Shinsengumi:
Serizawa Kamo
by Romulus Hillsborough
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Serizawa Kamo was a troublemaker who gloried in his newfound power as one of the Shinsengumi co-commanders. He considered himself above the rule of law. He embezzled money from local merchants. He burned down the warehouse of a silk dealer in Kyoto who had refused his demands for money. He instigated fights with innocent people, some of whom he killed. He trashed the interior of an exquisite house in the pleasure quarter because he felt slighted by one of the women. He refused to pay the bill for goods he had procured from a certain shop in town. When the proprietor's wife came to the Yagi Residence to collect, Serizawa raped her and convinced her to leave the proprietor and stay with him. The protector of Kyoto was disturbed by Serizawa's behavior. His dread security corps had been established for the express purpose of restoring law and order. He could no longer indulge behavior contrary to that purpose. Kondo and Hijikata shared his feelings, although for different reasons. As I have mentioned, Kondo and Hijikata hailed from peasant households. They were poignantly aware that their positions of power in a Tokugawa police corps were made possible by the bloody times they had inherited. Serizawa's behavior jeopardized the very existence of their corps, which had become their very reason for living. They had been waiting for an opportunity to eliminate the Serizawa Faction from the corps. The protector of Kyoto provided them with such an opportunity by ordering them to assassinate Serizawa Kamo and they seized that opportunity with a vengeance. One night in September 1863, about six months after the Shinsengumi had been established, Kondo invited Serizawa and two of his men both Shinsengumi officers to a banquet at the pleasure quarter. Kondo made sure that his guests had plenty to drink. After several hours Serizawa and the two others left the banquet. Staggering from too much drink, they hired a palanquin to bring them back to the Yagi Residence, where they continued drinking. The attack came soon after the three drunken men had gone to bed. Two of them, including Serizawa, were killed. The other man managed to escape, never to be heard of again. The Serizawa Faction ceased to exist, and Kondo Isami became sole commander of the Shinsengumi. Shinsengumi The Shogun's Last and Most Dreaded Samurai Corps Back to Table of Contents -- Samurai History Papers # 1 Back to Samurai History Papers List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Romulus Hillsborough. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com |