Yamaoka Tesshu
Civil War Mission
by Romulus Hillsborough
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Tesshu's epiphany occurred thirteen years after the fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu. Around the time that the shogun had abdicated, both Tesshu and Kaishu were despised as traitors by samurai of the Tokugawa camp for their sympathetic ties to the enemy. That they were grossly misunderstood is apparent from their subsequent actions. In January 1868, less than three months after the shogun had restored the rule to the emperor, civil war broke out near Kyoto. The imperial forces, led by Satsuma and Choshu, routed the Tokugawa army in just three days. The new government's leaders, including Saigo, demanded that Yoshinobu commit seppuku, and set March 15 as the date fifty thousand imperial troops would attack Edo Castle, and, in so doing, subject the entire city to the flames of war. Yoshinobu was beside himself with remorse, grief and anxiety. He had been declared an "Imperial Enemy" by the new government for the opposition within the Tokugawa camp. While certain of his diehard vassals continued to resist, Yoshinobu retreated to Daiji'in, a sub-temple of Kan'eiji, the Tokugawa family temple at Ueno, a hilly region in the northeastern part of Edo. At Daiji'in Yoshinobu confined himself to two small rooms to demonstrate his "allegiance and penitence" to the imperial government. At the end of February Tesshu was suddenly summoned by Yoshinobu. The summons took Tesshu by surprise. As former shogun and still head of the House of Tokugawa, Yoshinobu was Tesshu's liege lord, while Tesshu was a mere rank and filer whose low standing had always precluded him from having an audience with the shogun. Accordingly, he had never met Yoshinobu in person, much less spoken with him face-to-face. Tesshu nevertheless hurried to Yoshinobu's rooms at the temple, where he found him, worn out and haggard from the physical and emotional toll of the revolution. Mission "I felt as if I had been struck by a hammer," Tesshu latter described his initial feelings of pity. Yoshinobu asked Tesshu to travel to the headquarters of the imperial forces to convey his absolute allegiance to the new government and to intervene with their commanders to call off the attack on Edo and to spare his life. Tesshu was the only man in Edo Yoshinobu could count on to perform the dangerous task. Tesshu had been strongly recommended by Yoshinobu's bodyguard, who was Tesshu's brother-in-law and close friend. But before setting out on the journey, Tesshu had to meet with Katsu Kaishu, head of the Tokugawa military and the most powerful man in Edo. Kaishu had composed a letter to Saigo, commander of the imperial forces, imploring him not to attack. In the letter Kaishu wrote that the retainers of the former shogun were an inseparable part of the new Japanese nation. Instead of fighting against one another, those of the new government and the old must cooperate in order to deal with the very real threat of the foreign powers, whose legations in and around Edo anxiously watched the great revolution which had consumed the Japanese nation for these past fifteen years. Kaishu intended to entrust this letter to Tesshu to deliver to Saigo. But since this was the first meeting between Kaishu and Tesshu, Kaishu needed to confirm one very important matter before sending him to Saigo. Thirty years later, Kaishu recalled the meeting: "'What are your plans for going to their headquarters?' I asked him." "'Once I get there I am resolved that they will either cut off my head or arrest me,' Tesshu replied. "I will surrender both of my swords. If they say they are going to arrest me, I will be arrested. If they say they are going to kill me, I will be killed. I will leave the entire matter up to them and gladly accept whatever they decide. But I don't think that even the enemy would be so unreasonable as to butcher a person without first allowing him to say a few words, even if they were going to kill him.'" Convinced of Tesshu's "sincerity and determination," Kaishu entrusted him with the letter and sent him on his way. Tesshu returned home that night with the letter in his pocket. He asked his wife to prepare enough rice for several meals. Ever the warrior, he now consumed all of the rice in one sitting because he did not know when he would have the chance to eat again. As he set out on foot for enemy headquarters in Sunpu (present-day Shizuoka), about a hundred miles west of Edo, he told his wife that he was "going out for a while." On the following day, after learning of her husband's dangerous journey, she spent all of her time praying for his safe return. Tesshu's wife had ample reason to worry. As a samurai traveling through enemy lines, his life was in grave danger. But Kaishu, not about to let his messenger be killed without accomplishing his mission, arranged for a Satsuma man to accompany him. The two men traveled by foot throughout the night. At dawn they encountered an advance guard of the enemy forces. According to Kaishu, "[they] calmly proceeded right through them." Soon they reached a camp of imperial troops. Tesshu boldly approached the commanding officer. After introducing himself, he announced in a loud, clear voice, "I am a vassal of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, who has been branded an Imperial Enemy. I will now proceed to your headquarters." Not only did the two men continue unimpeded, but according to Kaishu, the commanding officer was so impressed by Tesshu's courage that he "saw Yamaoka off" on this last stage of his journey. Headquarters Arrival When Tesshu finally arrived at enemy headquarters, Saigo agreed to meet him at once. It must have been a grand spectacle, the first meeting between those two giants, both physically and historically, each eying the other gravely, neither quite certain of what to think of his adversary, although they were about to become lifelong friends. Tesshu handed Kaishu's letter to Saigo. When Saigo finished reading the letter, Tesshu asked him bluntly if he still intended to attack Edo Castle and wreak death and destruction upon the capital. Saigo, whose cherished slogan was "Revere heaven, love mankind," replied that his only purpose was to suppress the oppositionist forces. "Why would you ask such a question?" he demanded. "My liege lord Tokugawa Yoshinobu has sworn allegiance and penitence to the emperor and placed himself in confinement to await for the Imperial Court to decide his fate. Why is it, then, that your army is still preparing to attack?" "If Yoshinobu is truly repentant as you say, why do his forces continue to challenge us? Where is the proof that he has sworn allegiance to the emperor and put his life in the hands of the Imperial Court?" Tesshu replied that Yoshinobu had ordered his people to lay down their arms and swear allegiance to the new government. "But some of them have ignored his orders, which is greatly troubling to my liege lord. Unless his unequalled sincerity is made known to the Imperial Court, I fear that the court will confuse him with one of those insignificants who oppose you. This is why I have risked my life to come here today." Saigo was reticent as always. Since he did not offer a reply, Tesshu continued speaking. "I have come here today to convey this message from my liege lord. If you will not intervene with the Imperial Court on his behalf, there will be nothing left for me to do but to die. And not only will I die, but tens of thousands of Tokugawa retainers will perish also. How do you suppose that will affect the future of Japan?" Tesshu was perfectly sincere, and Saigo knew it. Not only did he know it, but he was now stricken with a deep and permanent reverence for this man whom he had only just met. He told Tesshu that he would convey the message to the imperial authorities who were present at the military headquarters. "Wait here. I will return soon with their reply." Presently Saigo returned with a set of conditions by which the attack would be called off and Yoshinobu's life spared: The shogun's castle and all of his weapons and warships must be surrendered to the imperial government; all of the shogun's troops must be removed from the capital; Yoshinobu must agree to be placed in the custody of his enemies. Tesshu's reply was terse. He would accept all of the conditions save the last, because, as he told Saigo, the tens of thousands of Tokugawa retainers would fight to the death before surrendering up their lord. "Unless you relinquish the last condition, war is inevitable." Saigo remained silent. Tesshu groped for a solution to the impasse. The two great men stared hard at one another, engaged in mental battle. Suddenly a solution flashed across Tesshu's mind. "What if the situation was reversed?" he asked. "What do you mean?" "What if it was your liege lord and not mine who must be handed over to the enemy? I believe that you, like me, would die first." The two men continued to stare hard at one another. Tears filled Tesshu's eyes, and Saigo was overwhelmed by Tesshu's sincerity. "A man who cared nothing for his life, reputation, official rank or money," Saigo would one day say about Tesshu. "You need not worry," Saigo assured. "You are a brave man, a great strategist and a true warrior. The fate of our nation has rested upon your shoulders." Saigo promised Tesshu that his will would be done. "Yamaoka has returned," Katsu Kaishu recorded in the March 10th entry of his journal. "He talked with Saigo and told him the [true] intentions of our liege lord. "Ah, what quiet courage Yamaoka has to have spoken so wisely and well of the noble intentions of our liege lord, without omitting anything. I have nothing but admiration for him." A few days later Kaishu met with Saigo in Edo. Kaishu officially accepted Saigo's conditions except that one which neither he nor Tesshu nor any other loyal Tokugawa retainer could accept. War was averted and Tesshu, with Kaishu and Saigo went down in history as one of the men who saved modern Japan. Yamaoka Tesshu Back to Table of Contents -- Samurai History Papers # 3 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 |