Katsu Kaishū was an important historical figure and supporting character in Rurouni Kenshin.
Appearance[]
Katsu is an old man with grey hair that is brushed back, long thin eyebrows, a goatee, and wrinkles around his face.
Katsu wears a light blue shirt under a black haori, and brown pants.
Personality[]
Kaishū, as he is known in reality, was widely known as a sensible and honorable person that chose peace and abhorred the option of violence and war. He is much like, if not, greater than Kenshin, in terms of pacifism and settling things with compliance than confrontation, being famous for having tied his katana and scabbard tight enough where he was not even able to draw it even if he wanted to, and even as a samurai of the Tokugawa himself during the rebellious and violent days of the Bakumatsu.
As a youth, his curiosity for the outside world, compassionate inspiration and visionary spirit that overlooked the ideas of classes and castes were what lead him to be knowledgeable and understanding.
In the anime, Kaishū is portrayed as an easy going, yet fatherly and stern elderly adult figure. Though he is a pacifist, Kaishū showed bravery even amongst a threat for his life, and reprimanded his apprentice Daigoro to have more courage and spirit amidst an ongoing battle. When his daughter demanded the whereabouts of Daigoro after he had dismissed and kicked him out of his tutelage, he expressed that his household had rules, and told her not to come back if she did leave for him.
Nevertheless, Kaishū is shown to have great duties of responsibility, even at an old age, feeling that as a member of the old generation, he must help clean up the messes of his age in the sake of the young and new generation of tomorrow. While with regret that he could not accompany his friend Saigō to the Satsuma Rebellion and save his life, Kaishū is intuitive and with a persevering mind in the long term, feeling the need that his life must still go on to help the new era that is becoming.
As a retainer and ally of the of Tokugawa, Kaishū still holds his allegiance strongly with them. Though appreciative of the peace and the efforts of the Meiji, he still knows that the Meiji fears the once great and legendary influence of the Tokugawa clan, and that, despite all atrocities that the Shogunate committed that lead to their collapse, feels the people must come to accept and acknowledge the sacrifice and the man that allowed Edo to be spared from the Bakumatsu's chaos.
Relationships[]
- Katsu Itsuko: Itsuko is Kaishū's (fictional) daughter.
- Ōkuma Daigorō: One of Kaishū's former students, whom he disowned to protect him.
- Okubo Tetsuma: Tetsuma is one of Kaishū's students.
Abilities[]
Kaishū has some skills with a sword, but is unknown what he is capable of.
History[]
Katsu Kaishū Arc[]
Real-Life[]
Kaishū was a samurai, born Katsu Yoshikuni and later renamed to Katsu Yoshiyuki, in January 1823, in Edo (present day Tokyo) to a low-ranking retainer of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The name "Kaishū" was a recurring nickname of his.
Naturally curious and fascinated of the world around him, new doors to the outside nations beyond Japan opened to him when he first looked at a map of the Earth and came to discover the words on a Dutch made cannon. As the Tokugawa Shogunate came to its last years in the Bakumatsu, Kaishū was instrumental in the formation of Japan's Navy after the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, and to shaping the ideals and virtues of the famous Sakamoto Ryōma of the Ishin Shishi, establishing a force based upon skill and ability than the right through birth and caste. These acts quickly led Kaishū to rise in the Shogunate's ranks and lead to the birth of his naval academy.
In January, 1860, Katsu Kaishū commanded the famed Kanrin Maru, on its maiden voyage and made Japan's first authorized trip across the Pacific Ocean. Landing into the bay of San Francisco, Kaishū's image of an equal Japan was further reinforced when he saw and observed the everyday workings of American society. Soon after, Kaishū then quickly had grasped a full understanding of the world outside of Japan, knowing of the rise of colonialism by Western nations and the state of its conquered peoples.
During the year of 1862, as the turbulence of the Bakumatsu was to rise, Kaishū was put under house arrest, had his naval academy immediately closed, and was reduced to base stipends after being caught in the act of hiding enemies of the Shogunate. Under the rule of Tokugawa Iemochi, Kaishu's innovative ways even nearly earned him execution, especially when he brought up the factor that the Shogun should relinquish his power in peace, in order to quell the violent uprisings of the pro sonno-joi imperialist rebels.
In 1866, as the armies of Chōshū quickly defeated the Shogunate's forces at every battle, Kaishū was immediately summoned back to his lofty post of Navy Commander under the rule of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, and was dispatched to Hiroshima to settle with the Chōshū forces. Though he traveled alone and in peace to settle agreements with the representatives of Chōshū, after the success of the mission, Kaishū immediately resigned his post back to his home, knowing of the irreconcilable tensions that could not be settled at the moment.
In the following year of 1867, even as Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned his post to give back power to the Emperor of Japan, the Sacchō army still dealt with those who did not agree with the new imperialist government that was to rise in its stead. In 1868, as the Saccho army was to march onto Edo and directly confront the Shogunate to finally dismantle it by war, Kaishū's help as the advisor and direct retainer to Yoshinobu was needed than ever before. Not wanting the bloody civil war to extend to Edo, in March 1868, Kaishū sent a letter of peaceful negotiation to Saigō Takamori, stating that the retainers of the Tokugawa were an inseparable part of the new Japanese nation, and that, instead of fighting with one another, those of the new government and the old must cooperate in order to deal with the very real threat of the foreign powers, whose legations in Japan anxiously watched the great revolution which had consumed the Japanese nation for these past fifteen years.
Saigō in return, replied with the set of conditions, that Edo Castle be surrendered to the Sacchō army, and they would comply with sparing the Tokugawa retainers, Yoshinobu himself, and the entire city of Edo. On March 14, a day before the planned attack, both Saigō and Kaishū met in person, and fully accepted peaceful terms to spare the new capitol of Japan.
Though he accompanied Yoshinobu to Shizuoka into exile immediately after, Kaishū returned to Tokyo in 1872 and was one of the many Tokugawa retainers that found work in the Meiji Government, servicing the new Imperial Japanese Navy as its Vice Minister, and followed by promotion to first Minister of the Navy from 1873 until 1878.