Ryoma Sakamoto · Tosa

Person

A Tosa-born reformer who formed the Kaientai and helped open the path toward restoration. Moving beyond domain and class, he looked toward the sea and the wider world. His freedom was light-footed, but it also carried the loneliness of walking outside ordinary society.

Translation

Let people say whatever they wish about me. I alone know the meaning of what I am trying to do.

Reading

This poem contains the solitude of someone who has stepped outside public judgment. Let people say what they wish; only I know the meaning of what I am doing. Ryoma's freedom was not simple cheerfulness. To move beyond domain, status, and convention, he had to accept long periods of being misunderstood by almost everyone around him.

Background

Sakamoto Ryoma left the Tosa domain, formed the Kaientai, and acted within the currents that led toward the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance and the return of political authority to the emperor. His view reached beyond the logic of any single domain and looked toward the sea and the wider world. That made his actions difficult for many contemporaries to understand. The poem resonates strongly with an image of Ryoma believing in his role outside reputation and misunderstanding.

Source / Transmission

Wording varies by source; a related text appears in materials such as Cultural Heritage Online, "Eiso 2: Waka."

Relations

People, Poems, and Places

Center Ryoma Sakamoto Tosa

PeopleHanpeita TakechiTosa PeopleTorataro YoshimuraTosa PeopleIzo OkadaTosa PlacesKyoto / Former Omiya SiteKyoto City, Kyoto

Related Places

Places Connected to This Poem

Kyoto City, Kyoto · Tosa / Anti-shogunate

Kyoto / Former Omiya Site

The building no longer remains; a small marker stands near the site. Walking it together with nearby Bakumatsu places around Sanjo-Kawaramachi, the Ikedaya site, and Kyoto Ryozen Gokoku Shrine connects Ryoma's final point with the tension of Kyoto.

Ryoma Sakamoto

AddressAround 330 Shioya-cho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto 604-8027, Japan

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Nearby

Ikedaya Incident SiteA Shinsengumi-related Kyoto site that forms a sharp contrast with the Omiya site.
Kyoto Ryozen Gokoku ShrineThe shrine where the graves of Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro are located.
SuyaA place associated with Ryoma as the former Kyoto base of the Kaientai.
Kawaramachi Sanjo AreaA busy district where the atmosphere of Bakumatsu meetings and attacks still lingers.