Meaning
“A man’s way of living in this world” means simply existing and making one’s way through life as a single human being. “Sincerity and an upright heart” refers to a genuine, honest disposition and straightforward intentions. What gives this line its weight is that Katsu Kaishu – a man who had clearly survived a lifetime of tangled relationships and political maneuvering – distills the essence of how to live down to this one, strikingly simple point: being sincere.
Caught between the shogunate and the new imperial government during the Bakumatsu period, and later criticized for serving the new government despite his background as a shogunate retainer, Katsu did not treat sincerity as an empty platitude – it was a practical guide for surviving a genuinely contradictory position. Clever excuses and calculation are eventually seen through. This line carries the conviction that only meeting each situation honestly, moment after moment, ultimately becomes the most unshakeable way to live.
That the conclusion he reached, looking back on a turbulent life, was not some secret of political maneuvering but simply “sincerity” carries real weight precisely because it comes from someone who had experienced so much. As the closing words of “Hikawa Seiwa,” it reads as a summation of an entire way of life.
Lesson for Today
The more complicated a situation becomes, the more tempting it is to try to maneuver or calculate your way through it. Yet the conclusion Katsu Kaishu reached at the end of a life spent navigating the upheavals of the Bakumatsu and Meiji eras was strikingly simple: meet what is in front of you today with sincerity. The next time you face a difficult decision or a strained relationship, ask yourself first whether you are engaging with it honestly, before you start calculating gains and losses. It looks like the long way around, but it turns out to be the surest path.
Background
This line closes "Hikawa Seiwa" ("Quiet Talks from Hikawa"), a collection of conversations Katsu Kaishu gave to visiting journalists in his later years at his residence in Hikawa-cho, Akasaka, Tokyo, compiled and published by Yoshimoto Noboru in 1897. Having lived through the turmoil of the Bakumatsu period and on into old age as an elder statesman of Meiji Japan - as a shogunate retainer, naval officer, and politician through decades of upheaval - Katsu sums up his own way of living in this single closing line. The book goes on to add, "A politician's secret is nothing special either - it is simply those four characters, sincerity and integrity," suggesting that honesty, not scheming, was the guiding principle he held to throughout his life.