Torataro Yoshimura · Tosa
Person
A Tosa loyalist who raised the Tenchugumi uprising in Yamato and died during its defeat. His figure belongs to the mountains of failure, where idealism, blood, and autumn scenery become inseparable.
Translation
See the maple leaves scattered by wind on Yoshino as the blood-mist raised by my sword.
Reading
The poem turns beautiful autumn leaves into blood smoke. The defeat of the Tenchugumi appears with one sharp accent of red. Read together with Torataro Yoshimura, the poem is not only a matter of literal meaning; it shows a scene where beauty and violence rise together. With the figure in mind, what remains after reading is resolve, solitude, and the beauty that often belongs to the defeated side.
Background
Passed down as the death poem of Yoshimura Torataro, defeated in the Tenchugumi Incident. The flight and death in the mountains of Yamato make the beauty of the scenery feel crueler. A Tosa loyalist who raised the Tenchugumi uprising in Yamato and died during its defeat. The words carry the inner pressure of someone caught in Bakumatsu politics, war, execution, exile, or the losses that followed the Restoration. Even where the transmission is uncertain, they quietly preserve the pain of the age.
Source / Transmission Wording and readings may differ by transmission; this page treats the text as one circulated form.
