Hashimoto was born April 19, 1834, in
Echizen Province,
Japan. The son of a
doctor in the
Fukui Clan, he studied
medicine in
Osaka studied under Dr.
Ogata Koan of Rankata Doctor at Tekijuku and
Tokyo, where he befriended
Saigō Takamori and others. Upon returning to Echizen, he joined the Clan as a
Shoinban and became Deputy Head of the
Fukui Domain school. Inviting
Yokoi Shōnan as political adviser on behalf of the
daimyō Matsudaira Yoshinaga, he became a key figure in the governmental reforms of the clan. Summoned to
Edo in 1857 he actively tried to promote, albeit unsuccessfully,
Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu to the 14th Shogunate. After
Ii Naosuke was appointed
Tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate he purged over 100 people in an effort to quiet opposition in what became known as the
Ansei Purge. Hashimoto was one of those prosecuted and was executed by
decapitation at Edo's
Kozukappara execution grounds on November 1, 1859. In October 2009, a descendant of Naosuke reconciled with the people of Fukui at a memorial service marking the 150th anniversary of the execution. ==References==