The Sunpu Meeting: The Day Yamaoka Tesshū Walked Alone Into Saigō's Camp

On March 9, 1868 (the ninth of the third month of Keiō 4), Yamaoka Tesshū walked alone into the new government army's occupied Sunpu (modern Shizuoka City) and met its staff officer Saigō Takamori. He was thirty-two. A rare single day on which a shogunal retainer of no formal rank walked into the enemy camp and moved history. The framework of the bloodless surrender of Edo was, in substance, set at the Sunpu meeting.

Secret Orders from Katsu Kaishū

In March 1868, when the new government army was advancing along the Tōkaidō and reached Sunpu, Katsu Kaishū needed direct contact with Saigō Takamori as the counterpart for the bloodless-surrender negotiation. Katsu himself, with the defense of Edo Castle to manage, could not move. The trustworthy messenger to send in his place was Yamaoka Tesshū. Tesshū at the time was serving as head of the shogunate's elite guard and was even engaged in military action, but he made the decision to walk alone into Sunpu on Katsu's orders. With no retinue and no escort, an attempt that could be called reckless to walk through the enemy lines.

The Solo Journey to Sunpu

Tesshū left Edo on March 7 and reached Sunpu on the ninth, passing through the new government army's encampments. He was challenged many times by government soldiers along the way, but kept naming himself with full presence as 'the shogunate envoy on his way to make report to the court,' and was eventually shown into Saigō's headquarters. Accompanying him was Masumitsu Kyūnosuke, a former Satsuma retainer, who served to vouch for his standing. Tesshū's commanding bearing also impressed Saigō.

Substance of the Meeting with Saigō

Tesshū presented to Saigō five conditions seeking clemency for Tokugawa Yoshinobu, preservation of the Tokugawa house name, and the avoidance of war over Edo. Saigō at first set hard conditions — 'Yoshinobu is to be entrusted to Bizen domain,' 'Edo Castle is to be surrendered' — but Tesshū pressed the argument back: 'For a retainer, the entrustment of his lord to another domain is not something I can accept,' and in the end the compromise of 'confinement at Mito' was agreed upon. Saigō responded to Tesshū's firm bearing and the logical force of his argument, and at this day's meeting the framework of the bloodless surrender of Edo was set.

The Bridge to the Katsu-Saigō Meeting

Five days after Tesshū's Sunpu meeting, on March 14, Katsu Kaishū and Saigō Takamori met formally at the Satsuma estate at Tamachi in Edo, and the bloodless surrender of Edo was decided. Almost all the conditions discussed at the Katsu-Saigō meeting had been agreed between Tesshū and Saigō at Sunpu. Without Tesshū's trip to Sunpu, the short-time settlement at the Katsu-Saigō meeting would not have been possible. Katsu Kaishū later said, 'Tesshū's role in that moment was even greater than mine,' and Tesshū himself spoke of the Sunpu meeting for the rest of his life as one of his greatest achievements.

One of the 'Three Boats' of the Bakumatsu

Yamaoka Tesshū is honored as one of the 'Three Boats' of the Bakumatsu, alongside Katsu Kaishū and Takahashi Deishū. All three took action from the side of the shogunate with a view to the larger picture during the difficult Bakumatsu and Restoration period, and after the Meiji Restoration were valued by the new government. Among them, Tesshū stands beside the other two in the concrete achievement of having moved history at the Sunpu meeting. This is why he came to be deeply honored by later generations as an embodiment of the bushidō.

"For a retainer, the entrustment of his lord to another domain is not something I can accept."