Takechi Hanpeita's Former Residence and Grave

The Home and Grave of the Tosa Loyalist Leader

The Takechi Hanpeita's Former Residence and Grave (武市半平太旧宅および墓) is the former residence and grave of Takechi Hanpeita (Zuizan), leader of the Tosa Loyalist Party in the last years of the Edo period, at Niida, Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture, designated a Historic Site in 1936.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs lists it under the criteria for tombs and monuments and for former residences and other places of special association.

The designation text notes that Hanpeita lived in the house until he was 22 and that it keeps its original scale.

The House and Grave

According to Kochi City, the house was originally thatched, with six rooms; the eight-mat guest room has characters carved in a post by Hanpeita. A pond and garden lie before the southeast guest room, and with a storehouse (now gone) and shed it is a typical house of a rural samurai.

The designation text places the grave on the hill adjoining the house, inscribed Takechi Hanpeita Kotate with a memorial stone behind. Kochi City notes that it is on the hill above Zuizan Shrine, reached by the lane south of the house.

What to Look For

Kochi City notes that Hanpeita was born in 1829. In 1861 he drew up the pledge of the Tosa Loyalist Party and became its leader; the next year he had Yoshida Toyo assassinated to turn the domain to the imperial cause. After the political reversal of 1863 he was imprisoned and ordered to commit seppuku on the eleventh day of the intercalary fifth month of 1865, aged 37.

The city adds that the house left the family when Hanpeita moved to the castle town, but the main house and storehouse still recall a rural samurai residence.

Visiting the Takechi Hanpeita's Former Residence and Grave

Kochi City says the house is now a private residence and cannot be entered. Steps along the road to the right of the house lead to Zuizan Shrine, the Zuizan museum and the grave.

Enquiries: Kochi City cultural properties section, 088-832-7277.