TALES FROM HISTORY

Yoshida Shoin — 19th Century Hero from the Tiny Town of Hagi

Mentor to Japan’s Meiji Restoration leaders

Portrait of Yoshida Shoin. Artist unknown. (Public domain)

Hagi

The quietness of the fishing town of Hagi, in southwest Honshu, belies its illustrious past. Hagi is the birthplace of many of the men who laid the foundations for modern Japan and the location of the…