Yoshida Toshimaro (吉田稔麿)
Toshimaro YOSHIDA (March 16, 1841 - July 8, 1864) was an activist of the Choshu Domain who was active in the late Edo period. His childhood name was Eitaro. In 1863, he changed his name to Toshimaro. Genzui KUSAKA, Shinsaku TAKASUGI and Toshimaro YOSHIDA are collectively known as The Three Greatest Descendants of Shoin.
(They are also known as The Four Kings of Shokason-juku when including Kuichi IRIE.)
He was born as the first son of Seinai YOSHIDA, an ashigaru (foot soldier) in Shindo, Matsumoto Village, Hagi Domain. He was said to be a person of few words and serious mind. He mastered the Hozoin school art of spearmanship and the Yagyu Shinkage school art of swordsmanship. He also used the pseudonym Fuhyoken.
He joined Shokason-juku, a private school operated by Shoin YOSHIDA, and mastered military science. Shoin left a good evaluation on Toshimaro.
When Shoin was sent to jail for political crimes in 1858, Toshimaro left his master temporarily to protect his own relatives and family. However, there is a story that when Shoin was sent to Edo the following year, Toshimaro said goodbye through a hole in the wall of a neighboring house.
In November 1860, he left his Domain without permission but was pardoned in 1862. In November of the same year, he attended Shoin's memorial service for the first time.
In July 1863, he joined Kiheitai Irregular Militia, which had been founded by Shinsaku TAKASUGI. He set up the Toyutai Militia in August. In the Warship Choyo Incident of September, he boarded the ship wearing a black lacquered eboshi hat and traditional hitatare robes and succeeded in obtaining the release of the ship.
During the Ikedaya Incident (an armed encounter between Activists and the Shinsengumi special police) of July 8, 1864, YOSHIDA was at the inn, but had left temporarily to return to his quarters. When he later returned, he found the Ikedaya surrounded by the Shinsengumi and, after a hard fight, he was killed. A recent theory has proposed that when YOSHIDA, who was at the Lord of Choshu's Kyoto mansion, heard about the incident from someone who had managed to escape, he headed to the Ikedaya but encountered a large force of soldiers from Aizu Domain and died in the ensuing battle. In another theory, he was attacked at the Ikedaya and ran back to the Lord of Choshu's Kyoto mansion to raise the alarm but, unable to open the gate, he killed himself with his sword. He was 24 years old.
In later years, Yajiro SHINAGAWA (Viscount), a graduate of Shokason-juku and a Genkun (veteran statesman) of the Meiji period is claimed to have said 'If Toshimaro had lived, he would have been prime minister' in later years.
There is a tombstone for the martyrs of the Ikedaya Incident in Sanen-ji Temple (Iwakura Hanazono-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City). There are five memorials to him at Kyoto Reizan Gokoku-jinja Shrine (Ryozen-cho, Seikanji, Higashiyama-Ku, Kyoto City); Gokokuzan (Chinto Shiihara, Hagi City); Shunko-ji Temple (Kitafuruhagi-machi, Hagi City); Sakurayama-jinja Shrine (Kamishinchi-cho, Shimonoseki City); and Asahiyama Shokonjo (Aiofutajima, Yamaguchi City, present-day Asahiyama Gokoku-jinja Shrine).
In 1891, he was posthumously awarded Jushii (Junior Fourth Rank).