The monument displays a carving of a poem in seven words by Hijikata Hisamoto, who was a close friend of Sakamoto Ryoma at the end of the Edo period.
The inscription reads as follows:
He busied himself without worrying about himself.
He made frequent trips over the mountains to Choshu and across the sea to Satsuma.
He met with a disaster before his extraordinary exploits were accomplished.
The grudge never dies for a thousand years and makes even the merciless gods weep.
Below this, there is a 600-character poem by Itagaki Taisuke, the supreme leader of the Civil Liberties Movement.
The monument was erected on the banks of the Kagamigawa River in Yanagihara, Kochi in November 1916, and moved to its present location in 1928.
Nearby is another monument named "Chukon Gokouki", engraved with a waka poem: "In the Empress's dream the departed soul swore to defend the country eternally" by Hosokawa Junjiro.
