Shoin-jinja Shrine in Setagaya of Tokyo

Shoin-jinja Shrine was built in 1882 to enshrine Shoin Yoshida(1830-1859) who was a scholar of the Choshu Domain, current Yamaguchi Prefecture. This site had been used as a Choshu Domain leader's quaters in Edo.

This is a sitting statue of Shoin Yoshida. After studying in Choshu Domain, Shoin went to Edo(=Tokyo) to study under Shozan Sakuma in 1851. When Commodore Perry came to Japan in 1853, Shoin went to see the black ship in Uraga and made up his mind to study abroad.  He went to Nagasaki to try to get on board a Russian warship. The next year when Perry came to Japan for the second time, Shoin went to Shimoda to get on board an American ship. Both attempts ended in vain and Shoin was sent back to Choshu and was detained in a jail.
In 1855 Shoin presided a cram school named 'Shoka-son-juku' in Choshu Domain where he educated Hirobumi Ito(=the first Prime Minister of Japan), Shinsaku Takasugi and others who later became the leaders of the Meiji Restoration.

In the precinct of Shoin-jinja Shrine there is a model house of Shoka-son-juku Cram School.

A list of people who studied under Shoin.

In 1858 Edo Government made the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States without Emperor's permission. Shoin critisized it and tried to assassinate Edo Government's high ranking officer Akikatsu Manabe. Shoin was arrested and detained in a jail. In 1859 Naoseke Ii, the second highest ranking officer after Tokugawa Shogun decided to purge extremists who were against the opening of Japan to foreign countries including Shoin who was finally excuted. 

Soon after the excution Shoin was buried in Kozukahara Kaiko-in Temple in Arakawa of Tokyo but in 1863 his ashes and bones were transferred and buried in his current cemetary in Setagaya. 

In this cemetary Choshu Domain's influential people have also been buried.

Written and posted by an interpreter Mitsutoshi Masunari. I have a national license as an interpreter and tour guide which covers all over Japan. Send me an e-mail for your request: mitch68canada@yahoo.co.jp