Legacy
Kido's diary reveals an intense internal conflict between his loyalty to his home domain, Chōshū, and the greater interest of the country. He wrote often of having to fight rumors at home that he had betrayed his old friends; the idea of a nation was still relatively new in Japan and so the majority of samurai cared more for securing privileges for their own domain.
Together with Saigō Takamori and Ōkubo Toshimichi, he is counted among what was known as the Ishin-no-Sanketsu (維新の三傑), which means, roughly, "three great nobles of the restoration". His younger sister's grandson was Tokyo politician Kido Kōichi (木戸幸一).
Read more about this topic: Kido Takayoshi
Famous quotes containing the word legacy:
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)