[5] He also showed early literary promise himself, composing aged eleven a haiku on the subject of returning wild geese that met with the approbation of his father, and he began to manifest his later antiquarian leanings, copying pictures of temple bells from old books.

[2][7] In Tenpō 4 (1833) he abruptly set out from home, seemingly spurred on not only by wanderlust but also financial indiscretion, having been obliged secretly to sell some family heirlooms to settle debts run up buying books and antique curios.

[6] While in Nagasaki, encouraged by the Zen monk who nursed him back to health, he entered the Buddhist priesthood, at Zenrin-ji (禅林寺), going on to serve as priest at Senkō-ji (ja) in Hirado for the next three years.

[6][7] Having reached as far as what is now Ajigasawa at the northern end of Honshū, he was unable to cross over to Ezo due to strict restrictions on travel imposed by the Matsumae Domain, turning back instead to Rikuzen Province.

[6][7] In 1845, at the age of 28, for the first time he crossed the Tsugaru Straits, to Esashi, which he left disguised as a merchant, travelling the length of the island for the next seventh months: he walked, with local Ainu as his guides, along the southern Pacific coast from Hakodate to the tip of the Shiretoko Peninsula, where he erected a marker inscribed "Ise Province, Ichishi District, Kumozu River, South: Matsuura Takeshirō" (勢州一志郡雲出川南 松浦竹四郎), before making his way back again to Hakodate, and thence to Edo.

[9] 1853 saw the arrival of Perry's "Black Ships" in Edo Bay; when they returned the following year, at the instigation of the Uwajima Domain, Matsuura Takeshirō followed their progress, giving rise to his Shimoda Diaries.

[7] He was also in touch with Yoshida Shōin who, in an 1853 letter of introduction to an Ōsaka gunsmith, wrote critically of the Bakufu's response to Perry's arrival at Uraga and Putyatin's at Nagasaki, while recommending Matsuura Takeshirō as one who had left his mark all over the country, had intimate knowledge of Ezo, and had the question of coastal defence at his heart.

[5] Joining the expedition headed by Mukōyama Gendayū (ja), he completed a circuit of the island, travelling clockwise from Hakodate, also crossing the Sōya Strait to the northern regions of Ezo, as far as what is now Poronaysk, on Sakhalin.

[6] Records of these three years run to 117 volumes, while he also aimed at a wider audience through works such as Ezo Manga and a series of travelogues full of detail on the local mountains and rivers, flaura and fauna, and the customs, legends, and material culture of the Ainu he encountered along the way.

[5] Sympathetic to their plight, his 1858 Account of the People of Ezo in Recent Times (近世蝦夷人物誌), which includes their sufferings at the hands of traders and officials of the Matsumae Domain, was refused for publication by the Hakodate bugyō.

[5] As Bakumatsu drew to its close, as an authority on the north, Matsuura Takeshirō was visited by the likes of Ōkubo Toshimichi and Saigō Takamori, leading figures in the Meiji Restoration.

[5] Ōkubo advocated a role for him in the new government, with responsibilities relating to the development of Ezo, and, after conducting a survey of the Tōkaidō, he was assigned a position in the administration of the short-lived Hakodate Prefecture (ja) and elevated to the Junior Fifth Court Rank, Lower Grade.

[5] Putting forward six alternatives,[note 1] the government chose Hokkaidō (北加伊道), substituting the character for sea (海) for the two characters for kai (加伊), which he had drawn from Legends of Atsuta Shrine (熱田大神宮縁起), the repository of the sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi, one of the Three Sacred Treasures, having first heard of kai as an old Ainu endonym for the Ainu people from an elder encountered during his journey up the Teshio River in 1857; thus was "Hokkaidō" born.

[6] In 1870, however, he retired from his post, unhappy with the direction taken and frustrated in his attempts to approve the lot of the Ainu, the island's traders seemingly having worked to isolate him within the commission while sending bribes to its head Higashikuze Michitomi, who refused to countenance his views.

[6] Named One-Mat Room (一畳敷, Ichijōjiki) or Grass Abode (草の舎, Kusa no Ya), built into and adorning it were nearly a hundred old parts from temples, shrines, and historic buildings across the country, from Miyagi to Miyazaki, sent to him by his friends, the name plaque being burnt wood from the west gate of Shitennō-ji, window surrounds coming from Kōfuku-ji and Ishiyama-dera, a beam that was formerly a pillar at Kennin-ji, and other such from Byōdō-in, Daian-ji, Hōryū-ji, Kōdai-ji, Mii-dera, Tōfuku-ji, Ise Jingū, Izumo Taisha, Kasuga Taisha, Itsukushima Jina, Tsurugaoka Hachimangū, Kitano Tenmangū, Hiei-zan, Togetsu Bridge, Kumamoto Castle, even the torii from Emperor Go-Daigo's mausoleum in Yoshino.

[13] His wishes that the room be cremated with him were disregarded; changing hands several times since his death, it is now preserved at the Taizansō (泰山荘) villa in the grounds of International Christian University in Tōkyō.