Japan · JP

Statue of O-Ryū and Kimie Sisters

On the white-sand beach of Kotoigahama in the village of Geisei, a 1.7-metre bronze shows two women standing side by side, arms raised, waving out across the Pacific. They are O-Ryū, wife of the Bakumatsu samurai Sakamoto Ryoma, and her younger sister Kimie — and the gesture is deliberate: the pair are posed waving towards the great statue of Ryoma on Cape Kachigawa in Kochi, far down this same coastline. The monument marks a little-known chapter of Ryoma's story. After his assassination in 1867, O-Ryū found refuge in Geisei with the family of her sister's husband, the Kaientai man Sugano Kakubei, who was born here at Wajiki. In 1993 the village raised the statue to honour that sisterly bond and the two men tied to it, setting the figures against black-current surf and an avenue of pines. It is an easy, moving stop for anyone following Ryoma's trail through Kochi, and it works best as part of a longer day: a beach walk under the pines, the village history museum nearby, and a guided "O-Ryū Road" stroll that explains why these two women stand on this particular shore.