The Shinsengumi: A beginning

The Ikedaya Riot

 Enter the Shinsengumi. The morning was clear and peaceful. After a night of bloodlust at Ikedaya the eyes of Sakamoto Ryouma were wide open. Restless. The Shinsengumi were conducting a man hunt all night. After sunset the group were nowhere to be seen and common people and messengers  of the clan opposing Tokugawa thought the hunting had come to an end. But the residence which Sakamoto himself would not call home, was on alert. How many times that morning Ryouma remembered his home town in Tosa. Kyoto was the place to stay for someone like him. Someone always opposing the Tokugawa Shogunate. For years now. 

 Finally, they came. Ryouma saw them from the top of the residence. After the battle at Ikedaya their clothes were still covered in blood. And from that one morning, the Shinsengumi will be a force to fear in Kyoto for the next few years.

Convention of Kanagawa

 After 220 years of isolation the Tokugawa Shogunate maintained a long period of peace. Cultural growth. And the superiority of the Samurai class was unchallenged. Only a few ports in the Country were trading with China and the Dutch House to assure the power of the Tokugawa Clan. The four ships led by Commodore Matthew C. Perry entering the Edo Bay changed by force, the future of the Clan and the Imperial house of the Chrysanthemum. 

 March 31, 1854 Japan and the US signed The Treaty of Kanagawa. Opening the ports of Hakodate and Shimoda to US vessels. Established a first US consul.  Making the Imperial house of Japan and the clans opposing Tokugawa defied the Shogunate for the first time.

 After the departure of Commodore Perry, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi suddenly died. And he was succeeded by his fourth son Iesada.  But sick and being only eight years old at the time. Finally the administration fell in the hands of the Council of Elders, led by Abe Masahiro.

The Shogun in Edo – The Emperor in Kyoto

 The rebels of the Shogunate started to gather in Kyoto. The same loyalists who were looking to reestablish the power to the House of the Chrysanthemum, the Imperial House of Japan. So Tokugawa created a squad of 234 rounin; Samurai without Masters drawn from the Katana schools of Edo. The Roushigumi or “the rounin group”. The mission of the group was to protect the Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi, in his trip to Kyoto, 1863. It was the first trip of the Shogun in order to meet the Imperial house since the 17th century. Meanwhile he leader Kiyokawa Hachirou and other members were loyal to the Emperor as well. And that sentiment was a concern for Edo. In conclusion the Shogun disbanded the group and created the new Shinsengumi, or “New Selected Group”.

The Shinsengumi

 It was the first group during the Tokugawa Shogunate to allow non Samurai members. Wearing highly recognizable light blue Haori over their Kimono. With white sleeves. And having reached over 300 members at its peak, they were located in Kyoto. Patrolling the Streets of the Imperial city against the political rebels, they stormed the streets of Kyoto arresting or killing any opposition to the Shogun in Edo. But looking particularly for the members of the Ishin Shishi, a group supported by the Imperial House and those clans opposing Tokugawa. Mostly Aizu, Satsuma and Choushuu.

 Finally the Edo group arrested Furutaka Shuntarou. And after a while, the brutal interrogation by Shinsengumi vice-commander Hijikata Toshizou forced the prisoner to reveal the hide out of the Ishin Shishi. The Ikedaya inn. And the night before the Gion Matsuri 34 members of the Shinsengumi raided the inn. After more than two hours of combat the Shinsengumi obliterated the Hijikata group. It was past midnight. However they keep hunting the streets of the Imperial capital searching for the members of the Ishin Shishi all the way to the morning. Eight members were killed. And another twenty three arrested by the Shinsengumi. Only one member of the Edo faction died and two others would die later that month by the injuries. 

The beginning of a legend. The Shinsengumi

 Ikedaya’s surroundings were crowded the next morning. But no one imagined that the Shinsengumi would storm the house of Sakamoto Ryouma looking for more members of the Ishin Shishi. Wearing the same uniform from the night before. With blood stains in the form of honor. It was clear that The Shinsengumi was a group to fear. And not only in combat, but in their ability to collect information. And some historians think that the incident delayed the Meiji Restoration. Nowdays you can find a Pachinko Parlour in place of the incident.