Katsu Kaishū — The Shogunal Retainer Who Saved Edo from the Flames
Though he served the shogunate, Katsu Kaishū saw the great currents of his age with a cool eye. Within a sinking regime, he spent his ingenuity on avoiding needless bloodshed.
Contents
A passion for the navy
Katsu Kaishū was born in 1823 into a low-ranking shogunal retainer's family in Edo. Studying Dutch learning and absorbing Western knowledge, he became convinced that a modern navy was indispensable to an island nation.
Having studied at the Nagasaki Naval Training Center, Katsu crossed the Pacific to America aboard the Kanrin Maru in 1860. Seeing the Western world with his own eyes greatly widened his horizons.
Guiding Ryōma
Young men gathered around Katsu regardless of rank or allegiance. Among them was Sakamoto Ryōma, who had left the Tosa domain.
Katsu's vision — a shogunal official who nonetheless conceived of a navy for the whole nation — strongly influenced Ryōma and other activists. He had the breadth of character to draw people to him across the lines of friend and foe.
The bloodless surrender of Edo
When the old shogunate was driven into a corner in the Boshin War, Katsu faced the crisis as the regime's representative. As the new government's army bore down on Edo, he sat down to talks with Saigō Takamori.
The result was the bloodless surrender of Edo: the castle was handed over without a battle. The number of lives this agreement saved — by keeping a city of a million from becoming a battlefield — is beyond counting.
After the Restoration
Even after the Meiji era began, Katsu continued to engage with the new government from the standpoint of a former shogunal retainer, playing important roles at key moments. Until his death in 1899, he remained one of the few witnesses to that turbulent age.
Not swept along by the current, yet seeing its essence — Katsu Kaishū still speaks to us of the value of a cool head.
The group portrait of those who lived through the Bakumatsu is gathered in Bakumatsu Figures.
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