Sakamoto Ryōma was a Japanese samurai, a shishi and influential figure of the Bakumatsu, and establishment of the Empire of Japan in the late Edo period.
Ryoma c. 1860s
Sakamoto Ryōma standing (c. 1866 - 1867) and Ryōma's favored western footwear can be seen
The Teradaya Inn in Kyoto, where Sakamoto was attacked in a failed assassination attempt, before being fatally injured at Omiya Inn.
Sakamoto Ryōma in 1867
Bakumatsu was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government. The major ideological-political divide during this period was between the pro-imperial nationalists called ishin shishi and the shogunate forces, which included the elite shinsengumi swordsmen.
A 150-pound Satsuma cannon, built in 1849. It was mounted on Fort Tenpozan at Kagoshima. Caliber: 290mm, length: 4220mm
The Royal Navy frigate HMS Phaeton demanded supplies while in Nagasaki harbour in 1808.
The American merchant ship Morrison of Charles W. King was repelled from Edo Bay in 1837.
Russians meeting Japanese in 1779
