was a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 and loyal supporter of the Emperor

Emperor of Japan

The Emperor of Japan is, according to the 1947 Constitution of Japan, "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." He is a ceremonial figurehead under a form of constitutional monarchy and is head of the Japanese Imperial Family with functions as head of state. He is also the highest...

 during the final days of the Tokugawa regime

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

.

Biography

Hashimoto was born April 19, 1834 in Echizen Province

Echizen Province

was an old province of Japan, which is today the northern part of Fukui Prefecture. It was sometimes called , with Etchū and Echigo Provinces.Echizen is famous for washi . A text dated AD 774 mentions the washi made in this area. Echizen-produced Washi is still the most commonly sold traditional...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. The son of a doctor in the Fukui Clan, he studied medicine in Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

 and Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, where he befriended Saigō Takamori

Saigo Takamori

was one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history, living during the late Edo Period and early Meiji Era. He has been dubbed the last true samurai.-Early life:...

 and others. Upon returning to Echizen, he joined the Clan as a Shoinban and became Deputy Head of the Fukui Domain

Fukui Domain

The was a feudal domain in Echizen Province of Japan during the Edo period. It is also sometimes called '. The family name of the heads of the domain is "Matsudaira".- List of heads :# Hideyasu# Tadanao...

 school.

Inviting Yokoi Shōnan as political adviser on behalf of the daimyō

Daimyo

is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

 Matsudaira Yoshinaga

Matsudaira Yoshinaga

, also known as Matsudaira Keiei, was the 14th head of Fukui Domain during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and politician of the Meiji era. "Yoshinaga" is his imina and "Shungaku" is his gō...

, he became a key figure in the governmental reforms of the clan. Summoned to Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

 in 1857 he actively tried to promote, albeit unsuccessfully, Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu to the 14th Shogunate.

After Ii Naosuke

Ii Naosuke

was daimyo of Hikone and also Tairō of Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan, a position he held from April 23, 1858 until his death on March 24, 1860. He is most famous for signing the Harris Treaty with the United States, granting access to ports for trade to American merchants and seamen and...

 was appointed Tairō

Tairo

Tairō was a high-ranking official position in the bakuhan taisei government of Japan. The tairō would preside over the governing Rōjū council in the event of an emergency. A tairō would be nominated from among a group of samurai families who supported Tokugawa Ieyasu...

 of the Tokugawa shogunate he purged over 100 people in an effort to quiet opposition in what became known as the Ansei Purge

Ansei Purge

The Ansei Purge was a purge, in 1858 and 1859, of over 100 people from the bakufu, various han, and the Japanese Imperial court...

. Hashimoto was one of those prosecuted and was executed by decapitation at Edo's Kozukappara execution grounds

Kozukappara execution grounds

The were one of the three sites in the vicinity of Edo where the Tokugawa shogunate executed criminals in the Edo period. Alternate romanized spellings are Kozukahara and Kotsukappara....

on November 1, 1859. In October 2009, a descendant of Naosuke reconciled with the people of Fukui at a memorial service marking the 150th anniversary of the execution.

External links

• Hashimoto Sanai, Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures. National Diet Library, Japan