The Kodokan of Mito Han, one of the great educational institutions of its time, was steeped in the philosophy of Mitogaku (“Mitoism”), the cornerstone of Imperial Loyalism – as indicated by the slogan Sonno-Joi (“Imperial Reverence and Expel the Barbarians”), published for the first time in the school’s charter (Kodokanki). “Loyalty and Patriotism” (JinchuHokoku), part and parcel of Sonno-Joi, was advocated by men on both sides of the conflict leading up to the overthrow the Bakufu – i.e., those who supported the Bakufu and those intent on destroying it. Among the former were the leaders of the Shinsengumi. Therefore, without the Kodokan and Mitogaku it is doubtful that the Shinsengumi would have existed.

I’ll have much more to say about this in my next book about the Shinsengumi. Below is a link to my first Shinsengumi book.

[The photo of the Kodokan was taken in October 2018. The two books on the right portion of the other photo are studies of Mitogaku. The other one is a brief history of the Kodokan.]

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When Matsudaira Katamori, daimyo of Aizu, arrived in Kyoto to assume the newly created post of Kyoto protectorate (京都守護職/Kyoto Shugoshoku) in the closing days of 1862, there were people in the Imperial capital who did not even know that Aizu existed, Yamakawa Hiroshi, formerly a senior minister to Katamori, reports in his history of the Kyoto protectorate. In his new post Matsudaira Katamori became the master of the Shinsengumi.

[Yamakawa Hiroshi’s book (京都守護職始末/Kyoto Shugoshoku Shimatsu) was published in 1911. This photo of Matsudaira Katamori is used in Samurai Assassins, courtesy of the National Diet Library, Japan. Matsudaira Katamori is also featured in Shinsengumi: The Shogun’s Last Samurai Corps.]

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Both Shinsengumi leaders favored swords of greater than average length. Samurai generally carried two swords, one long and one short. The cutting edge of the average “long sword” measured about 2 feet, 2.5 inches. In the battle at Kofu in the spring of 1868, Kondo Isami reportedly wielded a particularly long sword of about 2 feet, 9 ½ inches. In the fall of that year, Hijikata Toshizo reportedly carried an even longer sword. As I wrote in Shinsengumi: The Shogun’s Last Samurai Corps, during the rebellion in the north, Hijikata, as a condition for accepting the command of confederate troops, demanded that his orders be strictly obeyed. “If any man defies [my] orders, . . . , I, Toshizo, will have to strike him down with my sword,” which he said was nearly three feet long.

The Shinsengumi was a police force organized in the spring of 1863 to guard the shogun, quell sedition and restore law and order in the Imperial capital of Kyoto during the upheaval of the 1860s. The shogun’s government, the Tokugawa Bakufu, was overthrown less than five years later. That the Shinsengumi was on the wrong side of history has no bearing on the allure of its two leaders, Kondo Isami and Hijikawa Toshizo, in the 21^stcentury. Which is one of the reasons that I wrote the only historical narrative about the “shogun’s last samurai corps” in English, and I am currently writing a more in-depth history of the Shinsengumi to be published in the future.

While much has been written about practical application versus philosophy in kenjutsu (Japanese swordsmanship), Hijikata Toshizo, vice-commander of the Shinsengumi, practiced kenjutsu to learn to “kill people,” according to Yuki Minizo.*

[The photograph of Hijikata Toshizo is used in Shinsengumi: The Shogun’s Last Samurai Corps, courtesy of the descendants of Sato Hikogoro and Hino-shi Furusato Hakubutsukan Museum.]

*Yuki Minizo is sometimes identified as a former Shinsengumi corps. However, technically he did not serve in the Shinsengumi. He was recruited by Kondo Isami after the Shinsengumi was reorganized as the Koyōchinbutai (“Pacification Corps”) in early 1868.

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