The was a small secret police organization, an elite group of swordsmen organized by commoners and low-ranking samurai, commissioned by the (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was active until 1869.Stephane Lun (2021) "A Guide on Shinsengumi: the background and management." [Kindle paperwhite version] Retrieved from amazon.com It was founded to protect shogunate representatives in Kyoto at a time when a controversial imperial edict to exclude foreign trade from Japan had been made and the Chōshū clan had been forced from the imperial court. They gained considerable fame from events such as the Ikedaya incident and the August 18 coup, among others. The members were drawn from the sword schools of Edo.
History
Japan's forced opening to the west in 1854, which required it to open its shores for trade or face military conflict, exacerbated internal political instability. One long-standing line of political opinion was (meaning, "revere the emperor, expel the barbarians"). Loyalists (particularly in Chōshū Domain) in Kyoto began to rebel. In response, the Tokugawa shogunate formed the on October 19, 1862. The was a squad of 234 (samurai without masters) drawn from the sword schools of Edo.
The squad's nominal commander was the hatamoto Matsudaira Katamori, and their leader was Kiyokawa Hachirō, a from Shōnai Domain. The 's mission was to protect Tokugawa Iemochi, the 14th , during an important trip to Kyoto to meet with the Emperor Kōmei.Oishi M. Shinsengumi: Saigo no Bushi no Jitsuzō. Shin Jinbutsu Oraisha, Tokyo, 2004. There had not been such a meeting since the third of the Tokugawa , Tokugawa Iemitsu, had visited Kyoto in the 17th century. Tokugawa Iemochi, the head of the military government, the , had been invited to discuss how Japan should enact the recent imperial edict calling for the expulsion of foreigners.
Although the was funded by the Tokugawa , the leader Kiyokawa Hachirō and others had strong loyalties to the emperor and planned to gather other in Kyoto to police the city from insurgents. On March 26 (lunar calendar February 8), 1863, Kiyokawa led the out of Edo as the vanguard of Iemochi's procession to Kyoto, which they arrived on April 10 (lunar calendar February 23), 1863.
When Kiyokawa's scheme was revealed in Kyoto, he immediately commanded the to return to Edo. The members were disbanded and then returned to Edo where they would later form the under the patronage of Shōnai Domain. However, nineteen members, mainly from the Mito clan, remained and formed the .Stephane Lun (2021) "A Guide on Shinsengumi: the background and management"
Founding members Serizawa's faction:
Serizawa Kamo Niimi Nishiki Hirayama Gorō Hirama Jūsuke Noguchi Kenji Araya Shingorō Saeki Matasaburō
Kondō's faction:
Kondō Isami Hijikata Toshizō Inoue Genzaburō Okita Sōji Nagakura Shinpachi Saitō Hajime Harada Sanosuke Tōdō Heisuke Yamanami Keisuke
Tonouchi's faction:
Tonouchi Yoshio Iesato Tsuguo Abiru Eisaburō Negishi Yūzan
Initially, the were called , meaning " of Mibu". At the time, Mibu was a village south west of Kyoto, and was the place where they were stationed. was initially formed in three factions under Serizawa (the group), Kondō (the group) and Tonouchi. Abiru Eisaburō later died of illness, a month after arriving in Kyoto.
Internal strife soon developed within the group, Tonouchi was assassinated by Kondō on Yojō bridge, Serizawa had ordered a member, Iesato Tsuguo, to commit for deserting, and Negishi Yūzan also deserted and returned to Edo, where he joined the .
Matsudaira Katamori, after the careful evaluation of the political scene in Kyoto, felt it was needed to change the scope of the 's mission from protecting the shogunate to patrolling the streets of Kyoto and restoring order in the name of the Tokugawa . On August 18, 1863, the was renamed the .Stephane Lun (2021) "A Guide on Shinsengumi: the background and management."
The new name may have been coined by Matsudaira Katamori (the of the Aizu clan) around this time."Bessengumi" The opposition forces included the Mori clan of the Chōshū and the Shimazu clan of Satsuma.
The were led by Serizawa Kamo ( 1830, Mino Province), Niimi Nishiki, and Kondō Isami ( 1834, Musashi Province – he came from a small dojo in Edo called ). The submitted a letter to the Aizu clan, another powerful group who supported the Tokugawa regime, requesting permission to police Kyoto. The request was granted.
Saeki Matasaburō, having killed Araya Shingorō, is believed to have been killed by a Chōshū samurai Kusaka Genzui on September 22, 1863.
On September 30, 1863 (lunar calendar August 18), the Chōshū (anti-Tokugawa) clan were forced from the imperial court by the Tokugawa, Aizu and Satsuma clans. The were sent to aid the Aizu and guard the gates of the imperial court. The opposition forces included the Mori clan of the Chōshū and the Shimazu clan of Satsuma.
Serizawa's erratic and disruptive behavior in Kyoto eventually led to Matsudaira Katamori of Aizu giving the an order to assassinate Serizawa and his group. On October 19, 1863, Niimi Nishiki, a member of the Serizawa faction was forced by Yamanami Keisuke and Hijikata Toshizō to commit seppuku for breaking regulations. On October 30 (or October 28), a few selected members led by Hijikata went into the Yagi Gennojō's house and assassinated Serizawa, his lover Oume, and Hirayama Goro, with Hirama Jūsuke being the only survivor who fled that night. All this infighting left Kondō as leader. Three months later, Noguchi Kenji was ordered to commit for an unknown reason.
On July 8, 1864, in an incident at the Ikedaya Inn in Kyoto, thirty suppressed a cell of twenty Chōshū revolutionaries, possibly preventing the burning of Kyoto. The incident made the squad more famous and led to soldiers enlisting in the squad.
Squad hierarchy after Ikedaya : Kondō Isami, fourth master of the Tennen Rishin-ryū : Yamanami Keisuke : Hijikata Toshizō : Itō Kashitarō Spies: Shimada Kai and Yamazaki Susumu.
Okita Sōji (instructor in Kenjutsu). Nagakura Shinpachi (instructor in Kenjutsu). Saitō Hajime (instructor in Kenjutsu). Matsubara Chūji (instructor in Jujutsu). Takeda Kanryūsai (instructor in military strategies). Inoue Genzaburō Tani Sanjūrō (instructor in spearing skills). Tōdō Heisuke Suzuki Mikisaburō Harada Sanosuke
Members of the group
At its peak, the had about 300 members. They were the first samurai group of the Tokugawa era to allow those from non-samurai classes (farmers and merchants, for example) to join. Many joined the group out of a desire to become samurai and be involved in political affairs. However, it is a misconception that most of the members were from non-samurai classes. Out of 106 members (among a total of 302 members at the time), there were 87 samurai, eight farmers, three merchants, three medical doctors, three priests, and two craftsmen. Several of the leaders, such as Sannan, Okita, Saitō, Nagakura, and Harada, were born samurai.
regulations The code of the , famously created by Hijikata Toshizō, included five articles, prohibiting deviation from the samurai code (), leaving the , raising money privately, taking part in others' litigation, and engaging in private fights. The penalty for breaking any rule was . In addition, if the leader of a unit was mortally wounded in a fight, all the members of the unit must fight and die on the spot and, even in a fight where the death toll was high, the unit was not allowed to retrieve the bodies of the dead, except the corpse of the leader of the unit.
Uniform
The members of the were highly visible in battle due to their distinctive uniforms. Following the orders of the commander Serizawa Kamo, the standard uniform consisted of the and over a kimono, with a white cord called a crossed over the chest and tied in the back. The function of the was to prevent the sleeves of the kimono from interfering with movement of the arms. The wore a light chainmail suit beneath their robes and a light helmet made of iron.
The uniform was best defined by the , which was colored . In the old days of Japan, during the ritual, the samurai committing would wear an . Thus the colour, in the samurai's eyes, characterized an honourable death. The sleeves were trimmed with "white mountain stripes", resulting in a very distinctive uniform.
The dandara haori appears to have been discontinued after about its first year of use. The last known record of it being worn is testimony stating that members of the Shinsengumi were dressed in it during the Ikedaya incident. Two days after the incident, however, eyewitnesses described the Shinsengumi's attire as consisting of a layered juban, high-waisted hakama, navy kyahan (leggings), a hachimaki tied at the back of the head, and white tasuki.新・歴史群像シリーズ『土方歳三』、学習研究社 126頁
According to Watanabe Noboru, a samurai of the Ōmura Domain who was being tailed by the Shinsengumi, he could immediately identify his pursuers as Shinsengumi members whenever they were dressed in black robes and black hakama. In addition, an elderly man interviewed in the late Meiji era recalled that the Shinsengumi wore black rasha short-sleeved battle surcoats. These accounts have led to the view that, after the dandara haori was abandoned, the corps adopted an all-black uniform.It has been suggested that the change was made because the distinctive dandara haori was too conspicuous during nighttime operations and unpopular among the members, and also because the new uniform helped erase the influence of Serizawa Kamo, who had originally introduced the earlier uniform.
No original examples of the dandara haori are known to have survived to the present day.
Boshin War In 1867, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu withdrew from Kyoto, the left peacefully under the supervision of the , Nagai Naoyuki. The new emperor had been named the head of a new government (meaning the end to centuries of military rule by the ). This marked the beginning of the Boshin civil war.
Following their departure from Kyoto, the were one of the shogunate forces fought in the Battle of Toba–Fushimi against the Imperial forces consisting of allied forces of Chōshū, Satsuma and Tosa in January 1868 where Kondō would suffer a gunshot wound at Fushimi during the battle.
The returned to Edo, where it was later reformed into a unit known as the and departed from Edo for Kōfu Castle on March 24 on orders to suppress uprisings there. However, upon receiving news on March 28 that the Kōfu Castle was taken by the Imperial forces led by Itagaki Taisuke, they settled at a town of Katsunuma east of Kōfu.
On March 29, 1868, the resisted an attack by the Imperial forces at the Battle of Kōshū-Katsunuma for about two hours but lost, with eight dead and more than thirty wounded, while the Imperial forces had only one dead and twelve wounded. The surviving members were scattered and retreated to Edo.
Right after the Battle of Kōshū-Katsunuma, Nagakura Shinpachi, Harada Sanosuke and some of the members left the after disagreements with long-time comrades Kondo and Hijikata and later formed a new unit with a former Tokugawa retainer Haga Gidou as its commander.
On April 11, 1868, the departed Edo again and set up a temporary headquarters at the Kaneko family estate, northeast of Edo. They would later move to a new headquarters in Nagareyama on April 25, 1868.
However, on the same day, the Imperial forces' Staff Officer Kagawa Keizō of Mito Domain received news that an armed unit had set up camp at Nagareyama and dispatched the forces there.
Death of Kondō Isami