Narasaki Ryō
Active in political affairs
Narasaki Ryō (楢崎 龍; July 23, 1841 – January 15, 1906) was a Japanese woman and the wife of Sakamoto Ryōma, an architect of the Meiji Restoration. Commonly called Oryō (お龍) in Japan, she lived from the end of the Edo period (the end of the Tokugawa shogunate) to the Meiji period. After the death of her first husband, she married the merchant Nishimura Matsubē and was renamed Nishimura Tsuru (西村 ツル).
Early life
She was born in Kyoto on July 23, 1841, as the eldest daughter of the physician Narasaki Shōsaku and his wife Shigeno Sada. She had two younger sisters Narasaki Mitsue (later Nakazawa Mitsue) and Narasaki Kimi (later Sugeno Kimi), and two younger brothers Narasaki Taichirō and Narasaki Kenkichi.
Her father was arrested and went to prison during the Ansei Purge. He died after being released from prison when she was 21 years old.
Oryō married Sakamoto Ryōma in 1864.
Teradaya Incident
Oryō is best known for saving the life of her future husband Sakamoto Ryōma from an assassination attempt during the Teradaya Incident. She worked at Kyoto's Teradaya Inn, and while taking a bath in the evening on March 9, 1866, heard one of the assassins outside, who immediately thrust his spear through the bathroom window right by her shoulder.
The public source identifies “Narasaki Ryō” as active in political affairs. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Narasaki, Active and political.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Narasaki Ryō”, the useful work is to connect “active in political affairs” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q711304. VIAF identifies the subject as 255585084. The Library of Congress control number is no2016150074. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1841, 1906, 1864 and 1866.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Narasaki Ryō”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Narasaki Ryō primary sources, Narasaki Ryō archive and Narasaki research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Narasaki Ryō”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Narasaki Ryō” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.