Takasugi Shinsaku

Taksugi Shinsaku

Takasugi's tomb

Takasugi Shinsaku ( Japanese 高杉 晋 作 , further name: Tōgyō ( 東 行 ); born September 27, 1839 in Hagi ( Nagato province ); died May 17, 1867 ) was a Japanese samurai and opponent of the shogunate at the end of the Edo period .

life and work

Takasugi Shinsaku was a samurai among the Mōri who ruled the Chōshū-Han . He studied under Yoshida Shōin in his school Shōka Sonjuku (松下 村塾) and began to be interested in national politics. He managed to visit Shanghai illegally , where he witnessed the Taiping Uprising . Originally he was hostile to foreigners, but then his primary concern was to overthrow the shogunate.

Takasugi was exiled inside the country for an arson attack against the British consulate. He was called back to Chōshū to reform the Han military. He put troops operating according to the western pattern on which he called Kiheitai (奇兵 隊). The term was borrowed from the classic work The Art of War and referred to a part of the army that carried out the strike while the regular troops of the enemy army were in combat. The Kiheitai were open to all classes and were mainly recruited from the peasant class and operated similarly to the light infantry . The troops initially suffered from a lack of equipment and became increasingly efficient in the course of the conflict with the shogunate. The Kiheitai became in the group of the imperial loyalists for example for the | successful adoption of western military principles.

Takasugi took over negotiations to end the conflict with the Western powers after the Shimonoseki bombing in 1864 , but he had to leave Nagato Province twice because of the political reluctance there. But then in 1865 the loyal to the emperor won the upper hand in the province, his position was secured, he became, together with Kido Takayoshi , one of the leading opponents of Bakufu. He organized arms imports and the reinforcement of the troops and was largely responsible for the military success against the Bakufu troops who wanted to punish the Han.

Tagasugi fell ill with tuberculosis and succumbed to the disease in May 1867, thus no longer experiencing the Meiji Restoration .

In 2017, on the 150th year of Takasugi's death, the Japanese Post published a sheet with 8 different 82 yen stamps.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Takasugi Shinsaku . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 555
• Hunter, Janet: Takasugi Shinsaku. In: Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History. Kodansha International, 1984. ISBN 4-7700-1193-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Edward J. Drea: Japan's Imperial Army. Lawrence, 2009, pp. 3-6

Web links

Commons : Takasugi Shinsaku  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Takasugi is the family name, Shinsaku the first name.