1921 (Taisho 10) On Friday, August 5, former Shogun’s retainer and Denshutai member Yasutaro Hosoya passed away. He was 70 years old. Yasutaro Hosoya was born in Edo in 1851 as the eldest son of Kisaburo Hosoya, a direct retainer of the Edo Shogunate. In 1865 (Keio Era), when Yasutaro was 14 years old, he entered Yokohama French Language School. At the end of the Edo period, the Edo shogunate aimed to strengthen the shogunate army under the guidance of the French military advisory group. Before that, this French language school was established for the purpose of training cadets who can understand French. It was set up in Honcho 6-chome, Naka-ku, Yokohama, north of Benten-ike Pond in Yokohama at that time.
After graduating from the French language school, you will join the French-style shogunate army “Denshutai” as an artillery lieutenant. In the Boshin War in 1868 (Keio 4), Yasutaro Hosoya was a hard-liner and resistance fighter. According to the military record of Takeaki Enomoto, he took part in Hakodate War, the so-called Battle of Goryokaku, but was defeated by the army of the new Meiji government in 1869. After the Meiji Restoration, he was left with the Kurume clan, but was released the following year in 1870, and in 1872, due to his French proficiency, he became a technical official at the Yokosuka Shipyard & Machinery Works. After that, he joined a trading company, Takada Shokai, which was especially famous for arms trading, and served in France as a branch manager of Paris. In his later years, he lived in a Western-style house in Kamakura, but he died of illness.
There is a picture taken with the French military advisory group at the end of the Edo period, so I will attach it. Jules Brunet is the model of the movie “The Last Samurai”, who appears next to Yasutaro Hosoya, who is smiling a little. In the movie, Tom Cruise plays Captain Nathan Algren, the main character modeled on Jules Brunet.
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