Shintaro Kokubu · Mito

Original

水戸天狗徒
軽身殉国危
七生報国日
恰似櫻花時

Person

A young Tengu Party member executed at Tsuruga, remembered through a final Chinese-style poem. A young fighter's death is given a hard classical form. The phrase about serving the country through seven lives refuses to let death end the vow, showing the intensity and overheat of Tengu Party idealism.

Translation

As one of the Mito Tengu men, I take my life lightly and die for the country's peril. The day I repay the country through seven lives is like the season of cherry blossoms.

Poetic Shape

Kanshi draws on a classical Chinese poetic tradition, where restraint, allusion, and moral tension carry much of the weight. The poem sounds formal, but the pressure beneath it is personal.

Reading

The hard form of kanshi lifts a young death into the language of history. Serving the country through seven lives treats death not as an end, but as loyalty that returns again and again. The cherry blossom image carries both brightness and the fate of falling.

Background

Shintaro Kokubu is remembered as a young Tengu Party member executed at Tsuruga. This Chinese-style final poem places the idea of throwing oneself into national crisis ahead of private fear. In it, youth and ideological heat meet.