Maehara Issei

Maehara Issei (1834-1876) was a Bakumatsu patriot and early Meiji-era samurai from the Chōshū domain, and one of the disciples who studied under Yoshida Shōin at Shōka Sonjuku. After contributing to the anti-shogunate movement and the Restoration, he revolted against the Meiji government's sword prohibition edict and abolition of stipends by raising the Hagi Rebellion in 1876 (Meiji 9), for which he was executed. He is known as a figure who demonstrated unwavering samurai pride and deep attachment to the sword until his final moments.

Maehara was born into the family of a mid-ranking samurai of the Chōshū domain and entered Shōka Sonjuku at a young age, where he studied the philosophy of imperial loyalism and popular uprising under Yoshida Shōin. He worked on the front lines of the anti-shogunate movement alongside Takasugi Shinsaku and Katsura Kogorō (Kido Takayoshi), and also achieved notable military feats fighting for the new government forces during the Boshin War. After the Meiji Restoration, he served in important posts including State Councillor and Vice Minister of Military Affairs (predecessor of the Army Minister), becoming one of the pillars of the Meiji government.

However, Maehara felt a strong sense of unease with the Meiji government's rapid modernization and Westernization. In Meiji 3 (1870), prompted by his opposition to the conscription edict and conflicts with Kido Takayoshi, as well as desertion incidents, he resigned from his post and returned home. The sword prohibition edict (1876) and the abolition of stipends, which dismantled the samurai class, were things Maehara absolutely could not accept.

In October 1876, Maehara led a group of former Chōshū domain samurai and fellow activists in an uprising at Hagi (the Hagi Rebellion). However, government forces quickly suppressed it, and Maehara was captured and executed by beheading at age 43.

In the realm of Japanese swords, Maehara is deeply inscribed in the history of the Japanese sword as a warrior in the context of "resistance to the sword prohibition edict." One of the motivations behind the Hagi Rebellion was resentment at the stripping away of the samurai's right and honor to wear a sword. To a samurai, the sword was not merely a weapon but a symbol of status and soul, and to have it taken away was equivalent to death as a samurai. Maehara's taking up his sword in rebellion was precisely a manifestation of that bushido spirit. His final moments too came by Japanese sword (beheading), and throughout his life he remained inseparable from the blade.