Yoshida Shōin (吉田松陰, born Sugi Toranosuke (杉 寅之助); September 20, 1830 – November 21, 1859), commonly named Torajirō (寅次郎), was one of Japan's most distinguished intellectuals in the late years of the Tokugawa shogunate.

The process of adopting younger sons from the Sugi house was established generations before Shoin's birth.

To avoid financial insolvency, the Sugi house controlled two additional samurai lineages-the Tamaki and the Yoshida lineages.

Due to Shōin's young age, four men were appointed to represent the Yoshida house as instructors.

This period of intense study suggests a formative experience that shaped Shōin into an educator and activist that helped spur the Meiji Restoration.

Several months after Perry's arrival at Uraga, Sakuma Shōzan petitioned the Bakufu to allow promising candidates to go to the United States to study the ways of the West.

After his release, he took over his uncle's tiny private school, Shōka Sonjuku to teach the youth military arts and politics.

By 1858, Ii Naosuke, the bakufu Tairō who signed treaties with the Western powers, began to round up sonnō jōi rebels in Kyōto, Edo, and eventually the provinces.

Nonetheless, he and a small band of students attacked and attempted to kill Ii's servant in Kyoto.

When it was Yoshida's turn in November 21, he was brought to an open courtyard adjacent to the prison, and led to the scaffold.

With perfect composure he kneeled atop a straw mat, beyond which was a rectangular hole dug in the rich, dark earth to absorb the blood.

At least five of his students, Takasugi Shinsaku, Katsura Kogorō, Inoue Kaoru, Itō Hirobumi and Yamagata Aritomo later became widely known, and virtually all of the survivors of the Sonjuku group became officers in the Meiji Restoration.

Takasugi led rifle companies against the shōgun's army when it failed to conquer Chōshū in 1864, rapidly leading to the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate.

The series starred Mao Inoue who portrayed Sugi Fumi, a younger sister of Yoshida Shōin.