00:00:03 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to central Tokyo. This is a really special episode. We're going to get a chance to take a look at one of the places that I've been going to for the last couple of years to get foods and restaurants and cuisine. There's so many things that you can do at this shop. I'm going to turn the camera around. This is called Marugoto Kochi. Kochi is a prefecture down in Shikoku Island, one of Japan's four main islands. And inside of this store, you can get so many really amazing things. And I came here because there's some things I want to introduce to you about Kochi.

00:00:31 John Daub: But I'm going to start off with this series because we have another video. I'm going to put a link right here later on where you can check out Yosakoi (traditional dance festival), which is a very special dance, very famous in Kochi Prefecture. As well as tomorrow, we have sake tasting with an expert and some cuisine that we're going to be trying. Tataki (seared bonito) is this amazing dish that's very famous down in Kochi. It's so good. But we're going to start with this guy right here. Do you see him? This statue is Sakamoto Ryoma. He's a samurai. He's not with us anymore. This is history. And that is a real sword. Well, in his time.

00:01:38 John Daub: But there's somebody over here that I want to introduce you to that's alive and well. And she's right here. Hey! So this is Mikako. Hello. She's a rekishi aidoru (history idol). This is going to be very, very interesting. She has an extremely beautiful kimono on today. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. Look at this. And Mikako has some really nice boots. He has boots too. Mikako's boots are made out of Japanese sand. Wow! Mad Hata-san writes in here. She's so cute. Thank you.

00:02:37 John Daub: So Mikako-san actually knows a lot about the history of Sakamoto Ryoma and will be explaining it to us, which I'm really looking forward to.

00:02:46 Mikako: I know a little bit about the history.

00:02:49 John Daub: Sakamoto Ryoma is somebody who unified Japan. He was a very pivotal figure bringing peace. And as a result, and he comes from Kochi Prefecture, as a result, he's a samurai who people remember the most, I believe. When I think of samurai, I think of Sakamoto Ryoma. And that's here in Kochi. So you can come to Ginza and get a picture standing with this statue if you want. Sakamoto Ryoma, we'll see you anytime. Yeah, you can meet him.

00:03:16 John Daub: I also want to introduce to you our guests for today. We have the face shield team. Yeah, and they're going to be helping with the translation and sharing their experiences about Kochi Prefecture as well. Thanks guys for being here. Yeah. So let's start from here. Why Sakamoto Ryoma? If you want to be the main character, please come. So Mikako-sensei.

00:03:47 Mikako: Yes.

00:03:48 John Daub: About Sakamoto Ryoma's history. What is it?

00:03:51 Mikako: Well, I think that a lot of foreign tourists and viewers don't know much about him. What are the interesting points and what are the necessary points that you want to know about him? Well, at the end of the Edo period, the end of the Japanese era, he was a samurai who had a global perspective, not just Japan. He was a samurai who had a global perspective and was looking at the world. That's why I like him.

00:04:18 John Daub: Yeah. He's a samurai that has a very global appeal. He's not just very famous here in Japan, but in so many other countries, a lot of people, when they think of samurai, not just here in Japan, but around the world, they think of Sakamoto Ryoma. Sakamoto Ryoma.

00:04:40 John Daub: Okay, come over this direction. Okay. So actually, there's an interesting story here. So Mikako-san told me... I asked her, why are you so interested in Sakamoto Ryoma? What made you so interested in this samurai in particular?

00:04:56 Mikako: It was actually from anime. Oi Ryoma. Oh, Oi Ryoma.

00:05:03 John Daub: So the anime is called Oi Ryoma, and it's a very interesting anime. I don't know if it's available on Netflix or something, but it might be one that you want to check out. This is what kind of inspired Mikako-sensei, and we're going to ask her about this a little bit as well. So you were inspired by history from anime?

00:05:26 Mikako: Yes, I fell in love with it.

00:05:29 John Daub: Wow. So the next interesting point about Ryoma is, why do you like Ryoma? You've seen anime, but what's so interesting about this samurai? What do you want to tell us?

00:05:45 Mikako: Well, Ryoma-san is a small child. When he was a child, he was a weak and crybaby. He was weak at kendo, but he practiced kendo very hard. And after he met a teacher called Kaishu, he learned about the world. And from there, he tried to change Japan. So he's a very attractive person.

00:06:18 John Daub: Yeah. So to translate for us is Kiara, who you know as a vegetarian and a lover of all things Kochi.

00:06:26 Kiara: Mikako-sensei said a lot of things. Yes, so she said that one of the things that she really liked about the anime and about Ryoma is that when he was little, he wasn't actually this great, powerful samurai. He was actually kind of a scaredy cat and didn't really want to do kendo. But I mean, he moved beyond that to become this great reformer.

00:06:47 John Daub: Reformer. That's a good word. Did you say reformer or transformer? Because if he turns into a robot, that would be super cool. No? He's not a transformer. Not yet. He was a reformer of Japan and somebody who brought people together, right?

00:07:00 Kiara: That's right.

00:07:00 John Daub: Ryoma-san, you know, you've brought people together.

00:07:08 Kiara: That's right.

00:07:10 Mikako: Even in Japan, in the past, the current Kagoshima prefecture and the current Yamaguchi prefecture had a fight.

00:07:27 John Daub: That's incredible. So she says that Sakamoto Ryoma, as a reformer, he sort of got Yamaguchi prefecture, or what it was at that point, and Kagoshima, another prefecture in Kyushu, that were fighting and they were not getting along. And he managed to broker basically a peace between these two fighting factions. Wait, was Sakamoto Ryoma in Tom Cruise's Last Samurai? Did he come out?

00:07:55 Kiara: Yes. Saigo Takamori.

00:07:57 John Daub: So Saigo Takamori was another very famous samurai. You can see his bust in Ueno Park. Ryoma was a very pivotal samurai in that age. Somebody who was a peace broker and very well respected because of that. Still today, which seems like centuries ago. Yeah.

00:08:17 John Daub: So when was Sakamoto Ryoma born?

00:08:21 Mikako: 1835.

00:08:23 John Daub: 1835? Wow. 1835. So if he were alive today, he would be almost 200 years old, basically. If he were still alive, he would be 200. Oh, that's right. Yeah, 200 years old. He was a child, and he didn't really like kendo. When he was little, he was doing his best. And he became strong. Wow.

00:08:53 John Daub: So Sakamoto was born in Kochi prefecture.

00:08:54 Mikako: Yes.

00:08:55 John Daub: He was born in Kochi prefecture. But why is he the symbol of Kochi prefecture?

00:09:04 Mikako: Oh... Kochi prefecture was once called Tosa-han, but Tosa-han is a very rural area. It's a rural area with a lot of nature. So he moved out of Tokyo and went to Edo, and he started working hard. Kochi people are proud of Ryoma. He's a survivor.

00:09:50 John Daub: What is he holding right here? Is he hungry? There are many theories about this place. One is a pistol. He's got a gun in there? There is also a gun. And there is also a book called the Horei (legal code book). It's a book about the law. Ryoma often reads it. So he has it. He also has a theory that he hurt his hand and hid it. He doesn't have anything. So it could be multiple things. Pistol, book of law, peaceful, or he just hurt his hand, or ninja star. This is the fourth one I want to put out there. He didn't have a ninja star.

00:11:08 John Daub: So we have... I got a lot of questions for you. There's a second floor to the Marugoto Kochi store. And we're going to go up there and talk up there. But this signal is a little bit strange. It's a little bit stronger out here. So I thought that I would ask a couple of other questions. And then when we go upstairs, I'm going to ask you who are watching if you have any questions about anything related to the history of Kochi and Sakamoto Ryoma, which is extremely cool. He's got this really cool symbol on his breast here. What is this? You have one too?

00:11:45 Mikako: Yes. This is the same. This is the same. This is the family mark of the Sakamoto family.

00:11:50 John Daub: Oh, family mark is the Japanese... Family crest. That's the word. That's the family crest of it. And I like this one. It's got a flower. The flower is a Japanese flower named kikyo (balloon flower).

00:12:10 Mikako: Kikyo. And this pattern is a square. This is a square. It's a different shape. Kikyo-mon (kikyo crest).

00:12:34 John Daub: The translation, so it's a beautiful symbol. It's got three squares. Oh, look, here we got Austins here. Save us, Austin. As you can see right here. It's got two squares diagonally placed in 90 degrees. One square right here. Yeah. And diagonally 90 degrees rotate, and you got another one. Two squares put together. But why? For peace. I don't know why, but it looks pretty cool. It does look very cool. It looks like the base of the wooden masu sake cups. Yeah, it's Matsu? It's Matsu. What? I got it right? I never get anything right.

00:13:23 John Daub: It's basically, if you've ever had sake, they're usually... You can get them in little sake glasses, that's one way to drink it. But the other is to have it in a wooden box that's made of Japanese cedar. Right. Has a great smell to it, but this has a square shape to it. And so these are... And Kochi's sake is really, really good. So I guess Sakamoto Ryoma really loved sake. Yeah, that's the heart. That's so interesting. I had no idea about that. But there's a lot of things about Sakamoto Ryoma that I simply don't know about. And you won't find it in Wikipedia. Very cool.

00:14:15 John Daub: John Kimura is here. Marty Ditmar is here. Irvan is here. Shane, Jeff Ang, always love learning about history. And Maria Damolakis, you make me miss Japan. Well, that's what this show is all about. The You Should Miss Japan More show. Yeah. Thanks guys for that. This is in Ginza. For those of you who are just joining us right now, the 1000 people, Ginza Ichome Station is on the Yurakucho line. But actually, you could walk here from Yurakucho JR Station, which is, that's the international forum right there, that glass building. Or you could walk from Ginza Station, which is the Ginza Line. It's just like five minutes from here. Or you could walk from Kyobashi Station, or you could walk from, it's just so centrally located, it's easy to get here. I do like coming here because it's not that far away from my house. I live close by. That's right. Yeah. Kanae's watching too. Hi Kanae! Yay.

00:15:19 John Daub: Okay, let's get back to the history of Kochi. Kochi prefecture is, in Japan, it's 47 prefectures. There's 47 prefectures in Japan. Kochi is one of those prefectures. It's on the island of Shikoku, which has four prefectures. Ehime. Wait, wait, don't help me. Hey, don't, she's laughing. I see you laughing. You don't think I could do this. I could totally do this. All right. And don't you chat in the answers either, because I'm reading it. Ehime. Tokushima. Takamatsu-shi. Sanuki udon. What is this? Ehime. Tokushima. Kochi. Kagawa. Kagawa. I knew it. Kagawa. Hakushu. Hakushu. Yay.

00:16:16 John Daub: So those are the four prefectures in the island of Shikoku, which is Japan's smallest main island. And it's also one that doesn't have the Shinkansen, which makes it super adventurous to explore there. And the one with the least amount of tourists. I think it's one of these places that you probably are looking for, but it's not really written a lot in foreign guidebooks yet. Back to Sakamoto Ryoma.

00:16:42 Mikako: Kochi no background. Yeah. Kochi no background. Kochi? Yeah. Mukashi? Tosa-han datta.

00:16:51 John Daub: Yes. So she's saying it. So Kochi wasn't originally known as Kochi, but it was the Tosa area. Oh. And there is, in fact, still in Kochi, an area called a city called Tosa. So this is interesting. So a lot of the prefectures and a lot of the places in Japan, they were called something else during the Edo period, and they changed their names. Some of them as recently as after World War Two. A lot of the even the wards in Tokyo changed their names. And now we have 23 wards. But just a few decades ago, it was different. Kochi was not known as Kochi. Kochi janaiyo ne? So. Mukashi wa Tosa. Tosa. So Ryoma san ga itta jidai wa Tosa-han. Tosa-han. Um. So ima Kochi. Hai. Kochi no imi wa nan desu ka? Kochi no imi wa nan darou? Nan darou? What does Kochi mean?

00:17:39 Mikako: This is a takai and Kochi is. Shishiki? I'm not sure. Shiteru? Shitemasu? Shiteru. I'm not sure. It just means like a high knowledge? High knowledge. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. It's like a high knowledge answer. Yeah. That sounds correct to me for right now.

00:18:00 John Daub: Um, but Kochi is a new, uh, modern name for that area. But again, like the names have changed over the, over history in Sakamoto Ryoma's time. It was T-O-S-A Tosa. And when you go down there, you'll find a lot of the products have the name Tosa on there. The historical name for Kochi, which is, was Tosa. Tosa. Yeah.

00:18:23 Mikako: Sakamoto Ryoma kekon shimashita? Ryoma kekon shimashita yo.

00:18:27 John Daub: So he was married. To a beautiful geisha. So he married a Kyoto girl. Kochi janai. So he married a Kyoto girl. And it was called the first honeymoon. Come on. The first honeymoon of any married couple. So when Ryoma and Oryo got married. Well, for one thing, there was a price on his head. And he needed to lay low. Yeah. He was being hunted by the government. And he'd also been injured in an assassination attempt. So the two of them went to places as obscure as they could find. Kirishima Onsen in Miyazaki-ken. And on the border of Miyazaki and Kagoshima. And there they had a honeymoon. And he recuperated in the onsen hot water.

00:19:25 John Daub: Onsen (hot spring) is a very therapeutic way to rejuvenate and get your youth back. Like a fountain of youth. Am I lying? Actually, how old? I guess you could be three, four hundred years old. We would never know. Because you also go to the onsen. I'm actually, my true age is seventy-eight years old. But as somebody who visits onsens regularly, it's good for the skin. Tsuru tsuru (smooth skin). Tsuru tsuru. Kochi also has some really fantastic onsen. That's interesting. I didn't know that he got married when he was on the run.

00:19:57 Mikako: Yes. She helped save him from the first assassination. The first assassination attempt.

00:20:02 John Daub: Sadly, there was another attempt that was successful. Why did people want to kill him?

00:20:09 Kiara: Why did people want to kill him? He was a very conspicuous motivational leader of the anti-Tokugawa movement. He was against the shogun. Yes. Oh. He played a major role. And he was an inspirational leader in the sense that Mikako-san has already explained. He had a personality that was so attractive. People wanted to listen to him. That he could persuade them of his ideas. And therefore he was feared and hunted down by the Tokugawa secret police.

00:20:46 John Daub: That's really interesting. So I want you to think of it in a Star Wars term. If Darth Vader was, Darth Vader would be Ieyasu Tokugawa, the shogun. Alright. He's the empire. And Ryoma is like Luke Skywalker. Maybe. Maybe Han Solo. Han Solo or Luke Skywalker. I'm not sure. Maybe Han Solo. Because he was a charismatic figure. And people would follow him. Look how handsome he is. Look at him. Look at him. He's a handsome man. He's got all his hair there. Look at that. Not that that's a mark of handsomeness. But he does have a very lustrous head of hair. He's got a strong face. A nice smile. There are pictures of him. And people would follow Sakamoto Ryoma. And that was scary. And they would marry to the shogunate and they put a price on his head. But he survived. And married a beautiful woman in Kyoto. And they had a honeymoon at an onsen. Sounds something like what Kanae and I did. So honeymoons at onsen are a big deal. Even today.

00:21:46 Mikako: His wife, after he got assassinated, came to this region. Okay. And she went to a place called Yokohama. And worked in a place called Tanakaya Restaurant. It is still here. Oh wow. It is operated presently. Very close to Yokohama JR Station. And you can see a picture of Tanakaya. Yes. And Tokaido Gojusan-tsugi. Tanakaya is there. And Oryo-san actually worked there. And Oryo-san retired and died in Yokosuka. So all the history is over there.

00:22:23 John Daub: Very interesting. So what Austin was saying through the face mask. I think people heard that there's an actual restaurant down in Yokohama. Where his wife was working at. Tanakaya. Tanakaya. And it's still in operation. People can eat there. Absolutely. Right. That's really interesting. So he was finally assassinated. What happened? Why?

00:22:44 Mikako: Everyone knows. So Sakamoto Ryoma. What kind of death? How did he die?

00:22:52 Kiara: He was assassinated. On November 15, 1867. November 15, 1867. Which is also his death. On his 32nd birthday.

00:23:01 John Daub: On his birthday he was assassinated. 32 years old? Born in 1835. Assassinated in 1867. Just a few weeks before the Tokugawa regime crashed. Which he had done as much as anyone to bring about. But he was assassinated on the second floor of an inn called the Omiya. Which is now a yakitori in Kyoto. So it's now a yakitori restaurant in Kyoto. That's where he was assassinated. Can you still eat yakitori there? There's some history here. It has become a yakitori. There's a historical marker on the street outside. But most people just pass by without noticing it. Interesting.

00:23:45 Kiara: But he, one of his friends was a sumo wrestler. And that was his bodyguard. And so the bodyguard was obviously supposed to protect him and his colleague, Nakaoka Shintaro from another attack. Another assassination. But when the, whoever it is, we're still not sure, when the assassins came, they... Ninja. Possibly the Shinsengumi, who were a self-appointed posse. A posse. That's just as cool. Okay, a posse. Let's make sure it's cool. They killed the sumo wrestler. They tricked him and then stabbed him in the back and then walked right over his body to rush upstairs to the house. And then they took him to the second floor. And there they caught Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro unawares and killed them both. Ryoma very quickly and Shintaro two days later died of his wounds. There are, there's a statue of the two of them in Maruyama Koen in Kyoto, one of the most beautiful places at any season of the year, but especially under the cherry blossoms. And it's very appropriate. Cherry blossoms. The sakura petals fall at the point of their greatest beauty. When they're young, they don't wither away like, say, maple leaves. Instead, they fall in the same way that he and Shintaro.

00:25:19 John Daub: So a posse of ninjas... No, I'm just making that up. So basically he was assassinated at the age of 32, which is such a tragic thing just weeks before the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. That's very, very sad. And this isn't Ieyasu Tokugawa. This is another Tokugawa. Ieyasu was from the 1600s. All right. But the family line had been Shogun for over 200 years. Yoshinobu. The 15th Shogun was Yoshinobu. Yeah. He abdicated in two stages. And the first stage was the Shogun of the Shogunate. Ryoma was actually involved in the negotiations. But the second more final culmination was after Ryoma had already died. Wow. So that's very interesting. This is a lot of the stuff that I really didn't know about. All of this is... Even though he was assassinated in Kyoto, he was somebody trying to bring peace to Japan, assassinated because of the power and the charisma that this handsome man who's holding probably manga, right? I don't know. It could be something in there, but something that brought people together. Manga brings people together. So it's sad that he didn't make it until the age of 32. But this photo is very famous.

00:26:37 Mikako: This past is from the photo, right? Yes. An old photo.

00:26:41 John Daub: There's an actual picture of it. And there aren't too many pictures of real life samurai, but there's a real picture of him that exists. And this is the pose that he's in in one of those pictures that you could see probably on the internet just searching him. Oh, there it is right there. Excellent. Yeah. I like the way his eyes are looking a thousand yards ahead. He's got that stare. And then you can see his hand is in his shirt like this. We're not quite sure what's in there. That's an amazing pose. And so he's kind of had the... His hakama there isn't actually in great shape. It's kind of damaged. Sort of she was saying like damaged jeans. That makes it so cool. And he's also wearing boots, which Kiara was telling us he was the first samurai to do that. He's the first samurai to wear boots. This dude was... He was... And I'm going to call him a dude because yeah. He's a trendsetter. Yes, exactly. He's a trendsetter. So Sakamoto Ryoma, he didn't have his kimono perfect. It looked like it was a little bit rugged. So that gave it kind of that rugged jean look to that era. But more importantly, he's the first samurai to wear boots in the... In a photo. Probably they wore them. But in a photo, usually you want to look your best. Yeah. Edo, thank you.

00:28:11 Guest: Just a question for you. Sakamoto Ryoma was very respectful of women, wasn't he?

00:28:16 Mikako: Yes, he was. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes. Ryoma was very kind to women, but he had a big sister. A big sister... And that sister was name Otome. Right? There was a woman named Otome who was about three years older than Ryoma. Ryoma is a woman, but she is taller and has a better figure than Ryoma. She was nicknamed the demon king of the Sakamoto family in Tosa. Ryoma lost his mother when he was young, so Otome raised him instead of his mother. Ryoma's sister raised him, and Ryoma was very smart in treating women because he had a lot of relationships with his sister. Ryoma was polite and kind to women, which was not common in his time. This may be one of the reasons he was so charismatic. He had a bigger audience. This is a reason why even today he is such a popular figure. He brought people together. It didn't matter who you were when you think of Sakamoto Ryoma. You think that he was for everybody.

00:29:48 John Daub: That's the feeling I got. I remember when I flew into Kochi Prefecture. Usually flying to Kochi is better than taking the train because it's quite a long ride. There's no Shinkansen to get there. If you fly in there about 90 minutes from Tokyo, you'll see statues of Sakamoto Ryoma all over Kochi as well as inside of the airport. It's the picture I get when I go through security of Sakamoto Ryoma sitting there. It's on my Instagram feed. Everyone always snaps a picture because he's such a cool guy in so many ways. Not just fashion. But the way he treated the ladies. We can all learn from Sakamoto Ryoma. Let's go up to the second floor here and we're going to answer some of your questions. Let's go.

00:30:34 John Daub: As we scramble up to get to the second floor. This is the inside of the Kochi shop here. We're going to be doing a live stream in about an hour from now. We're going to get a chance to take a look at not just the Yosakoi which is a very special dance. But after this is the... We're doing the snacks. Oh. So after this... After this live stream with the history, we're going to be... We're going to be going inside of the Kochi store and then buying some snacks and having an eating binge. Because there's a lot of things that you can only get in the Kochi store in here. And we're going to bring that in another live stream. Julio writes in, who are these people? These people are good people. And friends who have experience and knowledge going to Kochi. So the signal might drop off.

00:31:46 John Daub: Welcome to inside of the Kochi store. This is the second floor. This is a restaurant inside of here where you can get really specialized cuisine. Japan has 47 prefectures. But they're also within those prefectures different regions. This store has a restaurant that serves cuisine from Kochi and the Shimanto River area. And the Tosa area. And the mountains up there. And on the coast. So it's a pretty cool place to try. All sorts of different feels. Thunderbeard is someone who loves Japanese history. It's great to see you talking about people about Sakamoto Ryoma on the stream. I think he deserves his own live stream. And if not, an entire episode. Look at all the maps on the table. Whoa. So I guess we can show you where Kochi is on the map.

00:32:37 John Daub: So this is a full map of Kochi. Now Kochi is also a place in India. For those who don't know. It has a bigger population than probably all of Japan. Am I right or what? So people when they search Kochi, K-O-C-H-I. You probably get a place in India. But just write Kochi, Japan. You'll get there eventually. Where was Sakamoto born I wonder? Where was he born?

00:33:09 Mikako: Where was he born?

00:33:11 John Daub: So we're looking on the map to see the town that he was born in. Born in Kochi City. Kochi City? Near the airport? Because that's where I see the statue of him all the time. Well the airport was named after him. Oh yeah, the airport is named after Sakamoto Ryoma. You can see the birthplace and homes of all of the famous people in Kochi. Kochi history. Oh good, yeah. In the city of Kochi. Right, I think Mike has it here. Kami-machi. Kami-machi City. Yeah. It's on the kind of eastern side of Kochi City. Right. On the east side. Very cool.

00:33:58 John Daub: And I guess you can see all of his homes and his junior high school. And the information about his high school days. I don't know. So what kind of... He didn't really like kendo. When he was little. When he was little. When he was little. He didn't like kendo. He was weak. He was weak. He was weak. And how do you say it? He was not good at sleeping. How do you say it? He wasn't good at sleeping. He was... He was a... A bed wetter.

00:34:41 John Daub: Seriously? So the great samurai was a bed wetter. And look, if you do what your bed does, no problem with that. You'll grow out of it. or eventually find a solution to it. Yeah, but here's a story for the bedwetters. If you're a kid and you are bedwetting the bed, I want you to know that Japan's greatest samurai was also a bedwetter. So there's hope. Don't think of the time where you're wetting the bed as the only time in your life. You will grow out of this and become something great. So don't worry about it. Ryoma was one too. It's true. I won't admit if I was, and you out there will just have to use your imagination. Yeah. Wow!

00:35:53 Mikako: There was a guy I first met in Tosa. His face was open. His face was open. Yeah. He was my first love. There was a guy I first met. It all changed when he met his first love.

00:36:07 John Daub: His first love? Wasn't his wife? Apparently, no. No? Whoa! How old was he when he first fell in love?

00:36:15 Mikako: How old was he when he fell in love? I wonder how old he was. He was in his teens. In his teens. In his teens.

00:36:24 John Daub: He was a teenager when he first fell in love. I mean, he died at age 32. What can you add to that? Well, he left for Edo when he was 17. By that point, his kendo training and his swordsmanship had gotten to the point that the Tosa Han, the Yamanouchi clan head, sent him as an official representative of Tosa Han to one of the most famous fencing schools in Edo, the Chiba Dojo. And there, he became one of the most accomplished fencers. It's a word that doesn't have the same connotation in Japanese as it would in English. A swordsman. And that's also where he came into contact with a lot of the people who influenced him as a teenager. And this was simultaneous with the arrival of Commodore Perry and the U.S. fleet. Oh, right! Yeah, the black ship coming in. Interesting. So this is a very active time historically for Japan. It's the end of the 19th century between 1850s and the Meiji era. And the Meiji era ended the Edo period, and that's when the Shogun abdicated. And then Emperor Meiji took over, and the power was taken away from, I guess, the military, which is the Shogun was, and given back to the Emperor, which is something else. Then we move on to World War II and all the other information over the years. And then we get back to today.

00:38:00 Guest: May I ask Sensei that... We have all the drinks over there. It's yuzu. And I wonder if Sakamoto-ryo will like yuzu.

00:38:10 John Daub: Oh, yeah! So everybody has a drink here. Check it out. This drink on the table is a citrus fruit famous in Kochi called yuzu (citrus fruit). Y-U-Z-U. Did he like it? Oh, that's yuzu senbei! I love this yuzu senbei. They're like little fortune cookies. Yeah. They're so good. They're so good.

00:38:54 Guest: So he liked Yuzu. Hi. His friend came from the Kitagawa area, which is very famous for its yuzu. So we don't know for sure, but there's a good likelihood that he did enjoy yuzu like most people in Kochi. I think he liked yuzu. There's something refreshing about it. It's like a... I don't know. It's not... It's a unique citrus fruit that's a little bit more bitter, but you can add sugar to it. It's pretty good. It's pretty good.

00:39:21 John Daub: Okay. The vast majority of yuzu harvested in Kochi is more of a post-war... Post-war. And most of the active farms are... They used to be rice paddies. So rice became much less lucrative as a commodity, and so many rice paddies were converted into making yuzu. And so even though yuzu probably existed quite a bit before, it was much less harvested as it is now. So probably Sakamoto Ryoma didn't have as much exposure to yuzu as we do today. Yeah, and at least other prefectures and other places weren't as exposed to yuzu and some of the citrus fruits that are common on our table today. Yeah, there's a big one down in Kochi, the big citrus fruit. You ever seen that one? It's the size of a watermelon. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, what's that one? It's a massive citrus fruit. Buntan (large citrus). Buntan, yeah. Buntan. And then now even bergamot... She doesn't know. Dun, dun, dun. Oh, that's the... Oh, that's the... That's the Gifu... Gifu... I mean, sorry. Bergamot, which is a French citrus fruit, that's one of the few places in Japan where bergamots are raised. Wow, great. So we have to bring Mike back for the citrus fruit talk. Yeah, there it is. Right there. Buntan. Buntan, yeah. This one is massive, this one. It's not that thick. Yeah. The skin itself is about that thick, so it takes real effort to get out. Yeah, it's really thick. You open it up, it's like an avocado getting ripped off when the seed is this big. The skin on that citrus fruit's like this big. You get down to it, it's like the size of an orange. No, it's not that bad. It's not that bad. It's really... It's interesting to try, and I love buying them at the stores.

00:41:20 Guest: Can I ask you something? You said that Ryoma really respected your sister. Was there a reason why that was so rare in that era? And what did you ask? Oh, sorry, I asked... Everyone's looking at me like, excuse me, we don't speak Japanese, all of us. So I was asking why was Ryoma being polite to his sister? And being respectful was such a... A deal. An unusual...

00:42:02 Mikako: Yeah. Ryoma has a lot of letters he wrote to the public. One of the most famous ones is the one he wrote to Otome when he went on a honeymoon with Oryo. He wrote a letter to Otome on his honeymoon, and he wrote a picture of him climbing a mountain, called Takachiho-mine. He explained it to him. He does the same thing well. He goes up to your weight and says oriu n Abstract your feelings of your sister's. Yes, I mean, because... When Ryoma is around, even when he goes around, when Ryoma comes to his left side, he doesn't rebound his. Yeah. When he's around, it's different, right? Yeah. how he and his wife climbed this mountain. It's like, this is the route we took, and this is how much fun we had. And so he sort of had this really clearly deep connection with her. Interesting.

00:43:06 Kiara: So that's a letter that Ryoma wrote about his honeymoon. Yeah. So while probably there were other samurai who also cared for their sisters, they didn't really leave any proof, as it were. But in the case of Ryoma, he left lots. So we have a very special view into his sort of family life.

00:43:43 John Daub: So he was only 32. He was only 32, but he had quite an amazing life that we're learning. And in just a short amount of time, I'm 46. And I have only done a fraction of what Ryoma has done. No one will ever remember me in history, but they're going to remember him. But what we learned from this story is that such a diverse person, such a diverse samurai in this time left such a mark on history that we're still talking about him so many years. And he was only alive for 32 of them. That's pretty amazing to me.

00:44:22 Guest: Anyway, Glenn, is there anything that you think that aspects of Sakamoto Ryoma's 32 years of life that people should know about that we haven't talked about yet? What attracts me to Ryoma was that he was involved in almost every major event during this really crowded time period from 1853 to 1867. But also, if you change his convictions and his strategy, he was able to convince others to follow him, but he also had a flexible enough way of thinking that he could be convinced, he could be persuaded. And so originally, he was in favor of banishing all foreigners from Japan. Wow. But then he realized, as a result of events that others ignored, events persuaded him that Japan needed the Western technology, particularly naval technology that he was very much involved in, in order to advance. And so he had a flexible way of thinking. One of the best examples of this was when he came to see Katsu Kaishu in Edo with the intention of assassinating him. Katsu was one of the top officials in the Tokugawa shogunate. And in charge of the Navy, such as it was, there wasn't really much of a Navy, to be in charge of. But as a Tokugawa official, he was the enormous enemy and a target. So he burst into his house and said, I'm going to assassinate you. And he announced it like that? Announced. Oh, yeah. Never did anything sneaky. So Katsu Kaishu, who's, again, one of my favorite people in history, said, you can do that. You have me at a disadvantage. You've got a weapon. I'm unarmed. But why don't we talk for an hour about the problems that Japan faces right now? And we'll just discuss them peacefully. And at the end of that hour, if you still feel like killing me, then I won't resist. And this was not a ploy. The two of them sat down. Kaishu was an older man. But in the space of an hour, there was a meeting of the minds. They developed mutual respect for each other. And they realized that even though they were on opposite sides, they had the same goals in mind. And Ryoma. He gave up any idea of assassinating him and instead joined with him in developing Western shipbuilding technology and the origins of the Japanese Navy.

00:47:08 John Daub: That's really amazing. And I think even today, it's rare. People are so stuck in their convictions and the way they think these days. We can take a page from Sakamoto Ryoma and just listen and talk. He saved his own life by just convincing somebody, within the space of an hour. I wish I had that power to convince. And also changed somebody that made them change sides to his side. And he had that kind of charisma. I'm learning about this for the first time, just like a lot of you. But wow, to hear that story, that's very powerful, Glenn. And we can learn so much from Ryoma. Being able to change our convictions or change the way we see something, to see it in a better way, see it in a different way, and be able to listen to other people and maybe have that understanding. And I think that's something that I think we see so little today, that he had this kind of power to do that. Very powerful indeed.

00:48:04 Guest: Can I add one point? Oh, yeah. We're in a building that is run by Kochi Prefecture. So everything here should be revolving around Tosa and Kochi. But actually, Ryoma was obviously from there. He traveled all over Japan. But he was a global thinker at a time when Japan there was no globalization. Japan had been isolated for two to 300 years. He was really the first Japanese to be thinking in global terms. So in that sense, he's also a good lesson for today. And this was, again, during the era of Commodore Perry coming in with the black ship. And it was Commodore Perry who forced Japan to open up firing cannons from Tokyo Bay into the castle. Threatening. Threatening. He's threatening. Oh, he never did it? It wasn't necessary. Wasn't necessary. Yeah. Just threatening was enough. Right, Kiara? Threaten with your eyes.

00:49:05 Kiara: Can I ask a question? Oh, yeah, please. So he seems to be a very charismatic character with so much personality and so much influence. And he seems to have accomplished so much in these 32 years. In the context of modern Japan, what would you say is his biggest contribution to the way Japan has evolved since his death during his time? What impact did he really leave that lasted even to today?

00:49:27 John Daub: Wow. That's a great question. What impact did, oh, sorry, I had the camera on the wrong thing. What impact did he leave in his 32 years that we still have today? That's an amazing question. That's one to end on, too. Yeah. I got it. Yeah.

00:49:49 Mikako: I've done a lot of things. I also went to the National Maritime Corps in Nagasaki, which is a marine corps. I went to the Maritime Corps in Nagasaki, which is a marine corps. From there, I began to do trade. I started making my first company in Japan. And during the Maritime Corps, I wrote the teaching of Senchu Hassaku, which is the constitution of Japan. Constitution, yeah. The first draft of the Constitution. Constitution, yeah. So, Ryoma left the first draft of the Japanese Constitution.

00:50:59 Guest: His ideas were more radical than the ones that were followed by the eventual Meiji leaders. He believed that the imperial family had been powerless for so many hundreds of years that there was no way that the emperor could rule Japan. So he instead wanted a bicameral legislature. He was influenced by the British Parliament or the US Congress. And if his ideas had been adopted, Japan would have had a much more democratic future. It would have been a much more democratic system in the Meiji period than what eventually evolved.

00:51:33 John Daub: Wow. I know one thing. As somebody who has been living in Japan for 23 years now, it's very hard to affect change here, to get people to change the way they think. And Ryoma thought in such a different way than everybody else at that time. I mean, you can see why so many people saw him as such a disruptor for his era and why he had a price on his head. And having to do and affect change. I wonder what was his motivation to do the way he did? Because the way he thought, the way he lived his life for change put him in danger. And I think that that would be a reason why people would not want to do that. But he was so motivated to go ahead and push for this kind of change. I wonder what was his motivation for that?

00:52:30 Mikako: I think that the discrimination was a bit of a problem. And because he was a member of the same caste as his boss, he was very frustrated with the way he was treated. He wanted to make his family and his parents happy. He wanted to make his family happy. That was one of his motivations. And then there was Tosa. There was a lot of discrimination. There was a lot of discrimination in the area that he was in.

00:53:02 Guest: He was saying the Tosa clan was particularly sort of stiff and tough regarding hierarchy. And he was not a high-ranking samurai. So he experienced a lot of discrimination. And he felt that this wasn't necessarily a good thing. And he wanted to actually make things better for himself and his family and wanted to find a way to do that. So that was one reason. And then Tosa was from the Pacific. So from the Pacific, I could see the ocean. There was a foreign route coming from there. He had a global view of the sea. With his relatives who were also called Europpa, where they knew a lot about Western history. And he showed them a map of the world when he was a child. So I thought he would make his family happy, and not just go to Japan. It's a delicious idea to go out into the world. And I think that's what he wants to be.

00:54:00 John Daub: thing was that Kochi actually fronts on the Pacific Ocean. Yes, good. The Pacific Ocean and within his own family he had people who were kind of involved with, was it map making? So within his family he had somebody who was nicknamed Mr. Europe, quite literally, who had this big map of the world. And so from a very young age he was shown that there is a world outside of Japan, which was quite unusual at the time. That's very interesting. So again, from his upbringing, he was not a high-ranking samurai and Tosa was very, the clan part of that area was very strict and rigid and he was discriminated against at that time. And I guess whenever you feel like that, when you're growing up, you're going to have some kind of a different kind of a passion to push for change because this is how you were raised. And I guess what I'm learning for the first time, I don't know a lot about the history of Sakamoto Ryoma, just like you guys here, but it seems like he was really impacted by the geography of Kochi being facing the sea and having all of those ships going by there. If you look on the map of Kochi Prefecture, the entire prefecture, the face of it is towards the Pacific. It's an amazing sea prefecture. Whereas like Hiroshima, for example, that side of Japan has the bay, even Kobe and Osaka is sort of sheltered from the Pacific. Kochi is all Pacific, baby. And this is where you're going to see a lot of ships from abroad going by there. And somebody had a map and influenced him. I guess it's the same thing. If you're a kid and one of your buddies has a manga under his arm, he goes, what's that? And he shows you the pictures of manga in there. And then you start to fall in love with manga too. Somebody had a map of the world and he saw the map of the world and said, this is cool. And then fell in love with the global way of thinking, something different than the way that he was used to. That makes him different and special. And without Sakamoto Ryoma, I wonder what Japan would be like. Sakamoto Ryoma, without Sakamoto Ryoma, what would Japan be like? What do you think? Without Sakamoto Ryoma, would we even have Japan?

00:56:27 Guest: I don't think so. Without Ryoma, the Tokugawa War would have continued for a long time. I don't think so. I don't think it would have been the way that Japan is today. If Ryoma hadn't existed, hadn't lived, probably the Tokugawas would have continued on for a lot longer than they did. And perhaps the way that Japan is set up today wouldn't even exist. Wouldn't be existed. Without Sakamoto Ryoma, we might still have a shogun. We'd still have ninjas and geisha running around the streets, maybe. Everyone would be dressing in yukata and kimono.

00:57:13 John Daub: Very interesting. Yes, that is Ruth back there, for those that know Ruth. I see you. All right, guys. So this has been really interesting. I want to say thank you to everybody who has come here. I will spend like one minute or two or two minutes or so to answer any questions that you might have to answer them. Raymond Centeno writes in here, I love this content. Brings me back to my Japanese history class, learning about the Meiji Restoration. Awesome. Very interesting. Here. Oh, we got a lot of questions here. Chris Miller, welcome. Nate R227, just recently subscribed. Thank you. Michael Sasano, what type of food is Kochi most known for? Michael, we're doing that next in about... Namafu-gari? Namafu-gari. Namafu-gari. Great. It's the best time space and we're delivering the best foods and snacks of Kochi increases so you won't have to wait long at all for that one. Thanks for asking that. Thunder Beard is here, is somebody who loves Japanese history. Yes. And Leonel Sanchua from Philippines, welcome. And Maria Damolakis. I said it right? I'm not a samurai but one day perhaps I will be. Vic, Vic thank you. Mad Hata. All right, folks. There you go. Any last questions or comments, anybody want to say one last word? What's one word that is on your mind? Anything?

00:58:34 Mikako: Matane? That's a good word. Matane. Kochi-ben. Do they have any like kochi-ben for matane or something? Sayonara? Eh, what is it? What is it? Ryoma-ben. Sakamoto Ryoma-ben. What is it? Mata aozeyo. Mata... Eh? What? Mata aozeyo. Mata aozeyo? Aozeyo. Aozeyo. It sounds like... That sounds Korean.

00:59:05 John Daub: Alright. So thanks so much for asking about it. If you have any questions about Kochi Prefecture, leave them down below in the comments and I'll try to answer as many as you can. And we'll have the team here take a look as well and reply to some of your feedback. And I want to say a big thank you to our sensei.

00:59:22 All: Thank you! Mikako sensei! Thank you!

00:59:26 Mikako: You're welcome. Yeah.

00:59:28 John Daub: Mikako is a rekishi idol and she dresses the part. Please stand up. For everyone watching. You can see... You can see her beautiful kimono. She's dressed in the same kimono as Sakamoto Ryoma. Look at this. Beautiful. Woo! Nice. And the boots too! Mikako! Kirei desu (beautiful). Alright. Thanks everybody. See you in a few minutes on the next live stream. Bye bye.