佐久間 象山
Sakuma Zozan was born on the 22th of March in 1811 in Japan. His name is also pronounced Shozan. He was the son of a samurai and scholar Sakuma Ichigaku (佐久間 一学) and his wife Arai Mann (荒井 まん), and a native of Shinshū (信州) (or Shinano Province) in present day's Nagano Prefecture.
At the age of 23, he went to Edo and for 10 years studied Chinese learning. He studied under Monzen Katsu and later under Issai Sato. Interested in foreign affairs, he was not content with learning only.
He then started to study Western sciences ("rangaku") at the age of 33, with the help of the rangaku scholar Kurokawa Ryōan (黒川良安). In 1844, he obtained the "Huishoudelyk Woordboek", a Dutch translation of Nöel Chomel's encyclopedia, from which Sakuma learned how to make glass, and then magnets, thermometers, cameras and telescopes. The encyclopedia was later translated into Japanese by Utagawa Genshin (宇田川玄真) under the title 『厚生新編』.
When Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet arrived in Uraga (1853), he went there to observethe fleet and presented to the Shogunate a series of recommendations concerning weapons, fortification and a new military service to cope with the West.
From 1842, following an analysis of the defeat of China against Great Britain in the First Opium War and the spread of Western influence in Asia, Sakuma actively proposed the introduction of Western military methods to the Bakufu and the establishment of maritime defense, through his book "Eight policies for the defense of the sea" (海防八策). After the Bakufu ordered Japanese translations of the Military History of the Qing dynasty (聖武記, Shèngwu Ji) and the Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms written by Chinese scholar Wei Yuan (1794-1857), Sakuma was struck by the similarities in their ideas in defending against the west. His writing brought some fame, and he became the teacher of several future leaders of modernization (Yoshida Shōin, Katsu Kaishū, Sakamoto Ryoma, Nakaoka Shintarō, Hashimoto Sanai, Katō Hiroyuki, Nishimura Shigeki, Yamamoto Kakuma).
He was imprisoned by his clan (1854) fo r involvement in the attempted stowing away of Shin Yoshida, one of his disciples. Was released nine years later. During the arrest, he continued to study Western sciences, and developed various electric machines based on the elekiter and the Daniell battery, Japan's first seismic sensor, as well as improvements to guns.
In July 1864, Shōzan, followed by a few of his retainers, were on their way to Kyoto on horseback. Shōzan's horse was mounted with a European saddle, and he possessed a copy of the imperial decree about the opening of the country's ports to foreign trade. He was on a mission to meet with a member of the imperial family to explain his ideas and to seek the permission of Emperor Komei to legally open Japanese ports to foreign trade. He was unable to meet with the member of the imperial family and decided to return from his failed visit.
On August 12, 1864, as he reached the Sanyo-kiya-cho district, his retainers, a considerable distance behind and making no effort to catch up with him, failed to notice that two mysterious men were following him on foot. Soon Shozan was ambushed and attacked by a small group of assassins from the Higo and Oki clans in broad daylight. Shōzan fell from his horse and bled profusely from the attack, with the assassins approaching him with swords drawn. Shozan was killed by one of the assassins, a hitokiri named Kawakami Gensai, who landed a death blow on him. Upon his death, the assassins immediately fled from the scene before his retainers arrived. Shozan was later found to have thirteen wounds inflicted on him by the assassins.
He created Japan's first telegraph, five years before the gift of such a telegraph by Commodore Perry in 1854. He also invented electric machines derived from the Elekiter.
The Shozan Shrine was established in 1938 at Matsushiromachi Matsushiro, Nagano, with the 2 storey Shōzan Memorial Hall (象山記念館) which was later built nearby.
A memorial bearing his likeness was erected near his assassination site, along Kiyamachi Road along the banks of the Takasegawa River at Kyoto.
A bronze statue of Sakuma Shōzan named Mr Sakuma Shōzan (佐久間 象山 先生) was erected at Kawanakajima, Nagano and unveiled in June 2, 1959 to commemorate the 100th year anniversary of the opening of the Port of Yokohama.
Another statue of Sakuma Shōzan mounted on the horse, also named Mr Sakuma Shōzan (佐久間 象山 先生) was erected at the Shozan Shrine to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth.
Sakuma Shozan coined the phrase "Eastern ethics, Western technical learning" (tōyō dōtoku, seiyō gakugei, 東洋道徳西洋学芸) which was later further abbreviated as "Japanese spirit, Western technique" (wakon yōsai, 和魂洋才). This latter slogan is still in use as a description of the way that Japan ought to handle modernization.
Zozan was a man of an unusually big build and was looked upon as a leader by many. Having learned waka composition under Chinami Kato, he wrote many poems in the tradition of the Manyoshu Anthology.
Shozan kept at least two mistresses, with one whose name was Ocho bore his only son in 6 December 1848. At the age of 42, He later married Katsu Kaishu's 16-year-old younger sister Katsu Junko in 1853.
His son Miura Keinosuke (三浦啓之助), real name Sakuma Kakujiro, was a member of the Shinsengumi, which he joined in September 1864 to avenge his father's death.
