Two Men from the Same Home: Why Did Takechi Hanpeita and Sakamoto Ryōma Choose Different Roads?

Takechi Hanpeita (1829-1865) and Sakamoto Ryōma (1836-1867) were both born into gōshi houses of the Tosa domain.

Hanpeita was six years older than Ryōma. The two grew up in the same neighborhood of Kōchi in boyhood, learned under the same swordsmanship instructor, and in youth trained in swordsmanship together in Edo.

At the founding of the Tosa Loyalist Party, Hanpeita invited Ryōma as one of the main members.

In their young period, the two shared the same thought and the same space.

On March 24, 1862 (Bunkyū 2), Ryōma left the Tosa domain. It was the time when Hanpeita, half a year after the founding of the Tosa Loyalist Party, was expanding his influence in intra-domain politics.

The direct reason for Ryōma's departure is not clear from the sources, but the wall of the Tosa domain's class system and the disillusionment with the limits of intra-domain politics are held as background.

In contrast to Hanpeita choosing the road of 'making the domain loyalist,' Ryōma made the choice of 'leaving the domain and making another road.

Hanpeita's road was 'reformism' of transforming the existing domain organization from within.

The strategy of seizing the substance of the Tosa domain in the Loyalist faction and, taking the domain as unit, influencing national politics.

Ryōma's road was the 'departure' route of leaving the frame of the domain and seeking a way out in national-scale political maneuvering.

The mediation of the Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance and the conception of the restoration of imperial rule were born from this latter route.

The two roads symbolize two types of Bakumatsu shishi.

Hanpeita — seppuku by the Tosa domain in May 1865 (aged thirty-seven); Ryōma — assassinated in Kyoto in November 1867 (aged thirty-two).

The two from the same hometown both met too-early deaths within the Bakumatsu upheaval.

Two years and eight months after Hanpeita's seppuku, Ryōma died. Neither saw the Meiji Restoration (1868).

Hanpeita's road of insistence on intra-domain politics was cut off by Yamauchi Yōdō's suppression, and Ryōma's road after leaving the domain was cut off by assassination.

The lives of the two most vivid men that Tosa produced in the Bakumatsu both ended just before the Restoration.