The Final Resting Place of a Man Who Loved the Defeated: Tracing Katsu Kaishu's "Other Story" at Senzokuike, Ota City

 

1. Why Does the Man Who Saved Edo Sleep in Ota City?

Ota City, Tokyo. Most people picture airports and old shitamachi neighborhoods when they think of this part of town. Few realize that it is also home to a place that cuts straight to the heart of Japan's turbulent final years of samurai rule.

Walk along the shore of Senzokuike pond and the noise of the city fades to silence. The sky reflects off the still water. And there, quietly side by side on the bank, stand a grave and a stone monument — the tomb of Katsu Kaishu, the man who brought the Tokugawa shogunate to a peaceful end, and right beside it, a memorial stone he erected himself for his former adversary, Saigo Takamori.

Why does the shogunate's chief negotiator rest in this place? Why did he build a monument here for a man who was once his enemy?

And there is one more question that lingers. Did Saigo Takamori ever visit this pond?

I am planning to visit the Ota City Katsu Kaishu Memorial Museum soon, in search of answers.

2. Surprise 1: The Negotiation That Saved a Million Lives Was On the Brink of Failure

March 1868. The new imperial army was marching up the Tokaido highway, and a full-scale assault on Edo seemed only days away.

Their field headquarters were established at Ikegami Honmonji Temple, which still stands in present-day Ota City. From there, Saigo Takamori was preparing to lead an attack on one of the largest cities in the world, home to one million people.

But history moved in a different direction.

Katsu Kaishu, appearing as the shogunate's sole negotiator, confronted Saigo directly: "If we fight here, Edo will be reduced to ashes. And if foreign powers use that chaos as an excuse to intervene, Japan itself could become a colony."

What Katsu was fighting to protect was not the shogunate's pride. It was the lives of one million people living in Edo — and the very survival of Japan as a nation.

From Ikegami Honmonji to Senzokuike is roughly 2 kilometers as the crow flies. Within that short distance, the "prelude" and the "aftermath" of the bloodless surrender of Edo — one of the most remarkable peaceful transfers of power in world history — are preserved to this day.

3. Surprise 2: Katsu Kaishu Lived the Contradiction of Being the Shogunate's Man Who Ended the Shogunate

After achieving the bloodless surrender, Katsu Kaishu found himself in an extraordinarily complicated position.

A loyal retainer of the shogunate who had brought the shogunate to its end. A man who served in the new Meiji government while openly criticizing its clan-based politics. A man who kept his distance from the likes of Ito Hirobumi and Yamagata Aritomo, yet spoke more passionately than anyone about Japan's future.

The Meiji government appointed him Navy Minister and awarded him the title of count. But Katsu's attention was elsewhere.

Caring for the former shogunate retainers who had lost their livelihoods. And restoring the honor of Tokugawa Yoshinobu.

"If you're in trouble, go to Katsu" — that was his reputation among his former colleagues, and he worked tirelessly on their behalf. He also spent decades lobbying for Yoshinobu to be granted an audience with the Meiji Emperor. That wish was finally granted twenty-nine years after the surrender of Edo Castle.

4. Surprise 3: Katsu Built a Monument to the Man the Government Had Condemned as a Traitor

In 1877, the Satsuma Rebellion broke out. Saigo Takamori raised arms against the very government he had helped create, and died in defeat in Kagoshima.

The government branded Saigo a traitor and the ringleader of a rebel army. Praising the former hero had become, in effect, a political taboo.

Yet Katsu Kaishu stood apart.

"There was no one like Saigo," he said openly, and he remained involved in efforts to restore Saigo's reputation. Then, on the grounds of his beloved retreat at Senzokuike, he erected a memorial stone in Saigo's honor.

Was it an act of defiance toward the government? Or simply a pure expression of friendship?

The stone still stands today, quietly, right beside Katsu's own grave.

5. Imagination and Verification: Did Saigo Ever Visit This Pond?

Here, a certain imagined scene begins to take shape.

Katsu loved Senzokuike and built a retreat here. He erected Saigo's memorial stone just steps away. Connect those two facts, and a picture emerges.

——Could it be that the two men once walked and talked together along this very shore?

That March, when Saigo's headquarters were at Ikegami Honmonji Temple nearby, what if the two men strolled together along this quiet pond after their negotiations? Two men who were, by all rights, enemies — one from the shogunate side, one from the new government — standing by the water, watching the sky reflected on the surface, talking about the future of Japan.

To be honest, this is nothing more than imagination. Whether any historical record exists confirming that Saigo visited this place, I have not been able to verify.

And that is precisely why I need to visit the memorial museum.

6. Testing the Imagination at the Ota City Katsu Kaishu Memorial Museum

The Ota City Katsu Kaishu Memorial Museum, which opened in 2019, stands on the banks of Senzokuike.

I understand it holds Katsu's personal belongings, letters, and historical materials. And most importantly, it is staffed by curators who are genuine specialists in this field.

There is so much I want to ask.

Did Saigo ever visit this pond? After the Satsuma Rebellion, what feelings did Katsu carry when he came to this retreat? When exactly did he build the memorial stone, and what were the circumstances?

The answers, I believe, are waiting there.

Closing: Standing on the Shore of Senzokuike — History Does Not Reject Imagination

Standing on the bank of Senzokuike, the tomb of Katsu Kaishu and the memorial stone for Saigo Takamori stand quietly side by side.

Whether the imagined scene is true or not, no one can say for certain. But the fact that the man who ended the shogunate chose to build his former adversary's memorial here — and to sleep beside it for eternity — is enough to stir something deep.

Ota City is the place where the "behind-the-scenes" and the "aftermath" of the bloodless surrender of Edo converge. From Ikegami Honmonji to Senzokuike, just two kilometers. Within that short distance, another story is engraved — the story of one man who never stopped loving the defeated.

Now, it is time to go find the answer.

The story sleeping beneath your feet has not yet ended.


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