Shinsengumi:
Beginning of 1866
by Romulus Hillsborough
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Let's take a leap in time to the beginning of 1866 three years after the formation of the Shinsengumi, a year and a half after the Battle at the Forbidden Gates and two years before the fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu. It was around that time that Choshu entered into a military alliance with their former enemy, the powerful Satsuma clan. The Satsuma-Choshu Alliance, planned and brokered by Sakamoto Ryoma from Tosa, sealed the fate of the Tokugawa Shogun and that of his most lethal security force. In the summer of the same year, the Bakufu was on the verge of defeat in a war against Choshu, which Edo had initiated to punish the renegade clan. The war was waged on four fronts surrounding the Choshu domain. As if losing a war to a single clan was not bad enough for the morale of the beleaguered Tokugawa regime, on July 20, Tokugawa Iemochi, the twenty-year-old shogun, suddenly died at Osaka Castle, dealing a severe blow to the Tokugawa troops in the field. The end the Tokugawa hegemony was fast approaching. But before the end, in June 1867, four years and three months after the formation of the Shinsengumi, all of the corpsmen were promoted to the status of direct retainer of the shogun. Only Commander Kondo, however, was given the high honor of direct access to the shogun. Awarded generous stipends, the Shinsengumi were no longer stigmatized as renegade samurai. This sudden rise to power, even for men of the samurai class not to mention former peasants was unprecedented in the two and a half centuries of Tokugawa history. But dissent among the rank and file plagued the Shinsengumi. As had been the case under Commander Serizawa Kamo, the corps split into two factions under the influence of Staff Officer Ito Kashitaro a charismatic leader and expert in the Hokushin Itto style of fencing. Ito had joined the Shinsengumi at the end of 1864, about six months after the Ikedaya Incident. He openly espoused Imperial Loyalism and was blatantly critical of the Tokugawa Shogunate an offense which neither Kondo nor Hijikata would condone. What's more, they correctly suspected that Ito was in cahoots with Choshu and Satsuma, both bitter enemies of the shogunate and of the Shinsengumi. In March 1867, just seven months before the shogun would announce his abdication and restoration of the political power to the emperor, Ito and twelve of his followers quit the Shinsengumi, which, according to corps regulations, was a capital offense. Ito plotted to assassinate Kondo, Hijikata and others, and to take control of the Shinsengumi. But Kondo would not be deceived. He had previously arranged for one of his closest confidants and top swordsmen, Saito Hajime, to join Ito's group as a spy. Ito embraced Saito as one of his most valuable men, never once suspecting him as Kondo's spy. When Saito informed Kondo and Hijikata of Ito's plot, the two leaders took immediate action. Kondo invited Ito to the home of his mistress, Miyuki under friendly pretexts. Ito readily accepted the invitation. He had maintained good relations with the Shinsengumi, however ostensibly, and had no reason to believe that Kondo knew of the plot to kill him. When Ito arrived at Miyuki's house, he was greeted warmly by Kondo and Hijikata. The men drank sake and talked until after nightfall. When Ito took his leave at around eight o'clock, he was intoxicated. Meanwhile, Kondo's men lay in wait in the moonlight, along a narrow lane, just beyond which point Shichijo-dori street crossed Aburakoji street in the southwestern part of the city. Ito was assassinated near that crossroads. Later that night seven of Ito's men rushed to the scene to avenge the murder. The Shinsengumi were waiting for them, watching silently as their former comrades arrived. Ito's men were carrying a palanquin for their slain leader's body. As they attempted to place the body inside, the Shinsengumi attacked. The Shinsengumi outnumbered Ito's men by at least four to one. An intense and bloody fight ensued. Three of Ito's men were killed; the four others fled. Several of the Shinsengumi were wounded. In the aftermath, four corpses lay on the street. It is said that fingers were scattered about, and pieces of hairy flesh were strewn near the bloodied walls of nearby houses. One month before Ito's assassination, the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, announced his abdication and restoration of rule to the emperor. The announcement was made in the Grand Hall of Nijo Castle before representatives of forty feudal lords. This event, which begot the Meiji Restoration, was the brainchild of Sakamoto Ryoma. Needless to say, the Shinsengumi were outraged, as were the samurai of Aizu and other staunchly pro-Tokugawa clans. When Ryoma was assassinated one month after the shogun's announcement and just three days before Ito was cut down, the Shinsengumi were naturally suspected. Circumstantial evidence found at the scene of the crime, including a sword scabbard belonging to a Shinsengumi officer, seemed to incriminate them. When Kondo was subsequently questioned by the authorities, he testified that his corps had not been involved in the assassination. Kondo was telling the truth. As for the sword scabbard, it had apparently been planted at the assassination scene by a surviving member of Ito's faction who, of course, held a grudge against the Shinsengumi. Even after the shogun's momentous announcement, the Bakufu still controlled the government. The oppositionists in the Tokugawa camp, including Kondo Isami and Hijikata Toshizo, were determined to preserve that control. Meanwhile, their enemies planned to destroy them. Troops of Satsuma, Tosa and three other powerful samurai clans seized the gates of the Imperial Palace. By an Imperial proclamation arranged by Satsuma, the Tokugawa Bakufu was officially abolished and the Imperial Court now ruled Japan. Important Tokugawa posts were eliminated including the protector of Kyoto. The oppositionists, including court nobles and feudal lords who had supported the Tokugawa, were barred from the palace. The Lord of Aizu was ordered to leave Kyoto. The Shinsengumi followed him in mid-December, and set up headquarters at the compound of the Fushimi Magistrate just south of Kyoto. Only about fifty corpsmen remained in the Shinsengumi. With civil war imminent, Kondo was summoned by the Tokugawa authorities to Nijo Castle in Kyoto to discuss war plans. Suspecting that Ito's men were after him, he moved about with ample caution. He brought four men with him to Kyoto. They traveled on horseback, reaching the castle without incident. After the meeting, Kondo remounted his horse for the return trip. Waiting with guns loaded on both sides of the road near a place called Tanbabashi were a group of Ito's men. They shot Kondo on the right shoulder, wounding him badly but not fatally. Civil war broke out in an area called Toba-Fushimi, at the southern approach to Kyoto, on the evening of January 3, 1868. Although the Imperial forces were outnumbered three to one, their victory three days later was decisive. After his defeat, the deposed shogun, accompanied by the Lord of Aizu, fled to Edo. Kondo Isami, not yet recovered from his gunshot wound, followed the shogun with the remnants of the Shinsengumi in tow. But neither Kondo nor Hijikata would give up the fight. Instead they increased their ranks to two hundred and planned to capture Kofu Castle, strategically located in the mountains ninety miles west of Edo. At Edo the two Shinsengumi leaders were promoted to exalted positions within the old hierarchy. Kondo was appointed as a member of the shogun's junior council, placing him among the ranks of the feudal lords. Hijikata was promoted to the status of a high-ranking Tokugawa retainer. Before setting out for Kofu, they managed to obtain a sizeable sum of money, two cannon, three hundred breech-loading rifles and ammunition. The two hundred men of Kondo's revised corps departed Edo on March 1. They moved westward along Koshukaido Road, through the native Tama region of Kondo and Hijikata. The two leaders must have been a grand sight Kondo Isami, the peasant's son turned feudal lord, leading the way on horseback through his home village, his soldier's helmet adorned with the illustrious Tokugawa family crest. Hijikata rode immediately behind Kondo. Following them were the officers of the corps, with the rank and file in tow, each wearing two swords and carrying a gun. The men were welcomed as heroes along the way. Celebrations were held in their honor. Kondo and Hijikata gloried in the festivities, which perhaps contributed to their downfall. On March 4, their third day on Koshukaido Road, they marched through a heavy snowstorm. On the following day, as they reached a snowy summit, word arrived that Kofu Castle had fallen to the Imperial forces. Had the Shinsengumi arrived just one day earlier, the castle might have been theirs for the taking. As it was, they were badly routed at the town of Katsunuma, five miles east of Kofu. After the battle, Kondo, Hijikata and their remaining men gathered in Edo, once again defeated but not yet destroyed. At Edo, Kondo and Hijikata recruited more men, with plans to march north to Aizu to muster one great army for a final showdown against the new Imperial government. On March 13, with a revised corps of more than one hundred men, they left Edo. By the end of March the Shinsengumi ranks had swelled to 227. On April 1, they arrived at a village called Nagareyama, northeast of Edo, to train the new recruits. It was there that Kondo Isami was arrested by the Imperial government. The Shinsengumi recruits, training at a nearby field, had been taken off guard by the sudden appearance of some two hundred enemy troops. The recruits fled to the mountains, and the enemy surrounded a building housing the notorious Shinsengumi commander. Kondo identified himself by an alias, Okubo Yamato. He told his captors that he was loyal to the Imperial government and that it had not been his intention to oppose them. He claimed that his corps had been on a mission to suppress the oppositionists in the north and northeast regions to which many of the pro-Tokugawa troops had indeed fled. But the Imperial officers would not be deceived. They ordered Kondo to turn over his weapons, disband his corps and accompany them to their military headquarters in the Itabashi district of Edo. Kondo outwardly acquiesced but inwardly resolved to commit seppuku. Hijikata, however, would hear nothing of Kondo's resolve, and convinced him to report to Imperial headquarters under his alias and to stand by his false claim of loyalty to the Imperial government. At Imperial headquarters Kondo was identified as the notorious Shinsengumi commander. He was subsequently tried and sentenced to death by shameful execution as a common criminal rather than the honorable seppuku of a samurai. About three weeks later, on April 25, he was brought to the scaffold at the official execution grounds at Itabashi. There he was beheaded and his spiked head was displayed for public view. Near the head was erected a signboard, citing his "crimes which are too numerous to count." After three days the head was transported to Kyoto for display in that city as well. Through this final ignominy it was the purpose of the Imperial government to destroy, in both body and name, the once dreaded leader of the most dreaded of samurai corps. 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 |