Background
Shinsaku Takasugi was born in the city of Hagi in present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture on 27 September 1839.
高杉晋作
Shinsaku Takasugi was born in the city of Hagi in present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture on 27 September 1839.
As a youth studied in the Meirinkan, the school for sons of the samurai run by the fief of Hagi. From 1857 on, he studied at the Shoka Sonjuku, a school in Hagi headed by Yoshida Shoin, proving himself to be a student of exceptional talent.
In 1860 he was appointed head of the Meirinkan and the following year he became a close associate of the heir to the fief.
In 1864, when the joint forces of America, Britain, France, and Holland bombarded and occupied Shimonoseki, Takasugi Shinsaku was sent to discuss terms for a settlement and succeeded in arranging a peaceful conclusion to the affair. In 1864, after Choshu forces had attempted an abortive coup d’etat in Kyoto and had been subdued by the shogunate army, Shinsaku found himself in disagreement with the leader of the con-servative faction within the domain and withdrew, but the following year he called out the military forces of the domain, massed them at Shimonoseki, and persuaded the leaders of the domain to declare themselves in favor of the overthrow of the shogunate.
In 1866 when the shogunate once more sent its armies against Choshu, Shinsaku led his Kiheitai and inflicted a decisive defeat, but he collapsed of illness and died in the fourth month of the following year before he could witness the final overthrow of the shogunate, which represented the culmination of his labors.
In 1862 he accompanied shogunate officials on a journey to Shanghai and witnessed in person the havoc wrought in China by the Taiping Rebellion. After returning to Japan he became active in the sonnu-joi movement, which advocated restoration of power to the emperor and the expulsion of the foreigners, and he took part in the attack on and burning of the British legation at Shinagawa in Edo. In 1863, after a period of withdrawal in Kyoto and Hagi, he directed a bombardment of foreign vessels in the straits of Shimono- seki and formed the Kiheitai, a special battalion of fighting men drawn from the far mers, artisans, and merchants of the domain to strengthen the Choshu military forces.