Shinsengumi Commander Kondō Isami and Vice-commander Hijikata Toshizō were glorified as heroes upon their return to their native Tama in early 1868, shortly after the fall of the Bakufu. In death, not long thereafter, they were apotheosized. On the grounds of Takahata Fudō temple in Hino (in Tama), the stone Monument of the Two Heroes was completed in 1888, twenty years after Kondō’s execution, nineteen years after Hijikata fell in battle. Over a century later a bronze statue of Hijikata was erected near the monument. As I wrote in the closing of Shinsengumi: The Shogun’s Last Samurai Corps, “[t]he right hand grips a sword. The left fist is clenched. The eyes… the eyes battle-ready, are ever prepared for death, to meet Kondo underground.”

This post relates to my forthcoming book, Samurai Swordsmen: The Definitive History of the Shinsengumi (1863–1869). See the Shinsengumi Hub for additional essays and updates.

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