Early life
Ryōma was born in Kōchi, of Tosa han, on the island of Shikoku. By the Japanese calendar, this was the sixth year of Tenpō.
Previous generations of his family had acquired enough wealth as sake brewers to purchase the rank of merchant samurai, orgoshi, which was the lowest rank in the samurai social hierarchy (unlike other domains, Tosa had very strictly distinct joshi (high rank samurai) and kashi (low rank samurai). Joshi and kashi were treated unequally and they lived in separate places, also in Sakamoto Ryōma generation's, his family's samurai rank was kashi.
At the age of twelve, Ryōma was enrolled in a private school, but this was a short-lived episode in his life, as he showed little scholarly inclination.
His older sister enrolled him in fencing classes when he was 14, after he was bullied at school. By the time he reached adulthood he was a master swordsman.
In 1853, he was in Edo as a disciple of Chiba Sadakichi, a master swordsman of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū style of kenjutsu. That year, Commodore Perry of the United States arrived with a fleet of ships to force Japan out of its centuries-old national isolation policy.
When Ryōma finished his studies in 1858, he returned to Tosa. In 1862, his friend, Takechi Hanpeita, organized the Tosa Loyalist Party "Kinnoto". Their political slogan was, “Revere the Emperor, Expel the Foreigners”. It consisted of about 200 samurai, mostly from the lower rank, who insisted on the reform of the Tosa government. Since the Tosa lord refused to recognize the group, they plotted to assassinate Yoshida Toyo. Later, Yoshida Toyo was assassinated after Ryōma left Tosa. Ryōma participated in name only, because Takechi demanded a revolution for only the Tosa clan, and Ryōma thought they should to do something for all of Japan. He decided to leave Tosa and separate from Takechi. In those days, nobody was permitted to leave their clan without permission, on penalty of death. One of Ryōma’s sisters committed suicide because he left without permission. Sakamoto would later use the alias "Saitani Umetarō' '才谷 梅太郎" as he worked against the shogun.
