Samurai Swordsmen: The Definitive History of the Shinsengumi amid the Fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate is now listed on Amazon USA

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Shinsengumi sleeve badge bearing the red character makoto (“sincerity”) above a stylized mountain-like pattern. According to the Ryozen Museum of History, the badge was worn on the sleeve by Shinsengumi corpsmen for identification and to prevent accidental clashes between members. Formerly owned by Shimada Kai. Courtesy of the Ryozen Museum of History.

This volume has occupied me for years. At more than 270,000 words, it is by far the most comprehensive work I have written on the Shinsengumi and the fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu. While centered on Kondō Isami, Hijikata Toshizō, and the Shinsengumi, the book is also a broader narrative of the political and military collapse of the Tokugawa order during the final years of the samurai age.

In many ways, Samurai Swordsmen continues and expands the historical world of Samurai Revolution. Together with The Last Shogun, the third book of the Samurai Revolution Trilogy (now in progress), it forms part of a larger attempt to narrate the fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu and the men who shaped its final decades.

More updates soon.

Romulus Hillsborough

[The Shinsengumi sleeve badge bearing the character makoto (“sincerity”) is courtesy of the Ryozen Museum of History.]