READ THESE TOP SAMURAI DEATH POEMS AND TELL ME NUMBER FIVE DOESN'T BLOW YOUR MIND!

Added Note: April Fool's 2018's theme was Historically Accurate Clickbait.

Writing death poems is a Japanese tradition and these 1860s samurai wrote some really famous ones!

1. YOSHIDA SHOIN, TEACHER AND TERRORIST

Yoshida Shoin was executed 1859 for his part in a plot to asssinate a shogunate official. He was a complicated young man: patriot, scholar, terrorist, beloved teacher to students who later led the Meiji Restoration. His famous death poem is a patriot's heart cry and has been memorized by generations of Japanese students.

Mi wa tatoi
Musashi no nobe ni
Kuchinu tomo
Todome okamashi
Yamato damashii

Even if my body
decays on the fields of Musashi,
my Japanese soul
will live forever. (trans. Henry van Straelen)

but he also wrote a more vulnerable death poem for his parents, the morning he died,

"Because my knowledge was too superficial and my sincerity not enough to move heaven and earth, therefore it has come thus far. I am sure you all will be most grieved and wounded" he writes in introduction to the poem

Oya omou
Kokoro ni masaru
Oyagokoro
Kyo no otozure
Nan to kikura

The heart of a child
that thinks of its parents
Yet greater still its parents' love
How will they hear
This day's tidings? (trans. Henry van Straelen)

2. TAKASUGI SHINSAKU, EMO SAMURAI

Takasugi died of tuberculosis in early 1867. A student of Yoshida Shoin, whose heart broke over his teacher's death, Takasugi led his home domain of Choshu to victory against the shogunate, but died before seeing his side take over the country in the Meiji Restoration. His death poem is as characteristically moody as he was in life.

Omoshiroki
kotomo naki yo ni
omoshiroku

is often translated

Live interestingly
in an uninteresting world.

but to understand Takasugi, there's this subtext:

I made this uninteresting world interesting.

(Yes. I have this poem on a little souvenir plastic replica scroll and sword-set on my desk. Don't judge me.)

3. NAKANO TAKEKO, THE WOMAN WARRIOR

Martial Arts Instructor of Aizu Domain. Took up arms to defend her homeland during the Boshin War in 1868, and was killed in the Battle of Aizu. The following death poem was tied to her naginata's handle.

Mononofu no
Tateki kokoro ni kurabureba
kazu nimo iranu
wagami nagaramo

When compared to the ranks
of warriors’ stalwart hearts;
I cannot enter into their number,
despite this body of mine.

-Source and more information on Nakano Takeko via Dr. Nyri Bakkalian

ETA: A looser popular translation for clarity's sake, "I would not dare to count myself among all the famous warriors - even though I share the same brave heart"

4. HIJIKATA TOSHIZO, THE PEASANT WHO BECAME A SAMURAI

Hijikata Toshizo, shogunate loyalist nd Vice-Commander of the (in)famous Shinsengumi, fought to the very end of the Boshin War. He was killed in battle in Hokkaido, May 1869, during the last stand of the old shogunate forces. No one knows where his body is buried.

Before that last battle, he entrusted this death poem for his family to his teenage page, Ichimura Tetsunosuke, and sent Tetsunosuke away to safety.

Yoshiya mi wa ezo ga shimabe ni kuchinutomo tamashī wa azuma no kimi ya ma mora mu

Though my body may decay in the land of Ezo my spirit guards my lord in the East

Ezo was the name for Hokkaido at the time. The lord in the East was the shogun.

5. HAYASHI TADATAKA, THE LAST SAMURAI LORD

Hayashi Tadataka, last surviving daimyo of the Edo Period. The only Tokugawa vassal lord to join the Northern campaign of the Boshin War. As a young man he led his retainers personally into battle in 1868. Died of old age, in 1941 in the Tokyo apartment he shared with his daughter. When asked about his death poem, he is supposed to have replied,

"In the Boshin [War] I had one. I don't have one now."