Kido Takayoshi / Katsura Kogoro (1833-1877)

Early Life | His views on Yoshida Shoin | Ascension to Power | His career in the Meiji Era / His death |
Notes on his family, household and hobbies | Selected Diary Entries| Poetry | Pictures | Fictional portrayals

  

I present my friend with both steel and blossoms
Those two elements are coexistent on this earth
Why must strife ever prevail?

(Poem for Yamagata Aritomo upon presentation of sword after his victorious return from the Boshin Wars.)
The majority of this information is taken from the following work:
The Diaries of Kido Takayoshi, Translator Sydney D. Brown