Born into a samurai family of the Matsushiro domain in Shinano (Nagano).
He went to Edo and studied under the Confucian scholar Satō Issai.
He opened a Confucian school in Edo.
When his lord Sanada Yukitsura took charge of coastal defence, he studied foreign affairs, learned Western gunnery from Egawa Hidetatsu and wrote Eight Points on Coastal Defence.
He opened a school in Edo teaching gunnery and Western learning; Katsu Kaishū, Yoshida Shōin and Sakamoto Ryōma studied there.
Implicated in his pupil Yoshida Shōin's attempt to stow away on Perry's ship, he was confined at Matsushiro for many years.
He was released from confinement, advocating "Eastern ethics, Western technique".
Summoned to Kyoto by the shogunate, he argued for opening the country but was attacked by an anti-foreign samurai and lost his life.
Satō IssaiMatthew C. PerryEgawa HidetatsuKatsu KaishūYoshida ShōinSakamoto RyōmaKawai Tsugunosuke
Shimazu NariakiraYokoi ShōnanOgata KōanHotta MasayoshiIi NaosukeNabeshima Naomasa (Kansō)Yoshida TōyōShimazu Hisamitsu
People of the Edo period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.