This is the birthplace of Takasugi Shinsaku, an adventurer of the late Edo period. The site originally covered 1,650 square meters, but only the southern half of the building is open to the public now. It includes a well that is said to have been used for his birth and a monument inscribed with a haiku he wrote.

Shinsaku was born in the Hagi castle town in 1839. In addition to attending Meirinkan, the domain school, he also attended Shokasonjuku, a private academy presided over by Yoshida Shoin, where he distinguished himself. He and a fellow student named Kusaka Genzui became known as the two star pupils of Shokasonjuku.

In 1862, Shinsaku visited Shanghai in Qing dynasty China, which was supported by foreign powers at the time. Sensing the threat of European imperialism, he formed a militia called the Kiheitai in 1863. It was the first military organization in Japan that did not require members to belong to a certain social class. After Shinsaku’s forces defeated the shogunate army, Shinsaku retired to Yoshida, Shimonoseki (a location now called Togyoan) due to his worsening chest ailment. He died of tuberculosis in 1867 at the young age of 27 years and 8 months.

The Hagi Museum contains the Takasugi Shinsaku Archives, where numerous artifacts related to Shinsaku are on display, including his birth clothes as well as calligraphy from his later years.