Shimosawa Kan’s Shinsengumi Shimatsuki and Hirao Michio’s Shinsengumi Shiroku 

Shimosawa’s Shinsengumi Shimatsuki is an early account of the Shinsengumi. It was first published in 1928, just before Hirao’s groundbreaking history Shinsengumi Shiroku (original title, Shinsengumishi). Shimosawa’s book is partially based on interviews with former corpsmen and other people who had direct contact with the Shinsengumi. But he was first and foremost a novelist. He began the preface of his book by stating, “It is not my intention to write history.” Some of his information has been repudiated by more recent studies, whose authors have enjoyed the benefits of nearly a century of subsequent scholarship unavailable to Shimosawa. Accordingly, like other early histories of the Shinsengumi, Shimosawa’s book should best be taken for what it’s worth, and relished for its portrayal of the spirit of the men of Shinsengumi rather than a faithful history.

Hirao, on the other hand, was an historian, widely known for his writings about Tosa history, including biographies of Sakamoto Ryōma, Nakaoka Shintarō, and Yamauchi Yodō. Therefore, his historical narrative is more reliable than Shimozawa’s book, which reads more like a novel than a history—though, as Meiji Restoration historian Matsuura Rei observes, Hirao often does not cite sources and contains occasional errors.

I have many books about the Shinsengumi in my private library. Both of the above editions, two of my prize possessions, were published in 1967. I found them in used bookstores in Tokyo’s Kanda district years ago.

I refer to both books in my forthcoming Samurai Swordsmen: The Definitive History of the Shinsengumi, scheduled for publication in fall 2026 with Helion.