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On February 26, 1858, he Kusaka
left Hagi for Edo, carrying papers (from Shoin presumably) for Kido
and two samurai of the Matsushiro han asking for their assistance in
arranging study with Sakuma Shozan, Shoin's old instructor.
On April 7, 1858, he reached
Edo, putting in an appearance at Sakurada Hall as indicated by his traveling
orders. In Edo, he enrolled at the school of Yoshia Kinryu and briefly
studied at the Bakufu's Bureau of Foreign books, before setting out
to Kyoto, where he immersed himself in the politics of the day.
Kyoto
Kyoto in 1858 was in the midst
of discussions both on the Harris Treaty (link)
and the shogunate succession when Kusaka arrived in Kyoto. While in
Kyoto, Kusaka served as eyes and ears for the Sonjuku, as well as the
primary contact for those in the Sonjuku school as well as many other
reformist-minded individuals. In July 1858,Kusaka received notice that
six Sonjuku students and their associates were to be dispatched to Kyoto
from Choshu: Irie Sugizo, Takausig Shinsaku, Sugiyama Matsusuke, and
Ito Hirobumi. Yamagata Aritomo, who was not a student of the Sonjuku,
accompanied this party -- and summarily impressed Kusaka, enough so
that Kusaka recommended his admission to the Sonjuku when he returned
to Choshu in September 1858.
In his position in Kyoto, Kusaka
was also better able to read the ongoing political situation at the
time and also became aware of some concerns regarding his teacher, Shoin.
Kusaka was reluctant to return to Hagi, fearing that the han would recall
him any day. He also warned his teacher about the contents of his own
letters being leaked.
Kusaka would go on to write
his teacher about another more serious issue late that year. In November
1858, Shoin wrote his students of his plans to assassinate Manabe Akikatsu
- a Bakufu official sent to Kyoto to enforce the policy that later became
known as the Ansei Purge. Kusaka and Takasugi (as well as three other
students) responded in December of 1858, outlining their opposition.
| Ansei
Purge (1854-1860) |
| This
term was used to describe the arrest and execution of samurai
in Kyoto and Edo during this period known as the "conservative
repression" of loyalists and reformists, moderate and radical.
Reformists -- who had protested
the terms of the Harris treaty and its signing or the choosing
of the successor Tokugawa Iemochi over Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu--
were largely dismissed from offices and executed. Manabe Akikatsu
was the Bakufu official sent to Kyoto to enforce this policy. |
Kusaka indicated that the Bakufu
oppression was too great, and that action would be futile resistance
unless it was postponed and combined with a general swell of public
resistance.
If anything, Kusaka was wary
-- knowing that any trouble generated by the Choshu men would implicate
Kusaka as the first to be sought out by Bakufu agents in the Purge.
Unfortunately, within a few
weeks Kusaka was writing yet another letter -- this time to the Choshu
government in Edo to plead on behalf of his teacher, who was incarcerated
in Choshu in Noyama Prison.
Sufu Masunosuke ordered Kusaka
to also then return to Hagi on December 15, 1858, but Kusaka instead
set out for Edo to protest the issue of his imprisoned instructor, but
set out for Hagi on 2/15/59, having given in on the matter.
It appears that in March 1859,
that Kusaka and Shoin broke off relations over disputes on the use of
direct action in Kyoto. The two reconciled within weeks. On May 14th,
Kusaka and Shinagawa Yajiro visited Shoin in Noyama prison, and talked
him into sitting for a portrait.
Unfortunately for the instructor
and his students, Nagai Uta -- a Choshu conservative
-- appeared weeks later with a secret order to extradite Shoin to Edo
for interrogation.
Shoin's interrogation resulted
in punishment by death.
Kusaka and the Sonjuku
It is at this point, after the
death of Shoin, that Kusaka's roles became even more varied. Kusaka
assumed leadership of the 'School under the Pines' at Yoshida's partial
bequest. He had been charged by Yoshida to overlook the education of
the younger students like the Irie brothers. He had also been charged,
as had the other students, to further develop the ideas and goals of
their teacher,in their instructor's memory.
Kusaka wrote to Irie, his younger
charge: "To lament the teacher's sad life is profitless. The important
thing is not to let the teacher's intentions falter... Shinsaku is growing
more and more and advances greatly in his insights and studies... I
will also send letters to Terajima, Ariyoshi, Maebara,
Shinagawa, and the others to encourage them."
By 1860, Kusaka and the others
had gathered all the collective letters Yoshida had written, and he
himself began lecturing on 1/17/1860.
The students met 2/7/60 of that
year and recommitted themselves to the cause of their deceased instructor,
assuring the continuation of the Sonjuku and the movement he had help
start.
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