supported by 16 years of historical research in Japan. This is definitely one 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.
from Booklist
In mid-nineteenth-century Japan, the feudal era was drawing to a close, and the Meiji Restoration would soon launch Japan on a program of economic and political modernization. Ryoma was a man who straddled the feudal and modern eras. He was a gifted swordsman, an outlaw, and a frequently violent man who was quite at home in a world in which personal loyalty superseded the rule of law. Yet he was blessed with a surprisingly broad vision that led him to help overthrow the shogun and to lay a political foundation that allowed Japan to modernize while resisting foreign encroachment. Hillsborough is a native Californian who resided in Japan for 16 years. He has written extensively on nineteenth-century Japan; in this work, he has done a masterful job of bringing a chaotic period to life. A knowledge of Japanese history would be helpful, but general readers can find value and enjoyment in this fine historical biography nonetheless.
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