1. Kido Takayoshi, formerly known as Katsura Kogoro, was a Japanese statesman, samurai and shishi who is considered one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration.
13 Facts About Kido Takayoshi
1. 2.
Kido Takayoshi spent the next five days in hiding under Nijo Bridge along the Kamo River, posing as a beggar, his lover would bring him rice balls from the shop of the Choshu merchant Imai Taroemon and later aided in his escape.
3.
Kido Takayoshi helped direct the Abolition of the han system.
4.
Kido Takayoshi was later renamed to Kido Takayoshi in 1869.
5.
Kido Takayoshi lost his dominant position in the Meiji oligarchy to Okubo Toshimichi, and resigned from government in protest of the Taiwan Expedition of 1874, which he had strenuously opposed.
6.
Kido Takayoshi was responsible for the education of the young Emperor Meiji.
7.
Kido Takayoshi was enshrined as the Shinto deity of scholarship and the martial arts at the Kido Shrine in about 1886 at Kido Park, Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.
8.
Kido Takayoshi's diary reveals an intense internal conflict between his loyalty to his home domain, Choshu, and the greater interest of the country.
9.
Kido Takayoshi wrote often of having to fight rumors at home that he had betrayed his old friends; the idea of a nation was still relatively new in Japan and so the majority of samurai cared more for securing privileges for their own domain.
10.
Kido Takayoshi was friends with the English Legation interpreter Ernest Satow.
11.
The house where Kido Takayoshi was born and where he lived for about 20 years before moving to Edo still exists in Hagi and is a memorial museum.
12.
Kido Takayoshi is voiced by Tomokazu Seki in the OVA, and portrayed by Issey Takahashi in the 2021 live-action adaptation film Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning.
13.
Kido Takayoshi is the basis for the character of Katsura Kotarou in the manga and anime Gin Tama by Hideaki Sorachi.