Tomb of Tosa 11 Martyrs

Tosa Eleven Martyrs' Tombs: A Quiet Memorial to a Pivotal Diplomatic Tragedy

In a tranquil corner of Sakai City, hidden within the grounds of Hojuin Temple in the old merchant quarter of Osaka Prefecture, eleven weathered stone pillars stand in solemn formation. These are the Tosa Eleven Martyrs' Tombs (Tosa Juichi Resshi no Haka), the resting place of eleven samurai from the Tosa Domain who took their own lives in 1868 to resolve one of the earliest international incidents of modern Japan. Designated a National Historic Site in 1938, this small memorial captures a turbulent moment when feudal Japan was forced to negotiate with the world's great powers — and when the practice of seppuku stunned Western witnesses into silence.

For travelers interested in the Meiji Restoration, samurai history, or the human cost of Japan's opening to the West, a visit to these tombs offers a deeply moving counterpoint to the more famous battlefields and palaces of the era.

Historical Background: The Sakai Incident of 1868

The story behind these tombs begins on February 15, 1868 (Keio 4), only weeks after the Boshin War had erupted between supporters of the new Meiji government and the fallen Tokugawa shogunate. Sakai, an important commercial port south of Osaka, had been placed under the protective guard of soldiers from the Tosa Domain (present-day Kochi Prefecture).

That afternoon, the French naval corvette Dupleix anchored off Sakai and dispatched a launch to survey the harbor. Without obtaining permission from Japanese authorities, French sailors disembarked and began wandering through the city. The Tosa guards, led by Captain Minoura Inokichi of the Sixth Company, attempted to stop them. Communication failed across the language barrier, tempers flared, and in the resulting confrontation the Tosa samurai opened fire, killing or wounding eleven French sailors.

The diplomatic fallout was immediate and severe. The French minister Léon Roches presented the fledgling Meiji government with a five-point demand including a formal apology, a substantial indemnity, and the execution of the samurai responsible. Fearing that resistance could bring foreign warships down on Osaka Bay, the new government accepted the terms.

The Seppuku at Myokoku-ji Temple

On February 23, 1868, twenty Tosa samurai — Captain Minoura among them — were ordered to commit seppuku in the main courtyard of Myokoku-ji Temple, just steps from where the eleven now rest. French naval officers attended as witnesses, their presence required by the diplomatic settlement.

The execution proceeded with grim formality. Captain Minoura went first, drawing his blade across his abdomen with such resolution that contemporary accounts record the witnesses being deeply shaken. According to the official record, when the twelfth samurai, Hashizume Aihei, was about to take his place, the French commander Abel-Nicolas Bergasse du Petit-Thouars requested through Judge Godai Tomoatsu that the executions be halted. The eleven who had already died matched the number of French casualties, and the witnesses could no longer endure what they were seeing.

The remaining nine samurai were spared and later returned to Tosa, where they were eventually pardoned. The eleven who had died were carried in a solemn procession to Hojuin Temple, the modest Pure Land establishment immediately north of Myokoku-ji, where they were laid to rest together.

Why the Tombs Were Designated a National Historic Site

On August 8, 1938 (Showa 13), the Tosa Eleven Martyrs' Tombs were formally designated a National Historic Site under Japanese cultural property law. Three considerations underpinned this recognition.

First, the tombs preserve a key physical record of one of the most consequential diplomatic crises faced by the Meiji government in its earliest months. Together with the Kobe Incident of the same period, the Sakai Incident shaped how the new Japanese state would conduct foreign relations and revealed the precarious balance between national sovereignty and the demands of treaty powers.

Second, the site documents how the practice of seppuku entered the Western imagination. French and British witnesses to the executions wrote vivid accounts that were widely read in Europe, transforming the word "harakiri" into a global term and influencing Western perceptions of Japan for generations. Algernon Mitford's memoirs, published in 1915, drew on testimony from these events.

Third, the tombs themselves are a layered historical artifact. The original markers were commissioned by the Tosa daimyo, replaced and refined by the resident priest in the early 1870s, and finally enclosed within a tile-roofed earthen wall and stone fence in 1904 (Meiji 37). Each layer reflects the evolving way that Japan chose to remember — and quietly honor — those who died for a state that had condemned them.

Highlights of a Visit

The Eleven Stone Markers

Beneath the canopy of an old tree in the quiet inner courtyard of Hojuin, the eleven gravestones stand in a single line. Each bears the deceased's posthumous Buddhist name (kaimyo) carved on the front and his secular name engraved on the side. The simplicity of the stones contrasts powerfully with the magnitude of the events they commemorate.

The Twelfth Stone: Hashizume Aihei

Set slightly apart from the row of eleven is a smaller stone for Hashizume Aihei, the samurai who was on the verge of committing seppuku when the French witnesses ordered the executions stopped. After his pardon, Hashizume reportedly returned to Sakai every year to visit the graves of his fallen comrades. He died in the autumn of 1889 (Meiji 22), and his supporters placed his stone beside theirs so that he might rest with the men he had nearly joined in death.

The Adjacent Memorials at Myokoku-ji

Just across the street at Myokoku-ji Temple stand three commemorative stone monuments erected in 1916 (Taisho 5) on the fiftieth anniversary of the incident. The center stone bears the Lotus Sutra invocation "Namu Myoho Renge Kyo," the left stone honors the spirits of the eleven Tosa samurai, and the right stone is dedicated to "The Monument of the French Martyrs" — a quiet acknowledgment that the tragedy had victims on both sides.

The Atmosphere of the Site

The neighborhood around Hojuin and Myokoku-ji has retained much of the character of old Sakai, with narrow streets, traditional shopfronts, and a hush rarely found in central Osaka. Many visitors find that simply walking the few hundred meters between the seppuku site at Myokoku-ji and the tombs at Hojuin is itself a contemplative experience.

Visitor Information

The Tosa Eleven Martyrs' Tombs are located within the precincts of Hojuin Temple at 3-53-2 Shukuyacho-higashi, Sakai Ward, Sakai City. Hojuin currently also operates as a kindergarten, and access to the inner courtyard where the tombs stand is generally restricted to protect the children. Visitors are advised to view the site respectfully from the temple gate, or to time their visit to coincide with the annual memorial events organized by Myokoku-ji on or around February 23 each year.

Across the street, Myokoku-ji Temple welcomes visitors during regular hours (10:00–16:00, with admission of around 400 yen for adults), and the temple staff or volunteer guides can provide rich context about the Sakai Incident, including a viewing of the spot in the main hall garden where the executions took place. Reservations are recommended for groups of fifteen or more.

For visitors hoping to understand the events more deeply before approaching the tombs, the citizens' group Sakai Jiken o Kataritsugu Kai (Society for Telling the Sakai Incident to Future Generations), based at Myokoku-ji, organizes lectures and ceremonies each February. Sakai City's official tourism site also offers detailed background information in both Japanese and English.

Access

The most convenient way to reach the site is by the Hankai Tramway, one of the last remaining streetcar lines in the Kansai region. From Tennoji Station in Osaka, it is about a 30-minute ride to Myokoku-ji-mae Station; the tombs are then a 3 to 5-minute walk east. From Nankai Sakai Station, the tombs are approximately a 15-minute walk through the historic merchant district. Visitors arriving from Sakai-Higashi Station on the Nankai Koya Line should allow about 15 minutes on foot.

The Sakai Station Tourist Information Center offers rental bicycles, which are a pleasant way to combine a visit to the tombs with the other historic sites nearby.

Surrounding Attractions

The neighborhood around the tombs is one of the richest in Sakai for historical exploration.

Myokoku-ji Temple

Founded in 1562 by the Nichiren-school scholar Niko, Myokoku-ji is famous for its sotetsu (cycad) garden, the only one of its kind in Japan, designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty. At its center stands a 1,100-year-old cycad designated a National Natural Monument, around which a famous legend says Oda Nobunaga once moved the tree to Azuchi Castle, only for it to weep nightly to return to Sakai. The temple was also where the seppuku of the eleven martyrs took place.

Sakai Risho no Mori

About a 10-minute walk south, this modern cultural complex celebrates two of Sakai's most famous figures: the tea master Sen no Rikyu and the modernist poet Yosano Akiko. The center includes a reconstructed tea house, a museum, and a tourist information desk with English-language materials.

Sakai City Knife Museum (CUT)

Sakai has been Japan's premier center for cutlery for centuries, and the Sakai Hamono Museum showcases the history and craft of the city's renowned blades, including a striking chandelier made entirely from knife-making materials.

Mozu Tombs and Daisen Park

About 2.5 kilometers south lies the Mozu Tombs cluster, a UNESCO World Heritage site that includes the gigantic keyhole-shaped tomb of Emperor Nintoku, one of the largest funerary monuments in the world.

Sakai Incident Memorial Site

Near Sakai Station along the Doi River, two large stone monuments commemorate both the 1863 landing of the Tenchu-gumi loyalist militia and the 1868 Sakai Incident itself, marking the spot where French sailors first came ashore.