The Memorial Exhibition of the Renewal of the Hagi Museum and the 150th
Anniversary of the Foundation of the Shokasonjuku Academy

The Spirit of the Virile Sons of Choshu

The Big Four of the Shokasonjuku Academy and Kogoro Katsura

Toshimaro Yoshida observed, “ Shinsaku Takasugi is arunaway ox. Genzui Kusaka is a politician in the Cabinet.
Kuichi Irie is a wooden sword. Aritomo Yamagata is astick.”Sept. 15, 2007 ～ Dec. 16, 2007

The Hagi Museum355 Horiuchi, Hagi City, Yamaguchi 758-0057

The Memorial Exhibition of the 150th Anniversary of theFoundation of the Shokasonjuku Academy

The Big Four of the Shokasonjuku Academy and Kogoro
Katsura (Takayoshi Kido)
In 1857, 150 years ago, a private academy with only an eight-mat
lecture room was established in Matsumotomura, Hagi.
named the Shokasonjuku academy.

It wasThe building, which wasrebuilt by the hands of Shoin Yoshida and his disciples, have been
still preserved intact.

Even now a lot of people from all over thecountry have come to see it and have been deeply impressed withhis view of life.
The academy was hosted by Shoin Yoshida at one time.
taught at the academy for less than three years.

HeLater hisdisciples followed his ambition and got to take the leadership ofJapan in the late Edo period and in the Meiji period.
In this exhibition about the Big Four of the Shokasonjuku
academy ( Shinsaku Takasugi, Genzui Kusaka, Toshimaro Yoshida,
and Kuichi Irie ), and Kogoro Katsura called their elder brother,
we’d like to retrace how they lived through their historicalmaterials.

Shinsaku swore before taking up arms at Shimonosekithat he’d show the spirit of the virile sons of Choshu.

We also try

to make an approach to the spirit of the young disciples who daredto take the risk of making the great reformation of the Meiji
Restoration

The Shokasonjuku Academy
Bunnoshin Tamaki, Shoin Yoshida’s uncle, founded a small
academy in his house.

The academy was named the Shokasonjuku

Academy because it was in Matsumoto Village.
learned there in his boyhood.

Shoin Yoshida

Later it was discontinued for a while

but Gorozaemon Kubo resumed it.

In 1857, Shoin Yoshida took itover.
He treated his disciples equally regardless of the social status orage. He brought out their strong points in them and developed theindividuality of each disciple.

Later his disciples followed theirteacher’s ambition and came to mark a new epoch in the history ofJapan.
He taught future national leaders his ideology of strengthening
Japan through reverence for the emperor.

They absorbed his ideas

and played key roles in bringing about the Meiji Restoration.

Shoin Yoshida (1830～1859)
An educator and thinker of the late Edo period.
He was born as the second son of han samurai,
Yurinosuke Sugi, in Matsumotomura, Hagi.
He was known by the name, Torajiro Yoshida.
At the age of six he was adopted into the Yoshidafamily, whose job was a strategist of the Yamagaschool. He was educated by his uncle, Bunnoshin Tamaki, to be an instructor
at the domain school called "Meirinkan". By the age of ten, he was instructing
other han samurai.
In 1850, he was given permission to visit other regions for five years hewalked through much of Japan from Kyushu to the Tohoku district. Heabsorbed new knowledge from such outstanding teachers as Shozan Sakuma
and Seishisai Aizawa.
He saw the Black Ships of Admiral Perry at Uraga in 1853, and attempted toleave Japan illegally, only to fail and to be imprisoned. He was later released
to house arrest at the Sugi family house, and in 1857 he began to teach at theShokasonjuku academy. He nurtured individualism in his youthful disciples.
His plot to assassinate the chief councilor was exposed later, and transferred to
Edo to be executed at the age of 30.

Shinsaku Takasugi (1839～1867)
Born in Hagi. A central figure in the movement
to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Heattended the domain school, Meirinkan and from1859 he studied at the Shokasonjuku academy.
In 1862, he was sent by his domain in a
shogunate ship to Shanghai.
From thatexperience he became convinced that Japan muststrengthen itself to avoid a similar fate and came to the conclusion that theShogunate must be overthrown by force.
In 1863, he announced to organize the Kihei Corps, Japan's first modern
militia to defend the domain and the country. The Kihei Corps, which
enlisted samurai and commoners alike, became the core of Choshu fightingforces and provided a base for his political activities.
In 1866, he took command of the Kihei Corps in a fight against theTokugawa Troops attacking the Choshu domain. The domain forces, however,repelled the Shogunate army. Choshu's victory thoroughly brought theShogunate into discredit and opened the way for other antishogunate domains
to take united action.
He made the path to the new age but he had long suffered from tuberculosis.
He died in 1867, the year before the Meiji Restoration.

Genzui Kusaka (1840～1864)
Born in Hagi and a leading figure in theantishogunate movement of early 1860s. A
disciple and brother-in-law of Shoin Yoshida.
In 1862, impatient with Choshu's moderate
political policy, which at the time soughtcooperation between the Tokugawa Shogunate and the imperial court, Kusaka
decided to abandon his domain and join other imperial loyalists in plans to
expel foreigners from Japan. Early in 1863 he and his fellow activist,
Shinsaku Takasugi, set fire to the British legation in Shinagawa, Tokyo.
Returning to Choshu, he participated in the bombardment of Western ships in
the Shimonoseki Strait.
In the summer of 1864 he joined a Choshu expeditionary force in an attemptto retake the Imperial Palace. His contingent was defeated by Satsuma andAizu forces. He was wounded in the engagement and later committed suicide.

Toshimaro Yoshida (1841～1864)
Born as a son of Kiyouchi Yoshida inMatsumotomura, Hagi. A loyalist in the late
Edo period. His by-name was Eitaro. In 1856,
at the age of 16, he entered the Shokasonjukuacademy. He was suspended as he declared
Shoin's false charge, but he left the domain as hewas ordered to go to Hyogo on business. Then he gathered information in Edoand Kyoto. Later, he joined to bombard foreign ships and became a member ofthe Kihei Corps for Sonnojoi activities.
In 1864, while gathering at Ikedaya, Kyoto for recovering powers of sonjo ha,
he was attacked and wounded severely, and killed himself outside the gate ofthe Choshu domain.

Kuichi Irie (1837～1864)
Born in Hagi. A loyalist in the late Edo period.
Yasushi Nomura is his younger brother. In 1858,
at the age of 22, he entered the Shokasonjuku
academy hosted by Shoin Yoshida. He came tobe called one of the Big Four of the academy.
By the domain's order, he went to Mito to know
the movement of imperial loyalists of the Mito domain. When the time tocarry out the expulsion of foreign people was concluded, he hurried toShimonoseki to bombard Western ships.
He also helped Shinsaku Takasugi to organize Japan's first modern militia
named the Kihei Corps. In 1864, he joined a Choshu expeditional force toattempt to retake the Imperial Palace and failed to be killed.

Kogoro Katsura (1833～1877)
Born into the samurai household of the domain
physician in Hagi. A statesman of the Meiji period.
He is known as one of the "three heroes" of the Meiji
Restoration with Takamori Saigo and Toshimichi
Okubo. As a representative of the Choshu domain henegotiated the secret alliance with the powerful
Satsuma domain that eventually overthrew theTokugawa Shogunate.
His initiatives between
1868 and 1871 as a Meiji government official
brought about the abolition of the feudal system and the creation of acentralized bureaucratic state.
Kido's career was the briefest among Meiji leaders, yet it divides into distinct
periods. During the first period, from the mid-1850s to 1865, as an imperial
loyalist he schemed against the Tokugawa Shogunate, helped at times by hisgeisha lover Ikumatsu.
In the second period, 1865-74, he emerged as a statesman who influenced thecourse of the nation in his roles as a Choshu official and afterward as a Privy
Councillor in the new government.
In the final period, 1874-77, he became the cabinet's conscience, acting as an
in-house critic of the rapid pace of modernizing reforms.

Eboshi-typed helmet worn by Shinsaku
Takasugi when he took up arms atShimonoseki

Purse carried by Toshimaro Yoshidaat the Ikedaya Incident

Writing of blood pledge

signed by threepatriots, Kuichi Irie, Shinsaku Takasugi,
and Shingoro Hori

Drawing of orchids drawn
byKogoro Katsura for thefun of it