Sakamoto Ryōma: Kōchi, Nagasaki and Kyoto

Sakamoto Ryōma was born on 3 January 1836 in Kōchi, in the domain of Tosa. The Sakamoto family held the rank of country samurai, or gōshi, the lowest rank in the samurai hierarchy. Unlike other Japanese domains, Tosa enforced a strict separation between upper and lower samurai, so a boy of Ryōma's rank started near the bottom of a rigid ladder. Kōchi today keeps his memory at the Sakamoto Ryōma Birthplace Memorial.

Location precision: The sources name Kōchi and a birthplace memorial but no street address, so this stop has no pin.

In 1865 Ryōma founded Kameyama Shachū in Nagasaki, during the last years of the shogunate. It was initially funded by the Satsuma Domain and other groups and domains, and it is considered the first corporation in modern Japan. The company later became the Kaientai, or Ocean Support Fleet. One of its members, Iwasaki Yatarō, would go on to found Mitsubishi in 1870.

Location precision: The sources name Nagasaki but not the exact building; the pin marks Kameyama Shachū as mapped in OpenStreetMap.

On 9 March 1866 agents of the shogunate raided the Teradaya inn in Fushimi to arrest or assassinate Ryōma. He was saved by the alarm raised by his future wife, Narasaki Ryō, known as Oryō, and defended himself with a Smith & Wesson revolver. He was injured but escaped with his bodyguard Miyoshi Shinzō. The original inn burned down in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi in 1868 and was rebuilt as a tourist attraction.

Visitor guidance: The rebuilt Teradaya in Fushimi is a tourist attraction.

Ryōma was assassinated at the Ōmiya Inn in Kyoto on 10 December 1867, at the age of 31, not long before the Meiji Restoration. His associate Nakaoka died with him. The night became known as the Omiya Incident. Initial reports blamed members of the Shinsengumi, but the identity of the true assassin has never been proven. The pin marks the inn's site as mapped today.

Location precision: The sources don't give the inn's exact spot; the pin marks the Ōmiya site as mapped in OpenStreetMap.

The Sakamoto Ryōma Memorial Museum opened on 15 November 1991 in the grounds of the former Urado Castle at Katsurahama, Kōchi. Its collection holds correspondence and other documents by Ryōma and his contemporaries, and a library of over two thousand books on the Meiji Restoration. A large bronze statue of Ryōma overlooks the sea at Katsurahama. Kōchi's airport was also renamed Kōchi Ryōma Airport in his honour.

Visitor guidance: The museum and the bronze statue are at Katsurahama, Kōchi.