Gensai Kawakami

Japanese: 河上彦斎 - かわかみ・げんさい

Year of death: December 4, 1872 (January 13, 1872)
Year of birth: Tempo 5.11.25 (1834.12.25)
A sonno joi (revere the expulsion of Emperor and expulsion) patriot during the Meiji Restoration. His name was Genmei. His father was Komori Sadasuke, a samurai of the Higo Domain (Kumamoto Prefecture), and his mother was Waka. He was adopted into the Kawakami family at a young age and took the name Hikosai. He later changed his name to Takada Genbei. He studied imperial studies at Haradokan in Hayashi Oen. In 1862, he accompanied Hosokawa Morimi to Kyoto, and the following year he was selected as a private soldier, but went down to Choshu in the political upheaval of August 18. Nicknamed "Hikosai the Assassin," he was one of the assassins who assassinated Sakuma Shozan in 1864. In the second Choshu expedition the following year, he cooperated with Takasugi Shinsaku, and was captured when he returned to his domain in an attempt to stop his domain's dispatch of forces to Kokura. In 1868, he was pardoned and became a soldier commander in the clan, but he was accused of anti-establishment behavior, such as involvement in the Choshu clan desertion riots, and was later executed in Tokyo.

(Jun Misawa)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治4.12.4(1872.1.13)
生年：天保5.11.25(1834.12.25)
幕末維新期の尊攘派志士。名は玄明。父は肥後藩(熊本県)藩士小森貞助,母は和歌。幼少時に河上家の養子となり彦斎と名乗る。のち高田源兵衛と改名。林桜園の原道館で皇学を修める。文久2(1862)年細川護美に従って上京,翌年親兵に選ばれたが,8月18日の政変で長州に下った。「人斬り彦斎」の異名をとり,元治1(1864)年に佐久間象山を暗殺した刺客のひとりでもある。翌年の第2次長州征討では高杉晋作に協力し,自藩の小倉出兵を中止させようと帰藩して捕らえられた。明治1(1868)年許されて藩の兵士隊長となるが,長州藩脱隊騒動に関係するなど反体制的言動が問われ,のち東京で刑死した。<参考文献>荒木誠之『定本河上彦斎』

(三澤純)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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