Japanese historians call the Meiji restoration a bloodless revolution, which is unique in the world history of modernization. The historical fact was that there was no brutal civil war in Japan. It was in 1867 that the Edo Shogun government resigned and returned the policy to the emperor. As a result, both the new regime of the new Meiji government and the old Shogun regime were able to avoid a bloody civil war.
However, there were many murders and bloodshed until the Shogun government renounced its rulings. In their conflict between the ancient authorities and the emerging power, many young, ambitious, intelligent and influential people died.
Among the visionaries killed in the rising power, Ryoma Sakamoto was the one who passed before observing the formation of the New Japanese Government. Since he was the most powerful driving force for a peaceful change of government, it was ironic and regrettable that a ruthless assassin killed him. It was regrettable that he could not live until the start of the new Imperial Government and begin its activities. It could make you an unusually respectable statesman with your vision, patriotism, and remarkable power to foresee the future.
Ryoma belonged to the lower class of samurai society in the feudal domain of Tosa (now Kochi Prefecture). He was a fearful, shy and hugging boy in his childhood. His biography shows that he continued wetting his bed until he was 10 years old. As usual for a shy and cuddly boy, Ryoma looked forward to training himself to be strong. He studied grass art and politics in Edo (now Tokyo). He became a master of herb art from one of the leading herb art dojos, Hokushin Itto Ryu.
There are many episodes about Ryoma. He was a patriot, a dreamer, a romantic, a visionary, an ideologue, and an activist. It seemed to have 2 driving forces for its activities. They were; i) love and care, ii) optimism and iii) vision.
i) Love and care; A legend has it that Ryoma was saying that he wanted to create a country where people could live happily. He extended his love to his family, friends, people and his country. He was a true patriot based on his love, which was almost close to the love of God.
ii) Optimism; People who knew him described him as a smiling, open-minded, happy and approachable person. He was always smiling and making others laugh with jokes. Even at the most dangerous moment of the activist gathering, he broke the ice making the attendees laugh.
iii) Vision; Among the activists of the modern Japan movement, there were not so many people who had a clear vision of what country Japan should be after the Edo Shogun government was overthrown. Instead, Ryoma had a clear vision of Japan, Japanese society, and the post-Shogun government. They were in his document that he wrote as 8 principles of the new government, including the establishment of the 2nd Congress, election of congressmen, equal treatment treaties with foreign countries, reform of the currency exchange rate.
It was so unfortunate that the Shogun’s assassin killed him in December 1867, just after the end of the Shogun’s rule. He had not had the opportunity to participate in the new government, of which he dreamed.