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Sakamoto Ryoma

Sakamoto Ryoma was a leader of the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate during the Bakumatsu period in Japan.Ryoma used the alias Saidani Umetar　as a cover name during his work to keep Japan united in the creation of a modern government which would allow his country to join the rest of the world which was in a colonizing mode, while keeping its own sovereignty intact.

While a ronin, Ry　ma decided to assassinate Katsu Kaishu, a high-ranking official in the Tokugawa shogunate and a supporter of both modernization and westernization. However, Katsu Kaishu　managed to persuade Ry　ma of the futility of fighting the western powers given Japan's present state and of the necessity of a long-term plan to increase Japan's military strength. Instead of killing Katsu Kaishu　, Ryoma ended up working as his assistant and protégé.

In 1864, as the Tokugawa shogunate started taking a hard line, Ryoma fled to Kagoshima in Satsuma domain, which was developing as a major centre for the anti-Tokugawa movement. Ryoma negotiated the secret alliance between Choshu and Satsuma provinces. Satsuma and Choshu　 historically had been absolute enemies, and Ryoma's position as a 'neutral outsider' was critical in bridging the gap in trust.

Ryoma is often regarded as the "father of the Imperial Japanese Navy," as he worked under Katsu Kaishi's direction toward creating a modern naval force (with the aid of western powers) to enable Satsuma and Choshu to hold their own against the naval forces of the Tokugawa shogunate.. Ryoma founded the private navy and trading company Kameyama Shachu in Nagasaki City by the help of Satsuma. Later Kameyama Shachu became Kaientai or Ocean Support Fleet.

Choshu's subsequent victory over the Tokugawa army in 1866 and the impending collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate made Ryoma  a valuable commodity to his former masters in Tosa. Ry　ma was recalled to Kochi with honours. The Tosa domain was anxious to obtain a negotiated settlement between the Shogun and the Emperor, which would prevent the powerful Satcho Alliance from overthrowing the Tokugawa by force and thus emerging as a new dominant force in ruling Japan. Ryoma played a crucial role in the subsequent negotiations that led to the voluntary resignation of the Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu in 1867, thus bringing about the Meiji Restoration.

Ryoma was assassinated at the age of 33 (according to the old lunar calendar he was born on 15 November 1835 and killed on his birthday in 1867) at the Omiya  inn in Kyoto, not long before the Meiji Restoration took place. Initial reports accused members of the Shinsengumi for Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro's deaths (and Shinsengumi leader Kondo　Isami was allegedly executed on that pretense), but another pro-Shogun group, the Mimawarigumi's Imai Nobuo confessed to the murder in 1870. Although Sasaki Tadasaburo　and Imai Nobuo carry the blame, the true assassin has never been proven in a court of law.

Foot-and-mouth threatens prize Miyazaki Wagyu cattle

More than 110 farms in the Miyazaki region have been quarantined after livestock have been found to be infected with the disease - the first time it has occurred in Japan since 2000 - and 85,000 animals have already been slaughtered or earmarked to be put down.

That figure includes 49 bulls with just six cattle from the region moved out of the affected districts, according to local agriculture officials. The surviving bulls have shown no signs of the disease of yet, their health is being closely monitored.

Miyazaki Wagyu beef has attracted a global following due its flavour, tenderness and fatty, marbled texture. Entire restaurants are given over to the delicacy, which is usually prepared as a steak, as thin strips of meat that are boiled and served with vegetables, or cooked on a "teppanyaki" hotplate in front of the customer.

One kilogram (2.2lbs) of top-grade beef can wholesale for more than ￡220, with a meal in a restaurant an occasion to remember for the impact on the wallet as much as the taste of the beef.

The Japanese have enjoyed the delicacy for decades but it is only in the last few years that it has become popular in the rest of the world. It is now served at top Parisian restaurants and in 2006, Selfridges, the London department store, introduced the ￡85 Wagyu sandwich.

Many ranchers feed their cattle beer every day, massage their flanks with sake, take extreme care in brushing their hides and feed the beasts on grain fodder. All of which helps to make the meat melt in the mouth, the experts say.

Around 35 tons of prime meat is exported from Miyazaki every year, although that trade will be hard hit this year after agriculture officials halted exports. That ban on exports will be in place for at least three months.

Authorities have increased their efforts to control the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, with an emergency task force swinging into action with parts of the countryside cordoned off and agricultural vehicles required to undergo thorough disinfection procedures.

Scandals in the House Republican Class of 1994

When was it, exactly, that the Republican revolution merged with the sexual revolution?

With each passing year, the class notes for the famous House Republicans Class of '94 get more lurid. The latest entry was submitted Tuesday morning by Rep. Mark Souder (Ind.).

"I sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff," he announced in a resignation statement.

And it wasn't just any part-time staffer, according to sources in Souder's office. Five months ago, Tracy Jackson was his, er, "co-host" in a video the pair produced for his congressional Web site. The topic: abstinence education.

"You were one of the only voices in the room speaking in defense of abstinence education," Jackson, posing as interviewer, tells her alleged paramour in the video. "You've been a longtime advocate for abstinence education."

Souder, bespectacled with a big puff of gray hair and a double chin, recalled his lonely battle defending abstinence in a hearing room full of skeptical colleagues. "I should have probably abstained from the hearing," he said.

Apparently it's not the only thing from which he should have abstained.

In his downfall, Souder appears likely to join classmates Mark Foley (lewd text messages to House pages), Mark Sanford (hiking the proverbial Appalachian Trail with his Argentine mistress) and John Ensign (whose parents paid the family of his ex-mistress $96,000) in the sex-scandal hall of fame. Another of their classmates, Bob Ney, did prison time for his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal.As Eric Massa, John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer can attest, scandal can visit any party or any political body. But the House Republicans of '94 stand out: No fewer than 15 of the 73 elected in the landslide that year have entertained the nation with flaps that include messy divorces and a suspicious car accident.

As Eric Massa, John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer can attest, scandal can visit any party or any political body. But the House Republicans of '94 stand out: No fewer than 15 of the 73 elected in the landslide that year have entertained the nation with flaps that include messy divorces and a suspicious car accident.

In his hasty farewell, Souder took the well-worn path of blaming his departure on Washington. "In the poisonous environment of Washington, D.C., any personal failing is seized upon, often twisted, for political gain," he complained. "I am resigning rather than put my family through that painful, drawn-out process."