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Kameyama Yoshiharu

was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period. He was a student of the Hirata school of kokugaku.

Biography

Kameyama Yoshiharu was born to a relatively affluent family in Nakatsugawa, a town under the jurisdiction of the Owari Domain. Little is known of Kameyama's early life. At some point, he developed an interest in classical studies and joined the burgeoning kokugaku movement.

Kameyama collaborated with fellow kokugaku scholar in the local publication of Hirata Atsutane's treatise on supernatural phenomena . The two carved the printing blocks by hand out of Japanese cherry wood blanks. In 1864, he joined the forces of the Tengutō under the leadership of Takeda Kōunsai and Yamakuni Hyōbu. Within the Tengutō, Kameyama was assigned to duties as a . After the Battle of Wada Pass, Kameyama was entrusted with the severed head of 17-year-old , who killed himself after being mortally wounded by an arquebus bullet. Kameyama turned over Yokota Mototsuna's head to Ichioka Shigemasa and Hazama Hidenori, the two of whom later discreetly buried it in the Hazama family cemetery to prevent it from being captured by Shogunate headhunters for identification, a practice known as kubi-jikken. After the Tengutō warriors were finally captured in the lands of the Tsuruga Domain, Kameyama was executed along with nearly all the others. Some accounts allege that Tanuma Okitaka, commander of the intercepting forces, deceived the rebels by promising leniency and a stay of execution if they surrendered.

Legacy

In his 1929 epic historical novel Before the Dawn, Shimazaki Tōson records a poem presented by Kameyama to the family of his father Shimazaki Masaki, another kokugaku student and close friend of Ichioka Shigemasa:

References

Further reading