Pursuing Saburōsuke: The Other Last Samurai — Episode 59
三郎助を追う 〜もうひとりのラストサムライ〜 第59回 文・写真 藤野浩章
Shortly after Satsuma entered hostilities with Britain, a coup unfolded in the capital involving imperial courtiers and domain leaders.
The article describes events that followed Satsuma’s outbreak of fighting with Britain, when unrest erupted in the imperial capital. Disillusioned by the Choshu domain’s militancy, Emperor Komei and some court nobles conspired with Satsuma’s Shimazu Hisamitsu and Aizu’s Matsudaira Katamori to launch a coup. The piece places these maneuvers in the larger context of domain politics and mounting conflict in late-Edo period Japan, illustrated with prose and photographs by Fujino Hiroaki.