Having spent sixteen years studying and working in Japan as a writer and journalist, Romulus Hillsborough now lives in Southern California.

Table of Contents

Note on Dates, Names, Romanization and Pronunciation

Map of Japan

Map of Ky¿to

Preface

Introduction

Part I: The Assassination of Ii Naosuké and the Beginning of the End of the Tokugawa Bakufu

¿1.¿The Background of the Assassination of Ii Naosuké

¿2.¿The Conspiracy to Assassinate Ii Naosuké

¿3.¿The Assassination of Ii Naosuké

Part II: The Rise and Fall of Takéchi Hanpeita and the Tosa Loyalist Party

¿4.¿The Gap

¿5.¿Takéchi Hanpeita and His Tosa Loyalist Party

¿6.¿The Assassination of Yoshida T¿y¿

¿7.¿"Divine Punishment"

¿8.¿Lord Y¿d¿'s Comeback

¿9.¿The Assassination of Anégak¿ji Kintomo

10.¿Lord Y¿d¿'s Crackdown

11.¿In Prison (1)

12.¿The Failed Rebellions of Ch¿sh¿ and Mito

13.¿In Prison (2)

14.¿The Stoicism of a Samurai: Takéchi Hanpeita's Death

Part III: The Assassination of Sakamoto Ry¿ma

15.¿Ry¿ma's Greatest Achievements

16.¿The Motives

17.¿Unsolved Mystery-To a Certain Extent

18.¿The Assassins

19.¿The Attack

20.¿The Aftermath

21.¿Civil War

22.¿"The Man Who Killed Sakamoto Ry¿ma"

Epilogue: The Second Existential Crisis of the Samurai Class

Glossary

Era Names and Dates

Chapter Notes

Bibliography

Index