Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum
The Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum at Katsurahama Beach in Kochi, Shikoku is a major museum dedicated to the life of Sakamoto Ryoma.
Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum 高知県立坂本龍馬記念館
The Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum out near Katsurahama Beach on the coast south of Kochi in southern Shikoku is the best of the several museums dedicated to Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867) in the area.
Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum, Shikoku
The Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum opened in 1991 and has a number of original and replica exhibits from Ryoma's life on display.
These include letters, calligraphy, a portrait of Ryoma by Kunisawa Shinkuro, who studied Western painting in England, Ryoma's Smith & Wesson pistol, and a grisly replica of the blood-stained folding screen from the room of his murder in Kyoto.
Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum, ShikokuSakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum, Shikoku
Other exhibits chart Ryoma's short life during the violent times at the end of the Edo Period and focus on the places associated with the man during his travels as he left Kochi for Edo (present-day Tokyo), Kyoto and Nagasaki.
Further exhibits display materials associated with Ryoma and the Kaientai (aka Kameyama Shachu) - a shipping company established by Sakamoto Ryoma in Nagasaki, an institution that is seen as a forerunner of the modern Japanese navy.
Statue of Sakamoto Ryoma at Katsurahama Beach, KochiSakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum
Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum Access
Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum (ryoma-kinenkan.jp)
830 Urado-shiroyama, Kochi City, Kochi 781-0262
Tel: 088 841 0001
Hours: Daily 9 am-5 pm (last entrance 4.30 pm)
Admission: 500 yen for adults; free for school students.
Take the orange My Yu Bus from Kochi Station bound for Katsurahama and get off at Ryoma Kinenkan-mae bus stop, one stop before the terminus at Katsurahama. Alternatively take a Tosaden Kotsu bus from from Minami-Harimayabashi bound for Katsurahama Beach and get off at Ryoma Kinenkan-mae.
The Kochi Municipal Ryoma's Birthplace Memorial Museum in Kochi city is another excellent museum dedicated to the great man.