l to r: Mitani Kunimatsu, Takasugi Shinsaku, Itou Hirobumi, 1865

One last time, we return to Itou Hirobumi’s account of life alongside his old schoolmate Takasugi Shinsaku. In this episode, Takasugi is forced to make peace, not war, with the British.

This is the last post of four: Chronologically, they run

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Itou Hirobumi, pg. 396, the Far East,



It was not long before Takasugi, in one of his fits of impatience, bolted from Choshu and came up to Kyoto. For some reasons that I don’t know exactly, he was deprived of his annuity, and moreover, he was thrown into prison.



This was in early 1864. Itou was away in England at the time. Takasugi had been given the job of restraining another Choshu radical, Kijima Matabei, from marching on Kyoto and starting a war. Itou’s description of Kijima shows what hard work this was

But there came amongst us one whose name was Kijima. “I will boss the whole gang, and show them a few things,” — was just about the creed of this man. His idea-the one all-consuming idea-was to strike a death blow to Aizu men.



At one point, Takasugi journeyed to Kyoto with Kijima, hoping Katsura Kogoro might talk some sense into him. That didn’t go so well, and Takasugi didn’t go home right away, either. (In fact, I’ve read elsewhere that he came up with a new hare-brained scheme: assassinating the regent of Satsuma.)

Eventually, Katsura convinced Takasugi to go home to Choshu. When he did, he was thrown into prison for leaving the domain without permission, as well as completely failing at keeping Kijima under control. (Yes, Gintama fans, Kijima Matabei is the model for Kijima Matako.)

1864 was a bad year for Choshu. Kijima got his war in Kyoto, and was killed in the Kinmon no Hen, where the Choshu militias were thoroughly defeated by the Aizu-Satsuma troops. The year before, Choshu had shot at foreign ships in the Straits of Shimonoseki, so now a joint British-French-Dutch-American fleet steamed into the straits ready for war.

Far away in London, Choshu students Itou Hirobumi and Inoue Kaoru read in the newspaper that Britain was going to war with Choshu. Realizing there was no way Choshu could win, they rushed home, hoping to somehow prevent a war. Unfortunately, when they got there, Choshu’s Sonnou Joui patriots were excited to be finally fighting the barbarians, and regarded Itou and Inoue as traitors. Their lives were threatened, but there emerged some unlikely saviours: the Kiheitai under Yamagata Aritomo:

There was in Choshu in those days, another band of soldiers, they called themselves Kiheitai. It was organized at first by Takasugi. Yamagata (Field-marshall Prince Yamagata of to-day) was one of them. Even after Takasugi accepted an official position, the men of his company were friendly to him. At the time of our return, Takasugi was shut up in prison. The men of the Kiheitai came to see us off and on. They said to us, “It’s too bad. But, it can’t be helped. In the days of old, you used to be one of us, and for the sake of the olden days, we shall never kill you.” So we enjoyed their protection. Page 415

They set off to Hagi, Choshu’s castletown, while the war was beginning. And there met up again with Takasugi.

On our return, we found that Takasugi, who had been imprisoned at Hagi, had been set free. Of course in those days Takasugi was not allowed to go abroad anywhere he wished. He was under strict surveillance and was confined to his own house. Long before this, we had felt the necessity of talking a number of affairs over with Takasugi. As soon as we found that he was out of prison, we agreed that at least one of us should go to see him. Inoue went over, therefore, and saw Takasugi. A little later, I too, was able to pay him a visit. He said to me: “I had been serving my term in prison, but all of a sudden I was called out of it. I have not been told that my sentence has been revoked, or that I am forgiven for whatever crime with which I had been charged Simply I was called out because there was some official business. I don’t understand this proceeding at all.” Page 418



Now at liberty with no instructions, Takasugi was quite happy to go join the war. It wasn’t that he thought it winnable, just if there was a war going on, that’s where he belonged. So he was miffed when, before he could get to the coast, he was given a new unwelcome job by the Domain: to sue for peace.

When we reached Ogori, we were told that the lord of the clan, as well as his advisers, had decided to make peace with the foreigner. Inoue, Takasugi and myself were appointed a commission of three to negotiate the peace. The consensus of the opinions was not to abandon the anti-foreign movement entirely. The Choshu men had done everything to carry out the anti-foreign programme; success had not come to them, therefore their plan, at this time, was to temporize. That was all. They would have a little breathing spell of peace. Takasugi did not take kindly to this programme; he became excited, in fact. He made no secret of it. He declared himself somewhat after the following fashion: "It would never do, sir,“ said he, "to talk of peace at this time. We have gone too far: Peace might have been voiced with becoming grace and dignity in the days when the actual war had not yet been. But we have actually commenced hostilities; at the present time we are in the midst of war. Now that we have commenced, in my humble judgment, our lord should hold to the course, and carry it to the bitter end." And here was the retort:-He was asked if he had received the order of his lord; he was also asked when he was ready to obey it. Well, if Takasugi were to say that he declined to obey the order, there was one thing for him to do, namely-harakiri. After an interval of reflection, Takasugi agreed to compromise, and expressed his ideas in less violent and decided terms. The final outcome of it all was that we decided to negotiate peace. In order to bring about the peace negotiations, truce was necessary. - Page 466

The trio arrived at the coast while the foreign forces were dismantling the Choshu batteries.

Capture of a Choshu battery at Shimonoseki. Albumen silver print by Felice Beato, 1864.



Itou went first on board the British flagship to speak with his acquaintance, the British translator and diplomat Ernest Satow. And then:

A little later, we saw a fishing boat making its laborious way toward the man-of-war. Aboard was a singular sight. There was a man in full costume of our ancient court,-high cap and the flowering aprons which were called eboshi shitatare. Taking a binocular, I saw that it was none other than my friend Takasugi. He was introduced as Anato Bingo. His get-up was ludicrous.

And now we turn to Ernest Satow’s side of the story, as narrated in his memoir: A Diplomat in Japan: Chapter XI.

Returning to the ship at noon, I found there my acquaintance Itô Shunsuké, who had come to say that Chôshiû desired peace, and that a karô or hereditary councillor, provided with full powers, was coming off to treat. A boat was accordingly despatched to meet the great man, who shortly afterwards stood on the quarter-deck of the flagship. He was dressed in a robe called the daimon, which was covered with large light blue crests (the paulownia leaf and flower) on a yellow ground, and wore on his head a black silk cap, which he took off on passing the gangway. His queue was then seen to be loose, hanging over the back of his head like a tassel, and his white silk underclothing was a marvel of purity. His two companions, who bore a rank next only to his own, wore their hair in the same fashion, but were without mantles.

The negotiations began. Satow recounts that the man in the splendid get-up was “Shishido Giôma, adopted son of Shishido Bizen, minister of Nagato”.

It was amusing to observe the change which manifested itself gradually in the demeanour of the envoy, who was as proud as Lucifer when he stepped on board, but gradually toned down, and agreed to every proposal without making any objections. Itô seemed to exercise great influence over him.

Amusingly, I found someone has drawn fanart of this moment, with a much handsomer Takasugi than is historically accurate, and Satow thinking, “Looks like Lucifer.”

Back to Itou’s account:

We suggested that we had better report to our lord of the clan their demands and terms of peace. They wished one of us to remain with them, so Takasugi and myself decided to return and report, and left Inoue with our foreign friends. We arrived at the headquarters at Funagi. From all appearances, it seemed that we dropped into the midst of a conference. There were fourteen or fifteen men, all talking at one and the same time. There was something singular in the atmosphere. Suddenly we saw coming out to us a young man; Kubo Magozo was his name. He was a son of our former instructor, and at the time was serving as an official at Funagi. He came up to us quietly, and spoke to both Takasugi and myself secretly: "There are men who are plotting to murder you both,” he said. There were a few young blades in the company which was under the command of Yamada Akiyoshi (who later distinguished himself as a Minister of State), and Shinagawa Vajiro. After the defeat at Kyoto, these men were deadly opposed to any peaceful measures. They were out and out anti-reform agitators. They took very cheerfully to assassination. These fellows were troublesome. Takasugi said to me, “This is bad. Here we are, entrusted with an important affair, and before us are a number of men who are making no secret of their intention of assassinating us. We find that the government is entirely powerless. This will never do. It would seem that we are nothing but homeless curs or cattle. I think the best plan for us is to start right out and away from this chaos." We acted upon the suggestion at once; we walked about two or three ri through the night. We found a farmer’s hut and sought protection and a hiding place therein. The young man who communicated to us the report of assassination gave us all the assistance he possibly could, in order to protect us and guard our hiding place. Mr. Kubo was very much troubled over the actual conditions prevailing in the clan of Choshu at the time; he saw the impossibility of doing anything effective under such hopeless conditions, and he declared that the continuation of such state of things would result in the utter destruction of Choshu prestige,-in fact, the very existence of the clan.

Takasugi and Itou’s sudden disappearance caused a problem for Choshu’s negotiations, but the remaining Choshu officials coped, as can be seen by Satow’s acccount of the following day.

On the following day the envoys of the Prince of Chôshiû arrived punctually on board the "Euryalus.” Shishido and Sugi, however, did not make their appearance, their absence being explained to be caused by illness from want of sleep and the hot weather in combination. Admiral Küper observed that it was singular how often this sort of thing happened, and ironically begged that if the negotiations were not concluded in one sitting, the delegates would take care of their health until everything was settled.



The British were suspicious why “Shishido” hadn’t returned. They’d also been doing some research and discovered that this Shishido didn’t seem to *exist*.

We had looked up the Japanese “blue-book” in the meantime, and fancied we had reason to suppose the previous envoy had given an incorrect account of his position, but they were able to clear up the discrepancy in a satisfactory manner. The officer there called Shishido Mino had recently changed his name to Shishido Bizen, and retired from public life in favour of Giôma, who now represented the family.



Of course, their first suspicion had been right. Shishido Giôma was Takasugi Shinsaku.

Meanwhile, on Itou’s side:

As soon as the government lost trace of us, it became uneasy and much concerned. The clan did not lose time in taking steps to call us out of our hiding place. It recalled Inoue from Shimonoseki. Inoue came back without loss of time. Through Inoue, not only the clan government, but His Lordship himself, gave us a solemn pledge that they would hold themselves responsible for the perfect safety of our persons, and very soon the government took measures to communicate with us. That was not difficult. Mr. Kubo, who assisted us in so many things, knew our hiding place very well, therefore Kubo and Anato, in company with Inoue came to find us, bringing with them the communication from the lord of the clan. We went back with these men once more to Funagi, and once more we started for Bakwan. This time we had in company eleven men, among whom were the elders of the clan, and at last succeeded in bringing the peace negotiations to a successful issue



Takasugi hadn’t been paranoid about the possibility of assassination. Not long after this, Inoue Kaoru was nearly murdered by Joui radicals for co-operating with the foreigners.

The negotiations ended with just one more curious detail for the British side. Satow lists the final group of diplomats. The real elder, Shishido Bizen, who was supposed to have retired in favour of his son, showed up.

Their names were Shishido Bizen, Môri Idzumo, Shishido Giôma and Ibara Kazuyé, ministers; and Nawozaki Yahichirô (metsuké, a secretary), Itô Shunsuké, Hadano Kingo and another whose name I did not note down. Bizen, it appeared, had after all not completely retired from public affairs.



Here we reach the end of Itou’s stories in this memoir about Takasugi. I hope they have entertained you at least a little; they have made me laugh out loud on several occasions.