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December 9, 2018 - January 26, 2019
“The thirty-six peaks of the eastern hills, silently sleeping at two or three in the morning—suddenly, the resounding clash of swords.”
And remember the saying, “If you are to take refuge, let it be under a big tree,” meaning, the backing of powerful people is important.
“A man who assassinates another naturally comes to an unnatural end himself,”
Ryōma believed that not more than once in a hundred times should a strange tactic be used. He himself would use orthodox tactics ninety-nine times, and then, when he employed an unusual tactic the remaining one time, it would succeed marvelously. That’s the real meaning and proper use of “a strange tactic.” And the man who uses them that way can be called a true master of unusual tactics.
As an author, I am living in the midst of late Tokugawa history. My focus here is on one young man, Sakamoto Ryōma, but this part of my account has no direct connection with him. Yet everything will come to have a connection with Ryōma a few years into the future. The struggles I am describing now will have several results as I go on with this story.
Doing the laundry, cooking the dinner—no matter how much the age may change, there will be no change in performing these daily duties.
It is almost beyond belief, the degree of degradation that the Tokugawa period’s class system, status system, and feudalistic authoritarianism inflicted on the Japanese people.
Shimamura Eikichi’s heart stopped beating under the severity of the torture. In the moments before he died, he opened his eyes wide and said, “A better age will come.”
Harunosuke used this money to have a sword made for him, inscribed with a Chinese text: “From birth, I have been a subject of the imperial realm. In death, I will become a deity protecting the imperial realm.”
Yesterday I drank south of the bridge, Today I am drunk north of it. If there is sake, it should be drunk, And I—I should be drunk as well!
An aristocrat should be a bit of a fool. When he is too clever, in most cases the damage is all the greater.
“There are various kinds of creatures in this world—human beings, dogs, insects. They’re all sentient beings. There is really no higher and lower among them.”
The length of one’s life rests with heaven. A man should leave all that to heaven and just devote himself to his work in this life.
This has been the most eventful year since the founding of Edo as the military capital by the august shogun Ieyasu. Yet it comes to an end, like any other year. Men cannot affect the Way of Heaven.”
“I’m the type of man who can make a woman happy—even though I won’t do anything spectacularly good or evil in the great world.”
‘A man of high ideals never forgets that he may end in a ditch; a man of valor never forgets that he may forfeit his head.’”
“It means that someone who is resolved to change the nation should always have in his mind’s eye the scene of his dead body thrown into a ditch. And a man of courage should never forget to picture the scene of his beheading. Unless he does so, a man cannot gain real freedom.”
Unless you used your legs and your eyes, and came into direct contact with the thing, you didn’t feel you were really thinking about it.
“A gentleman’s relationships are always as clear as water.” This quotation from the Book of Rites meant that a faithful and righteous gentleman preserves a dry and disinterested attitude even toward his closest friends, yet his fidelity is very deep. He does not show his friendship by taking the other’s hand or embracing him, nor does he let the weaknesses of each party drag them into problematic affairs. Of course this is referring to the friendship of one man for another, but Ryōma wanted to apply this principle to the relationship between a man and a woman as well.
