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| | MilitaryHistoryOnline.com - Katsu Kaishu |
 | | Katsu Kaishu -- consummate samurai, streetwise denizen of Downtown Edo, founder of the Japanese navy, statesman par excellence and always the outsider, historian and prolific writer, faithful retainer of the Tokugawa Shogun and mentor of men who would overthrow him - was among the most remarkable of the numerous heroes of the Meiji Restoration. |
 | | He contrasted American society to that of feudal Japan, where a person was born into one of four castes - warrior, peasant, artisan, merchant - and, for the most part, remained in that caste for life. |
 | | In August 1866, Navy Commissioner Katsu Kaishu was dispatched to Miyajima - Island of the Shrine - in the domain of Hiroshima to meet representatives of Choshu. |
| www.militaryhistoryonline.com /horsemusket/japan/katsukaishu.aspx (2327 words) |
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