たばこの気持ち

I once found a bookmark with words of famous people at Kasuga Shrine in Mita, and among them, I took home Shinsaku Takasugi's resignation, "Make the world (or) interesting without interesting things" and used a transparent sheet on my desk so that I could see it.

In 1862, Takasugi Shinsaku wrote, "The Satsuma clan had already achieved the goal of expelling the barbarians by slaughtering them at Namamugi, but our clan is still preaching a combination of the public and the military. The Satsuma clan has already achieved the goal of expelling the barbarians at Namamugi, but our clan still preaches a combination of public and private arms. If the clan government cannot carry this out," he thought, and decided to stab a foreign envoy to death in Kanazawa (Kanazawa Hakkei), where he often went to play with foreign ambassadors.

After consulting with his comrades (Kusaka Genzui, Yamato Yahachiro, Nagamine Kurata, Shido Menta, Matsushima Gozo, Terajima Chuzaburo, Ariyoshi Kumajiro, Akane Mikinojo, Yamao Yozo, and Shinagawa Yajiro), he decided on a date for the execution. However, Genzui Kusaka told Takeichi Hanpeita of the Tosa Domain, which was conveyed to Sadahiro Mori, a son of the Choshu Domain, through Yodo Yamauchi, the former lord of the Tosa Domain, who stopped them, saying that it was reckless.

While reading Mr. Jiro Osarahi's "The Emperor's Century 6," I was reminded of Takasugi Shinsaku's competitive spirit, leadership, and charisma. He said of his own beliefs, "Men are never to say that they are in trouble. This is something my father used to say to me in his own words, "When you are in trouble, it is time to die. If you keep the mindset that you will never be in trouble, no matter what kind of difficulty you encounter, you will naturally come to understand this. There is always a way out of any difficulty. When you get to the end of the road, there is always a turn." If you keep the determination that you will never be in trouble, you will always find a way out. Therefore, we should never say that we are in trouble.

Takasugi Shinsaku also lost his life by seppuku (ritual suicide), beheading, or suicide, as most of the patriots of the time did, and even if he survived, he was under house arrest for a period of time, imprisoned, or exiled to the island. Takasugi Shinsaku, too, deserted the clan in January 1864 and went into hiding in Kyoto. In July, the Choshu domain was defeated in the Forbidden Rebellion and became the enemy of the Choshu government, and Matabei Kurushima was killed in battle and Genzui Kusaka committed suicide.