Blue Ribbon Medal of Honour awarded in 1901

Nice early specimen that was awarded on February 22, 1901. Interesting greenish shade of the ribbon.

Reverse engraved

林田守隆 - Moritaka Hayashida

Case interior.

 

Moritaka Hayashida /林田守隆; December 12, 1848 - March 18, 1929/ was born in Kurume in 1848 as the eldest son of Kurume samurai Hayashida Moriaki. He studied martial arts at the domain school Meizendō and waka poetry from his father, who was a well-known poet. In January 1868, he participated in the assassination of pro- shogunate councilor Fuwa Mimasaka together with his loyalist comrades Ogawa Kichiemon (Masafumi) and others. He served in the Boshin War as a platoon commander of the Ohentai, an organization organized by the Kurume domain, and distinguished himself in the Battle of Hakodate.​

After the Boshin War, he went to Tokyo to study under Yasui Sokken. When the Kurume domain was in trouble in 1871, he was ordered by the domain governor Arima Yoritsune to go to Kurume with Honjo and his party, and negotiated with Mizuno Masaaki and Ogawa Masafumi to settle the situation.

In 1872, he inherited the headship of the Hayashida family and moved to Tanushimaru Village, Takeno County (present-day Tanushimaru Town, Kurume City ). In addition to sericulture and silk-reeling, he started cultivating various commercial crops and developing wasteland. As he brought many benefits to the local area, such as donating his personal property to Tanushimaru Town for the public good, in 1881, Moritaka was made a living god at the Kaigisha Shrine in Tanushimaru Town, and rituals were held at the Gion Shrine.

In 1893, he became president of Akamatsusha, a company that provided employment to samurai in the former Kurume Domain. In 1901, he was awarded the medal with blue ribbon.

In his later years, he was appointed president of Kurume Bank, chairman of the Kurume Chamber of Commerce, and chairman of the Maki Yasuomi Memorial Association. He passed away in 1929 at the age of 82.​