Sakamoto Ryoma Portrait

Inscription by Katsu Kaishu

by Romulus Hillsborough

A lithographic portrait of Sakamoto Ryoma was recently found, along with a letter written by Ryoma less than three months before his death, and several other historical documents, photos and drawings. The portrait is inscribed by Katsu Kaishu with the following lament: "Alas, the great man of the South Sea." ("South Sea," which Kaishu wrote with two Chinese characters ­ "nan" = south, "kai" = sea ­ refers to Ryoma¹s native Tosa, located on the temperate southern coast of Shikoku, in southern Japan.) According to Asahi Shimbun, the national Japanese daily, Kaishu probably wrote the inscription around 1894, 27 years after Ryoma¹s assassination. (One can almost hear Kaishu sighing as he recalls the two years he spent working with Ryoma ­ and their shared aspirations for a Japanese navy and a unified Japanese nation.) Since there are no known written correspondences between Katsu and Ryoma, it has been conjectured that perhaps the two men had a falling out. But it would be safe to say that this inscription puts to rest any notion of ill will harbored by Kaishu toward Ryoma. The image resembles another well-known portrait of Ryoma. The name of the artist of this portrait is unknown, although it is signed with the initials "T O." The portrait, along with the other documents, were kept at the home of a family in Yokohama until April 2004, when they were brought to the Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum in Kochi. They are on exhibit at the museum until January 30, 2005. The portrait can be viewed at the following link: http://www.asahi.com/culture/update/1016/009.html Back to Table of Contents -- Samurai History Papers # 2 Back to Samurai History Papers List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2005 by Romulus Hillsborough. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com