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Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration

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Who is Ryoma Sakamoto? He wasw a samurai in the middle of the nineteenth century. He is considered a hero by his native Japan. His story begins when Commodore Perry brings his American ships to open Japan by force. Many samurai were insulted by this gunboat diplomacy. Sakamoto was one among many who called for the government to expel these foreign interlopers. However, it was more easily said than done. As time passed, Sakamoto came to realize that Japan was in no position to challenge the West because the West had vastly superior weapons. He came to admire the position of strengthing the country through international trade and emulating those institutions that were admirable in the West. For Japan to defend itself, it had to become a strong country and the only was to do that was by modernizing. To modernize, the military government of the Shogun had to be overthrown. This leads to the Meiji Restoration in which the Emperor takes back the power to rule from the Shogun. Unfortunately, in the process, Sakamoto is assassinated, which made him a martyr for the process of modernization.

This book follows the events leading up to the Meiji Restoration, and it especially focuses on Sakamoto's role in setting it up. It provides an overview leading up to this period and shows that there were many factors which lead to the overthrow of the Shogun. Perry's arrival was only a trigger that unleashed years of frustration. To get a better grasp of Japanese politics, I think this book is an excellent source for understanding the founding of the modern Japanese state.

This proves to be one of the better books on the Meiji Restoration movement and Sakamoto Ryoma who was the one of the primary movers of that movement as Japan moved to a more modern government and society. But I would be honest to say that this book is NOT for casual readers since the subject matter is so alien and complex to many English speaking readers. Meiji Restoration is a complex subject matter even for Japanese history students but Jansen should be credited for bringing such a matter to clearer light in his book.

If you really want to understand Japan's amazing journey from feudal swordsman to world power in just 50 years... Then you need to learn something about the Meiji Restoration. If you want to learn about the Meiji Restoration... then you must spend some time learning about the life and times of Sakamoto Ryoma. Ryoma, as he is affectionately known by his adoring cult of fans in Japan, is a true legend in Japan, a sort of "Daniel Boone" of Japan, if you will. In spite of its age, Jansen's work is still the definitive biography in English, and is likely to remain so until America's interest in the outside world rises above its currently meager level. To be fair, doing Jansen one better would require an extensive knowledge of one of the world's most difficult languages, and why try when there are still so many corners of Modern Japanese history that are untouched by Western scholars? Do you want to get inside the head of a truly old-fashioned, "swashbuckling" hero who quite literally changed the world by contributing to Japan's entrance into the modern world? This, then, is still the place to start.

For those who cannot read Japanese, there are few options with regards to publications and studies on Sakamoto Ryoma. Jansen's extraordinary work simply a 'must have' for all who wish to better understand the Meiji period and one of the most important men in all of Japanese history. Simply phenomenal.

This book gives a great overview of the facts about Sakamoto Ryoma's life, Nakaoka Shintaro's life and the Meiji Restoration. I feel like this would be a great supplement for fact checking for anyone who read Shiba Ryotaro's Ryoma ga yuku, however, those books still have yet to be translated. Either way, many stories about or based off of Sakamoto Ryoma have made their way to English speaking shores, and this book gives a great picture of the important facts. Because of that, it doesn't get all too personal with the exception of recounting his escape from the Teradaya and the story of his wife. Yet compared to other western sources on the Meiji Restoration, it is more personal.

The one issue I found is that, as far as I know, the surnames Yamanouchi and Chosokabe are spelled incorrectly. I found this to be very grating, and I even checked with many history savy people in Japan (I plan to ask is Kochi when I go in two weeks, perhaps I'm wrong). The names are written Yamauchi and Chosogabe, the former makes sense because that kanji can be either Yamauchi or Yamanouchi, and the writer even has both versions of both names written in the index. However, I was unable to find any justification for the pronunciations he chose, and would really like to know which is ultimately correct. I feel there should have been a note about this.

The historical accounts are too detailed (including the footnotes). Book doesn't tell a story but has loads of factual detail. Good book if the reader is doing a term paper. Not for reading enjoyment!!

Those are the words that Sakamoto Ryoma wrote to his sister Otome.Who was he and what has he done to become such an important person in Japanese History?
Books and TV programs have been written about Ryoma and the latest one is on NHK special Taiga program.
Sadly Ryoma died young ,I am sure he would have accomplished so much more had he lived a long life.He was the first to bring the idea of wanting to have a naval fleet for Japan.He is the one that created the first Imperial Navy.
He was not a person of high standards.As a Samurai he was of a lower class that the average foreigner knows about Samurais.His ideas and concepts of Japan flourished after he left Tosa the Prefecture where he was born, to go to Kyoto.Here through his mentor he got to know many people of high political standards,which opened his eyes,mind and thoughts of a better Japan than the one under the Tokugawa Regine which lasted about 250 years.

At the beginning the book is historically loaded with dates and events,as you move along Ryoma's life comes in and it gets less heavy to read.
I love this book and I am very happy to read it.This year 2010 is the 150 anniversary of Ryoma's death and in Japan there is such a big movement to put him on the spotlight as he deserves.

Jensen is a great scholar, but this is basically scholarship from the 1950s. It would have taken a lot of work to rework it using work done on Ryoma over the past 40+ years, but it would have been worth it. Further, it is an academic work and so of course he cannot say anything in a straightforward way. Still, it has a lot of interesting (though often dated) information and is a careful analysis of Japan at the end of the Tokugawa period--where Ryoma enters the picture he is mostly an example of how a person of his rank and ability came to grips with the changing society. So, while a must read, it is also (I hope) a stepping stone to a full biography of this interesting character.