Sakamoto Ryōma

Sen6

**Kunohe Masazane**  (坂本 (さかもと)龍馬 (りょうま), *****Kunohe Masazane*****? Sakamoto Ryōma) is a character in Sengoku Hime 6, she is only accessed from purchasing the sofmap version of Sengokuhime 6.

## Historical Information

Sakamoto Ryōma (坂本龍馬, 3 January 1836 – 10 December 1867) was a Japanese samurai and influential figure of the Bakumatsu and establishment of the Empire of Japan in the late Edo period.

Early life
Sakamoto Ryōma was born on 3 January 1836 in Kōchi in the han (domain) of Tosa, located in Tosa Province (present-day Kōchi Prefecture) on the island of Shikoku. By the Japanese calendar, Ryōma was born on the 15th day of the 11th month, of the sixth year of Tenpō. The Sakamoto family held the rank of country samurai or gōshi, the lowest rank in the samurai hierarchy, which previous generations had purchased by acquiring enough wealth as sake brewers. Unlike other Japanese domains, Tosa had a strictly-enforced separation between the joshi (high-ranking samurai) and kashi (low-ranking samurai). The ranks were treated unequally and residential areas were segregated; even in Sakamoto Ryōma's generation (the third in the Sakamoto family), his family's samurai rank remained kashi.
At the age of twelve, Ryōma was enrolled in a private school, but this was a brief episode in his life as he showed little scholarly inclination. Ryōma's older sister subsequently enrolled him in fencing classes of the Oguri-ryū when he was 14, after he was bullied at school. By the time Ryōma reached adulthood, he was by all accounts a master swordsman. In 1853, Ryōma was allowed by his clan to travel to Edo, the seat of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and the de facto capital of Japan, to train and polish his skills as a swordsman. Ryōma enrolled as a student at the famous Hokushin Ittō-ryū Hyōhō Chiba-Dōjō, which was led by its first Headmaster Chiba Sadakichi Masamichi at that time. Ryōma received the scroll from the school that declared his mastery. Ryōma became a shihan at the Chiba-Dōjō and taught Kenjutsu to the students together with Chiba Jūtarō Kazutane, in whom he found a close friend.
Politics
Early Bakumatsu
In 1853, the Perry Expedition began while Ryōma was studying and teaching in Edo, beginning the Bakumatsu period. Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the United States arrived in Japan with a fleet of ships to forcibly end the centuries-old sakoku policy of national isolationism. In March 1854, Perry pressured the Tokugawa to sign the Convention of Kanagawa, officially ending the sakoku policy but widely perceived in Japan as an "unequal treaty" and a sign of weakness. The prestige and legitimacy of the Shōgun, a de facto military dictator with nominal appointment from the Emperor of Japan, was severely damaged to the public. The convention was signed by the rōjū Abe Masahiro, acting as regent for the young and sickly Shōgun Tokugawa Iesada, against the will of the Imperial Court in Kyoto, the de jure ruling authority. Anti-Tokugawa considered this evidence the Shōgun could no longer fulfil the Emperor's will, and therefore no longer fit to rule for him. Ryōma and many of the samurai class supported returning state power directly to the Imperial Court in Kyoto and began agitating for the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate.
In 1858, Ryōma returned to Tosa after completing his studies, and became politically active in the local Sonnō jōi, the anti-Tokugawa movement that arose in the aftermath of the Convention of Kanagawa.
In 1862, Ryōma's friend Takechi Hanpeita (or Takechi Zuizan) organized the Tosa Loyalist Party "Kinnoto", a Sonnō jōi organization of about 2000 samurai (mostly from the lower rank) with the political slogan "Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians" that insisted on the reform of the Tosa government. Yamauchi Toyoshige, the daimyō (lord) of the Tosa Domain, refused to recognize the group. In response, Tosa Kinnoto plotted to assassinate Yamauchi's governor, Yoshida Toyo, who was appointed as a reformer and modernizer. Yoshida was later assassinated by the Tosa Kinnoto after Ryōma had left Tosa. Ryōma participated in the plot but did not advocate: he believed Tosa Kinnoto should do something for all of Japan, while Takechi demanded a revolution for only the Tosa clan. Ryōma decided to separate from Takechi and leave Tosa without authorization. In those days, no one in Japan was permitted to leave their clan without permission under the penalty of death, known as dappan. One of Ryōma's sisters committed suicide because he left without permission. Sakamoto would later use the alias "Saitani Umetarō" (才谷 梅太郎) as he worked against the shōgun. Ryōma is mentioned under this alias in the diary of Ernest Satow for 30 September 1867: "Mr. Saedani had to be sat up for laughing at the questions put by us, evidently with the object of ridiculing us out of our case, but he got a flea in his lug and shut up making the most diabolical faces."
Late Bakumatsu
While a rōnin, Ryōma decided to assassinate Katsu Kaishū, a high-ranking official in the Tokugawa shogunate and a supporter of both modernization and westernization. However, Katsu Kaishū persuaded Ryōma of the necessity of a long-term plan to increase Japan's military strength in the face of Western influence that led to the Convention of Kanagawa. Instead of killing Katsu Kaishū, Ryōma started working as his assistant and protégé.
In 1864, as the Tokugawa shogunate began taking a hard line against dissenters, Ryōma fled to Kagoshima in Satsuma Domain, which was developing as a major centre for the anti-Tokugawa movement. In 1866, Ryōma successfully negotiated the secret Satchō Alliance between the Satsuma and Chōshū – two powerful domains that historically had been irreconcilable enemies. Ryōma's position as a "neutral outsider" was critical in bridging the gap in trust and ending the feud, and accomplished the establishment of a significant military alliance against the Tokugawa. Ryōma is often regarded as the "father of the Imperial Japanese Navy", as he worked under Katsu Kaishū's direction toward creating a modern naval force (with the aid of western powers) to enable Satsuma and Chōshū to hold their own against the naval forces of the Tokugawa shogunate. Ryōma founded the private navy and trading company Kameyama Shachū in Nagasaki City with the help of the Satsuma, which later became kaientai or Ocean Support Fleet.
Chōshū's subsequent victory over the Tokugawa army in 1866 and the impending collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate made Ryōma a valuable commodity to his former masters in Tosa, and recalled to Kōchi with honours. The Tosa Domain was anxious to obtain a negotiated settlement between the Shōgun and the Emperor, which would prevent the powerful Satchō Alliance from overthrowing the Tokugawa by force and thus emerging as a new dominant force in ruling Japan. Ryōma again played a crucial role in the subsequent negotiations that led to the voluntary resignation of the Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu in 1867, thus bringing about the Meiji Restoration.
Death
Ryōma was assassinated at the Ōmiya Inn (Omiya) in Kyoto on 10 December 1867, not long before the Meiji Restoration took place, at the age of 31. At night, assassins gathered at the door of the inn, one approached and knocked, acting as an ordinary caller. The door was answered by Ryōma's bodyguard and manservant Yamada Tōkichi (山田藤吉), a former sumo wrestler, who told the stranger he would see if Ryōma was accepting callers at that hour of the evening. When the bodyguard turned his back, the visitor at the door drew his sword and fatally slashed his back. The team of assassins then rushed in past the dying bodyguard and up the stairs to the guests' rooms. Ryōma and his associate Nakaoka Shintarō were resting and talking in one room. Hearing the scuffle on the first floor, Ryōma opened the door to yell at his bodyguard, thinking he was wrestling with a friend. The assassins charged the room, some tearing through the paper doors, and a confused melée ensued as lamps were knocked over and the room went dark. By the end of the fight, both Ryōma and Shintaro lay badly wounded, and the assassins fled. Ryōma died that night, regretting with his last words that his assassins caught him unprepared. Shintaro succumbed to injuries two days later, never regaining enough consciousness to identify the assassins, but mentioning hearing Iyo dialect among the killers.
The night of the assassination was eventually called the Omiya Incident (近江屋事件). According to the traditional lunar calendar, Ryōma was born on the 15th day of the 11th month, and killed on his birthday in 1867. Initial reports of Ryōma's and Shintarō's deaths accused members of the Shinsengumi, a special police force of swordsmen from the Bakufu (Tokugawa military government) based in Kyoto. Shinsengumi leader Kondō Isami was later executed on this charge. However, members of another pro-shōgun group, the Mimawarigumi, confessed to the murder in 1870. Although Mimawarigumi members Sasaki Tadasaburō (佐々木 只三郎) and Imai Nobuo carry the blame, the identity of the true assassin has never been proven. Okuda Matsugoro, who was known by working since his early adolescence as a spy for Kondō, was rumored to have taken part in the assassination.