Takechi Zuizan

Japanese: 武市瑞山 - たけち・ずいざん

Year of death: Keio 1, leap year 5, 11 (July 3, 1865)
Year of birth: 1829.10.24 (September 27, 1829)
A swordsman and royalist from the Tosa (Kochi) domain during the late Edo period. Commonly known as Hanpeita, his given name was Kodate. Zuizan was his pen name. He was the eldest son of Takeichi Masatsune, a local samurai from Fukii, Nagaoka County, Tosa Province (Kochi City), who was known as a white-strapped samurai. He devoted himself to swordsmanship and was fond of Japanese studies, calligraphy and painting. His wife was Tomiko. In 1850, the family moved to Shinmachi, under the castle grounds, and in 1854, he opened a spear and kendo dojo with his uncle Shimamura Toshinosuke, and traveled to the eastern part of the domain to teach kendo. In 1853, he went to Edo and became a disciple of Momoi Shunzo, serving as headmaster. After returning home, he devoted himself to running the dojo. As times began to change with the Ansei Purge (1859) and the Sakuradamon Incident (1860), he received permission from the domain to train in swordsmanship, and traveled around the Kitakyushu region with two disciples to gauge the situation. In 1861, he went to Edo again to train in both literature and martial arts. He was introduced to volunteers from various feudal domains by his fellow countryman Oishi Yataro, and after interacting with them, he decided to unite the pro-imperial faction of the Tosa domain. In Edo, he formed an alliance with Oishi, Shimamura Eikichi, Ikeuchi Kurata, and Kono Toshikama, and returned to Japan the same year, gathering together over 200 comrades to form the Tosa Kinnoto. At the time, Councillor Yoshida Toyo, who was trusted by Yamauchi Toyoshige (Toyonobu), was leading the domain's administration from the position of a union of the Imperial Court and the Shogunate. Zuizan advised Yoshida to support the entire domain's pro-imperial theory, but this was not accepted. Fearing that he would be late in uniting the pro-imperial domains in Kyoto, Zuizan conspired with factions dissatisfied with Yoshida's reforms of the domain's administration, and in April 1862, he assassinated Yoshida Toyo. He entered Kyoto with his comrades, accompanied by the domain's lord, Yamauchi Toyonori. He became a handmaiden for the deputy imperial envoy Anenokoji Kouno, who was in charge of urging the expulsion of foreigners, and accompanied him to Edo under the name Yanagawa Samon. This was the height of Zuizan and the Loyalist Party's success. In April of the third year, he returned to Japan by order of the domain, and it was around this time that Yodo, who bore a grudge over the assassination of his loyal retainer Yoshida Toyo, began to oppress the Loyalist Party. The August Coup in Kyoto marked the turning point for the oppression, and in September Zuizan was imprisoned, and in May of Keio 1 (1865) he was ordered to commit seppuku (serafuku). He was a true Loyalist who would cry just by hearing the word "emperor." <References> The Japanese Historical Records Association's "Documents Related to Takechi Zuizan," 2 volumes, and the Zuizan Society's "Restoration Tosa Loyalist History."

(Atsushi Fukuchi)

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

Japanese:

没年：慶応1.閏5.11(1865.7.3)
生年：文政12.9.27(1829.10.24)
幕末の土佐(高知)藩の剣客,尊王家。通称半平太,諱は小楯。瑞山は号。土佐国長岡郡吹井(高知市)の郷士白札格武市正恒の長男。剣術修行に励み,国学,書画を嗜んだ。妻富子。嘉永3(1850)年に城下新町に挙家移住し,安政1(1854)年叔父島村寿之助と槍剣道場を開業,藩内東部に剣道出張指南に赴く。3年江戸に出て桃井春蔵に入門,塾頭を務める。帰郷後,道場の経営に尽力。安政の大獄(1859),桜田門外の変(1860)と時勢が動き始めると,藩から剣術修行の許可を得て門弟2名を従え北九州地方を巡遊,情勢を探索。文久1(1861)年文武修行のため再び江戸に上った。同郷の大石弥太郎から勤王諸藩の有志を紹介されて交流,土佐藩勤王派の結集を決意した。江戸で大石,島村衛吉,池内蔵太,河野敏鎌らと結盟,同年帰国,200名余の同志を糾合して土佐勤王党を結成した。時に山内容堂(豊信)の信任する参政吉田東洋が公武合体論の立場で藩政を指導しており,瑞山は挙藩勤王論を吉田に進言したが容れられず,勤皇諸藩の京都結集に遅れることを恐れた末,吉田の藩政改革に不満を持つ門閥派と結託し,文久2年4月,吉田東洋を暗殺。藩主山内豊範を擁して同志らと入京。攘夷督促の副勅使姉小路公知の雑掌となり名を柳川左門と称して江戸下向に随行した。このころが瑞山と勤王党の得意絶頂の時期であった。3年4月,藩命により帰国,このころより腹臣吉田東洋暗殺を遺恨する容堂の勤王党弾圧が始まり,京都の8月政変を契機に弾圧は強化され,9月瑞山も投獄され,慶応1(1865)年5月,切腹を命じられた。天皇と聞いただけでも涙したという真の勤皇主義者だった。<参考文献>日本史籍協会『武市瑞山関係文書』全2巻,瑞山会編『維新土佐勤王史』

(福地惇)

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