Sakamoto Ryōma

Japanese samurai and politician (1836–1867)

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Lived 1836–1867, aged 31Japan

Japan PoliticiansPolitician

Wikipedia
35 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Japan
#250
Politicians
Era
1836–1867
Aged 31

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

A low-ranking samurai who brokered the alliance that toppled Japan's shogunate. He worked under an alias, hunted by the regime's enforcers, and was cut down a month before the revolution he engineered arrived.

Biography

About

Sakamoto Ryōma was born on 3 January 1836, a minor samurai from Tosa Domain on Shikoku with little claim to influence. After Japan's isolationist sakoku policy collapsed, he turned against the Tokugawa Shogunate and operated under the alias Saitani Umetarō, moving through a country where the Shinsengumi and Bakufu loyalists wanted him dead. He pushed for democracy, the return of power to the Imperial Court, the end of feudalism, and cautious modernization — a program that married nationalism with pragmatism. His crucial maneuver was the Satchō Alliance, convincing the rival Chōshū and Satsuma…

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