Shinsaku Takasugi, A Revolutionary Ideologist

There are people who appear as if God chose them. These are people who look to be sent by God for missions. These people come into this world suddenly as a thunder runs high in the sky. They disappear as soon as they complete their mission. It looks as if their God called them back. History tends to find these people in difficult changing periods.

Shinsaku Takasugi is his name. It was the middle of 19th century, Japan was in the period of change from Samurai Government to modern democracy. Shinsaku was born in feudal domain of Choshu (Yamaguchi Prefecture, now) in 1839. His parent was from ordinary Samurai class family. His parent and teachers gave him an opportunity to study Japanese sward art and politics. He studied in Edo (Tokyo, now) and North East region of Japan. He visited China also in 1862, whereas he observed colonialism in China.

He became an ardent patriot, thinking how to save Japan from being a colony of advanced countries of American and Europe. Shogun Government opened Japan as requested by USA, United Kingdom, France, and Holland. Under Shogun Government, Japan concluded treaties with these countries under unequal terms and conditions. Shinsaku's feudal domain of Choshu was anti-Shogun Government. They fought against England and utterly destroyed. When Shogun Government attacked Choshu domain, Choshu did not have enough armies to fight against Shogun force.

 Shinsaku formed a squadron to save his homeland, Choshu domain. In forming his squadron, he hired not only lower class Samurai people, but also young generation of farmers, merchants, and craftsmen, who are ambitious to fight for their homeland. This was Japanese first army consisted of both Samurai and non-Samurai people. They called it "Kihei-Tai".

Even in the end of Edo era, Japan was a class society. Samurai was still sitting on the top of the society. Farmers, craftsmen, and merchants needed to knee down and give their ways to Samurai when a Samurai came their way.

It is intriguing that one of Samurai, Shinsaku Takasugi, opened the door of equality for other class people than Samurai. Kihei-Tai was not private army. It was part of formal army of Choshu domain. Formation of Kihei-Tai, equal opportunity army, was not just Shinsaku's experiment. Choshu clan must have had an unusually flexible concept about social classes. It must have been the most updated idea and practice.

Kihei-Tai was not just a disorderly crowd. Shinsaku trained them in the way Samurai army trained their warriors. Fighting against Shogun army, they played a crucial role for Shogun decision makers to determine their army is not enough to fight effectively against the emerging power of the new government.

Legends show that Shinsaku did not wear armor in battles. He wore regular clothes in battlefields. He wore short hair to show that his life is dedicated for modern Japan. Right before the revolution is over in 1867, he died from tuberculosis in the same year. It was almost like his God called him back at his mission completed.








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Ryoma Sakamoto, A Visionary Activist

Japanese historians call Meiji restoration as a non-blood-shed revolution, which is unique in world history for modernization. The historical fact was that there was no brutal civil war in Japan. It was 1867 when Edo Shogun Government resigned and gave the politics back to the Emperor. As a result, both new Meiji Government new regime and Shogun Government, ancient regime could avoid bloody civil war.

Yet, there were lots of killings and bloodshed until Shogun Government gave up its rulings. In their conflict between ancient authorities and newly emerging power, many young, ambitious, smart, and influential people died.

Among those killed visionaries in the emerging power, Ryoma Sakamoto was the one passed before he observed the formation of Japanese New Government. Since he was the most powerful driving force for peaceful change of government, it was ironical and pity that a vicious assassin killed him. It was regrettable that he could not live until the start of new Imperial Government and started its activities. He could make him an unusually respectable statesman with his vision, patriotism, and remarkable power of foreseeing the future.


Ryoma belonged to the lower class of Samurai society in feudal domain of Tosa (now Kochi Prefecture). He was a fearful, shy, and holding child in his childhood. His biography shows that he continued to wet his bed until he became 10 years old. As usual for shy and holding child, Ryoma hoped to train himself to be strong. He studied sward art and politics in Edo (now Tokyo). He became a master of sward art of one of leading sward art dojo, Hokushin Itto Ryu.

There are many episodes about Ryoma. He was a patriot, a dreamer, a romanticist, a visionary, an ideologist, and an activist. He seemed to have 2 driving forces of his activities. They were; i) love and care, ii) optimism, and iii) vision.

i) Love and care; A legend tells that Ryoma was saying he wanted to create a country where people can live happily. He extended his love to his family, friends, people, and his country. He was a true patriot based on his love, which was almost close to God's love.

ii) Optimism; People, who knew him, described him to be a smiling, open-minded, happy, and approachable person. He was always smiling and making others laugh by jokes. Even in the most perilous moment of activists meeting, he broke the ice by making attendees laugh.

iii) Vision; Among activists of modern Japan movement, there were not so many people who had a clear vision what country Japan should be after they overthrew Edo Shogun Government. Instead, Ryoma had a clear vision of Japan, Japanese society, and government after Shogun. They were in his document he wrote as 8 principles of the new government, including the establishment of 2 Congress, election of congressmen, equal treatment treaties with foreign countries, reformation of currency exchange rate.

It was so unfortunate that Shogun assassin killed him in December 1867, right after the end of Shogun government. He had not had a chance to participate in the new government, of which he dreamed.

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An Empress in Japanese History

It is interesting to learn that there was only one Empress in 3000 years of Chinese History. Instead, Japan had 10 Empresses in its history. Women in China look more liberated than Japan, today. On the other hand, Japanese women are noted to be holding and quiet. It may not be true in these days, but world impression about Japanese women is obedient. It appears that the Samurai Regime is to be blamed for putting Japanese women in obedient positions. Especially, Tokugawa Edo Shogun Government determined that women should be behind the political and social scenes.

In older days than Samurai government, established in 1492, Japanese women were more liberal and freely appeared often in politics. The very first Ruler of Japan was a woman, Himiko. Among above 10 Empresses, 8 Empresses were in between 6th and 8th Century. This Empress name is "Komyo Empress". She played a vital role in Buddhism became national religion in Japan.

Buddhism is interesting religion. Siddhartha Gautama started Buddhism in India between 6th and 4th Century BC. After severe training, Siddhartha became Buddha, Awaken One, started to teach and lead people. For some reason, Buddhism did not become major in India, its original place. In India, according to their national survey, 2001, the largest religion is Hinduism, 80.5%. The second largest religion is Islam, 13.4%. Christianity has the third position of 2.3% of population of India. The Buddhist population is only 0.8% in the survey above.

The Buddhism became extremely popular in China between 5th and 7th Century. The Japanese Imperial Government in 8th Century decided Buddhism to be its national religion. Empress Komyo was pious Buddhist. She became an Empress in 724. She was the wife of Emperor Shomu. Emperor Shomu introduced Buddhism to be against existing aristocrats' local religion. The local religion, Shitoism, became too dominant to intervene government in many ways. Later, Buddhism became major religious authority in Japan centered on its concept of "Love, Equality, and Unlimited Mercy".

In 8th and 9th Centuries, Japan built world heritage status historical monuments. Todaiji Temple is one of them. Yakushiji Temple is another. Daibutsu "Big Statue of Buddha" in Nara represents all the Buddhism monuments built during this period.

Empress Komyo stayed to be consort of Japanese Emperor Shomu. She was, however, known as the central promoter of Buddhism. She was the one who planned and implemented building of all the Nara Period Buddhism monuments, including Todaiji, Yakushiji, and Daibutsu. She built the first Japanese national hospital, Seyakuin. Japanese mythology tells Empress Komyo involved herself in treatments of patients. She did not limit the function of this national hospital just to Emperor family or aristocrats. Anybody sick despite their social class could use this hospital.

One day, Empress Komyo was engaging in patient's treatment, in the national hospital. An old man with Hansen's disease came to her. Empress Komyo tried to clean his body, but she could not clean all pus from his wounds. Empress Komyo started to suck his pus with her mouth for cleaning. Suddenly the old leper changed his appearance. He was one of Buddha's messengers, Nyo-Rai. Nyo-Rai told her Buddhism would protect her country and people so that her people would enjoy prosperity. Buddhism became the national religion with Empress Komyo's success.


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Xian Yu and Liu Bang, Ancient Chinese Heros

Qin Dynasty was the first unified China empire. It is history's irony that the last empire of China was also Qin Dynasty, although the Chinese Character was different. The first unified China, Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC) was established by Qin Shi Huang (meaning the first emperor), Ying Zheng (259 BC - 210 BC). Their legal system was too strict to people. Qin Shi Huang was a dictator. People did not like this kingdom. As a result, Qin Dynasty was always fighting against traitors. Only the charismatic character of the first emperor kept Qin Dynasty. After the first emperor's death, resistance army ruined Qin Dynasty.

After the fall of Qin Dynasty, 2 leading generals of the rebellion army started a civil war. One is Xiang Yu. The other is Liu Bang. After the Qin Dynasty had gone, Xian Yu was the king of Chu Kingdom. Liu Bang was the king of Han Kingdom. They were in the same resistance army fighting against Qin Dynasty. They started to fight to be the next Emperor of the unified China, after Qin Dynasty.

Xian Yu was 6 feet tall. He was strong. He was brave. People said that a baby stopped crying if its parent told him General Xian Yu was coming. He was an excellent fighter and strong leader who did not like compromises. Xian Yu was originally from Chu kingdom, which was destroyed by Qin Dynasty.

Liu Bang came from nowhere. He was a farmer's son. In his young days, he was a hoodlum just hang around in the town near his home. Only notable was that he was always with his friends, who did not regret to die for Liu Bang.

Liu Bang continued to lose battles against Xian Yu. Magically, however, Liu's territories continued to expand and became bigger than Xian Yu. Liu won the final battle against Xian Yu and became the Emperor of Han Dynasty, a kingdom of the second unified China.

It is intriguing to compare these 2 generals and consider what made Liu Bang the winner and Xian Yu the loser. The keyword is people. Xian was a strong fighter and his enemies and even his own people were afraid of him. The fear kept uniformity of Xian's army. He was a violent commander. When he won a battle, he killed almost all of enemy's king, king's family, king's army, king's solders, and king's people. History shows that Xian Yu buried 250,000 soldiers alive, who surrendered in a battle. People were afraid, but they hated him. When he was there, nobody moved. Once he was gone people betrayed. This is the process he kept losing own supporters.

On the other hand, Liu Bang banned his soldiers plunder civilians. He forgave the most of surrendered and made them the head of their territory. He kept hiring from farmers, merchants, craftsmen, or any and all class of society. When he gained his new territories, he assured citizens law and order. He made their local people the head of his new territory. People in his territory enjoyed peace and order. Once acquired, he never lost his land.

Xian kept losing his supporters. Liu kept gaining his. Gradually Liu's supporters and territories outnumbered Xian's. When he became aware, Xian could no longer prevail against Liu.


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2 Common Practices of Successful People

All the people read biographies and autobiographies of famous and successful people. Successful people are such as Thomas Edison, George Washington, Matma Gandi, Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs. Knowing all these brilliant people, there are commonalities in their practice, which seems to be keys to be successful. They are not complicated. They are simple. They are not impossible to practice. They may be not easy to practice, however.

The followings are the 2 common practices of successful people:

1. They listen to others.

2. They have selected persons to whom they can listen.

Liu Bang was the first emperor of Han Dynasty, China in the 1st Century BC. Han Dynasty was the second kingdom of unified China, after Qin Empire. He founded Han Dynasty by conquering Qin Dynasty. He was born in a peasant family in 256 BC. He is the only emperor in the history of China, who was originally from a peasant family.

In his young days, he was just a lazy young man hanging around with his friends in a city. He did not like reading. He did not study. He did not practice martial arts. When his teacher gave him a book on military strategy and logistics, he told his master it is boring and threw out the book. Only one notable was he was always with his friends, who loved him. Those friends are ones who could die for him.

Later he participated in a private army against Qin Dynasty with his friends. He became an officer of a squadron. Despite that Xian Yu, Liu Bang's rival, was strong in martial arts and kept winning against Qin Dynasty armies, Liu Bang's squadron lost several times.

Liu Bang thought about the battle result. He stopped thinking by himself and started listening to his friends. He found he had lots of talented friends. Zhang Liang was a brilliant strategist who could maneuver his army front and could win a battle, without moving in his headquarters. Han Xing was a brave general, who won the final battle. Xiao He was an old friend of Liu Bang. Xia He could stabilize politics after Liu's troops occupied territory. Instead, his enemy could not keep the occupied area due to poor policies, the region where Liu acquired was stable and obedient, thanks to Xia He took policy to protect the people.

These people were happy to be subordinates of Liu Bang and gave valuable advices to him. They helped Liu Bang's decision-makings. Liu became an Emperor not because he was capable, but because these capable people supported him. Liu Bang should be grateful that he listened to them.







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5 Stages of Mastering Process

People use expressions such as "I see", "I know", or "I understood". Understanding process seems to be a little bit more complicated than people think. More precisely, there are 3 stages for a person to understand something fully.

1. He sees it. He hears it. He reads it. He feels it.

2. He thinks about it. He uses his words to think about it. He gives his own opinion to it.

3. He tries to do as he sensed it. He tries to explain the same to others as he heard it.

If he could do as he saw, he would have understood it. As well, if he could explain to others as he listened or read, he might have understood it.

Even if he could explain in the way he saw, listened, or read, if he could not make himself understood, he might not have understood it, yet. Here is a trick of understanding. There is one more stage one needs to add to the above. It is a status, "He thinks he understood. Still he did not understand exactly." In this stage, the one needs to use appropriate words or thoughts. He may need to discuss the matter with more other people than he already tried. This will be the 4th step. The entire process consists of 1) Sensing, 2) Interpreting, 3) Conveying, and 4) Interacting. The 4th stage is as follows:

4. He needs to interact with it.

Understanding process would end by going through the above 4 steps, if he fully understands it. Usually, after he has gone through all 4 steps, he needs to go back to the step 1) to repeat the same process. It is the mastering process. One can master something by repeating this process. Now, the 5th is:

5. He needs to repeat the above.

Let us examine in the example of Karate. It was the first story of the movie, "Karate Kid". The master Miyagi asked Daniel if Daniel was ready to start Karate. Daniel answered; "I guess so". Master Miyagi did not like his answer. Master Miyagi explains to Daniel in his words. If he does Karate, he is walking the right side of a road. He would be okay. If he does not do Karate, he is walking the left side of a road. He would be safe. He+ would be okay. If he guesses to do Karate, it is as he is walking in the middle of a road. A car would run him over, soon or later. It is dangerous.


It is also true that nobody can avoid this process. Everybody learns and masters any art or skill by going through "Guess So" stage and making mistakes. What is noteworthy is one should be aware his stage. Is one in mastered stage or mastering stage? If one feels he is still in mastering stage, he always has some danger making mistakes. If one feels he would never complete mastering process, he would be safe to be humble in mastering stage.






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Training Time

I believe that no explanation necessary for this post today.

Please take a look at the video:









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Shanghai Expo Ended

Shanghai Expo ended last weekend.  I could not go to the expo, my wife did.  It was exposition for visual technologies.  There were lots of 3Ds and new technologies.  The other feature was ecology.  I understood that Japan Pavilion exhibited all natural house, cool in summer and warm in winter.

Here is an interesting exhibit in Chinese Pavilion.  The people in old picture are moving around.  They move like real people.  Please take a look:









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