| Native Name: | 新選組 |
| Country: | Kyoto, Japan |
| Allegiance: | Tokugawa bakufu |
| Type: | Military unit |
| Role: | To protect the Tokugawa bakufu representatives and Kyoto |
| Size: | 302 |
| Colors: | light blue, white |
| Colours: | --> |
| Colours Label: | --> |
| Battles: |
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The was a small, elite group of swordsmen that was organized by commoners and low rank samurai, commissioned by the (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was active until 1869.[1] [2] It was founded to protect the shogunate representatives in Kyoto at a time when a controversial imperial edict to exclude foreign trade from Japan had been made and the Chōshū clan had been forced from the imperial court. They gained considerable fame in the Ikedaya incident and the August 18 coup events, among others.[2] The men were drawn from the sword schools of Edo.
See main article: Rōshigumi. Japan's forced opening to the west in 1854, which required it to open its shores for trade or face military conflict, exacerbated internal political instability. One long-standing line of political opinion was (meaning, "revere the emperor, expel the barbarians").[3] Loyalists (particularly in Chōshū Domain) in Kyoto began to rebel. In response, the Tokugawa shogunate formed the on October 19, 1862. The was a squad of 234 (samurai without masters) drawn from the sword schools of Edo.
The squad's nominal commander was the hatamoto Matsudaira Katamori, and their leader was Kiyokawa Hachirō, a from Shōnai Domain. The 's mission was to protect Tokugawa Iemochi, the 14th, during an important trip to Kyoto to meet with the Emperor Kōmei.[4] There had not been such a meeting since the third of the Tokugawa, Tokugawa Iemitsu, had visited Kyoto in the 17th century. Tokugawa Iemochi, the head of the military government, the, had been invited to discuss how Japan should enact the recent imperial edict calling for the expulsion of foreigners.[5]
Although the was funded by the Tokugawa, the leader Kiyokawa Hachirō and others had strong loyalties to the emperor and planned to gather other in Kyoto to police the city from insurgents. On March 26 (lunar calendar February 8), 1863, Kiyokawa led the out of Edo as the vanguard of Iemochi's procession to Kyoto, which they arrived on April 10 (lunar calendar February 23), 1863.
When Kiyokawa's scheme was revealed in Kyoto, he immediately commanded the to return to Edo. The members were disbanded and then returned to Edo where they would later form the under the patronage of Shōnai Domain. However, nineteen members, mainly from the Mito clan, remained and formed the .[6]
Serizawa's faction:
Kondō's faction:
Tonouchi's faction:
Initially, the were called, meaning " of Mibu". At the time, Mibu was a village south west of Kyoto, and was the place where they were stationed. was initially formed in three factions under Serizawa (the group), Kondō (the group) and Tonouchi. Abiru Eisaburō later died of illness, a month after arriving in Kyoto.
Internal strife soon developed within the group, Tonouchi was assassinated by Kondō on Yojō bridge, Serizawa had ordered a member, Iesato Tsuguo, to commit for deserting, Negishi Yūzan also deserted and returned to Edo, where he joined the .
Matsudaira Katamori, after the careful evaluation of the political scene in Kyoto, felt it was needed to change the scope of the 's mission from protecting the shogunate to patrolling the streets of Kyoto and restoring order in the name of the Tokugawa . On August 18, 1863, the was renamed the .[7]
The new name may have been coined by Matsudaira Katamori (the of the Aizu clan) around this time.[8] The opposition forces included the Mori clan of the Chōshū and the Shimazu clan of Satsuma.
The were led by Serizawa Kamo (1830, Mino Province), Niimi Nishiki, and Kondō Isami (1834, Musashi Province – he came from a small dojo in Edo called). The submitted a letter to the Aizu clan, another powerful group who supported the Tokugawa regime, requesting permission to police Kyoto. The request was granted.
Saeki Matasaburō, having killed Araya Shingorō, was believed to be killed by a Chōshū samurai Kusaka Genzui on September 22, 1863.
On September 30, 1863 (lunar calendar August 18), the Chōshū (anti-Tokugawa) clan were forced from the imperial court by the Tokugawa, Aizu and Satsuma clans. The were sent to aid the Aizu and guard the gates of the imperial court. The opposition forces included the Mori clan of the Chōshū and the Shimazu clan of Satsuma.
Serizawa's erratic and disruptive behavior in Kyoto eventually led to Matsudaira Katamori of Aizu giving the an order to assassinate Serizawa and his group. On October 19, 1863, Niimi Nishiki, a member of the Serizawa faction was forced by Yamanami Keisuke and Hijikata Toshizō to commit seppuku for breaking regulations. On October 30 (or October 28), a few selected members led by Hijikata went into the Yagi Gennojō's house and assassinated Serizawa, his woman Oume, and Hirayama Goro, with Hirama Jūsuke being the only survivor who fled that night. All this infighting left Kondō as leader. Three months later, Noguchi Kenji was ordered to commit for an unknown reason.
On July 8, 1864, in an incident at the Ikedaya Inn in Kyoto, thirty suppressed a cell of twenty Chōshū revolutionaries, possibly preventing the burning of Kyoto. The incident made the squad more famous and led to soldiers enlisting in the squad.
At its peak, the had about 300 members. They were the first samurai group of the Tokugawa era to allow those from non-samurai classes (farmers and merchants, for example) to join. Many joined the group out of a desire to become samurai and be involved in political affairs. However, it is a misconception that most of the members were from non-samurai classes. Out of 106 members (among a total of 302 members at the time), there were 87 samurai, eight farmers, three merchants, three medical doctors, three priests, and two craftsmen. Several of the leaders, such as Sannan, Okita, Saitō, Nagakura, and Harada, were born samurai.
The code of the, famously created by Hijikata Toshizō, included five articles, prohibiting deviation from the samurai code, leaving the, raising money privately, taking part in others' litigation, and engaging in private fights. The penalty for breaking any rule was . In addition, if the leader of a unit was mortally wounded in a fight, all the members of the unit must fight and die on the spot and, even in a fight where the death toll was high, the unit was not allowed to retrieve the bodies of the dead, except the corpse of the leader of the unit.
The members of the were highly visible in battle due to their distinctive uniforms. Following the orders of the commander Serizawa Kamo, the standard uniform consisted of the and over a kimono, with a white cord called a crossed over the chest and tied in the back. The function of the was to prevent the sleeves of the kimono from interfering with movement of the arms. The wore a light chainmail suit beneath their robes and a light helmet made of iron.
The uniform was best defined by the, which was colored . In the old days of Japan, during the ritual, the samurai committing would wear an . Thus the colour, in the samurai's eyes, characterized an honourable death.[7] The sleeves were trimmed with "white mountain stripes", resulting in a very distinctive uniform.[9]
In 1867, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu withdrew from Kyoto, the left peacefully under the supervision of the, Nagai Naoyuki.[4] The new emperor had been named the head of a new government (meaning the end centuries of military rule by the). This marked the beginning of the Boshin civil war.
Following their departure from Kyoto, the were one of the shogunate forces fought in the Battle of Toba–Fushimi against the Imperial forces consisting of allied forces of Chōshū, Satsuma and Tosa in January 1868 where Kondō would suffer a gunshot wound at Fushimi during the battle.
The returned to Edo, where it was later reformed into a unit known as the and departed from Edo for Kōfu Castle on March 24 on orders to suppress uprisings there. However, upon receiving news on March 28 that the Kōfu Castle was taken by the Imperial forces led by Itagaki Taisuke, they settled at a town of Katsunuma east of Kōfu.
On March 29, 1868, the resisted an attack by the Imperial forces at the Battle of Kōshū-Katsunuma for about two hours but lost, with eight dead and more than thirty wounded, while the Imperial forces had only one dead and twelve wounded. The surviving members were scattered and retreated to Edo.
Right after the Battle of Kōshū-Katsunuma, Nagakura Shinpachi, Harada Sanosuke and some of the members left the after disagreements with long-time comrades Kondo and Hijikata and later formed a new unit with a former Tokugawa retainer Haga Gidou as its commander.
On April 11, 1868, the departed Edo again and set up a temporary headquarters at the Kaneko family estate, northeast of Edo. They would later move to a new headquarters in Nagareyama on April 25, 1868.
However, on the same day, the Imperial forces' Staff Officer Kagawa Keizō of Mito Domain received news that an armed unit had set up camp at Nagareyama and dispatched the forces there.
During their training at Nagareyama on April 26, 1868, the members were caught by surprise by the 200-strong Imperial forces, the Imperial forces' vice-chief of staff Arima Tota of Satsuma Domain ordered Kondō to go with them to their camp at Koshigaya. Kondō was later brought to Itabashi on April 27 for questioning. Kondō was declared guilty of participation in the assassination of Sakamoto Ryōma on April 30, 1868 and was beheaded three weeks later at the Itabashi execution grounds on May 17, 1868.
Due to Hijikata being incapacitated as a result of the injuries sustained at the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle in May 1868, the fought in defense of Aizu territory under Saitō Hajime in the Battle of Shirakawa in June 1868. After the Battle of Bonari Pass in October 1868, when Hijikata decided to retreat from Aizu, Saitō and a small group of parted with Hijikata and continued to fight alongside the Aizu Domain against the Imperial forces until the very end of the Battle of Aizu, where he and a handful of surviving members were apprehended and became the prisoners-of-war.
In December 1868, Hijikata and the rest of the surviving joined the forces of the Republic of Ezo in the north.[4]
The numbers decreased to around one hundred in this period and they fought on despite the fall of Edo and clear defeat of Tokugawa. In the Battle of Miyako Bay on 6 May 1869, Hijikata led a daring but doomed raid to steal the imperial warship, in the early morning, from the warship, a number of oppositionists, including Nomura Risaburō, managed to board the ship, but were soon mowed down by its Gatling gun. Many others including the captain of were also killed by gunfire from the Imperial ships. The battle lasted only thirty minutes and the survivors and retreated to Hakodate.
On the fourth week of May 1869, Hijikata led 230 Republic of Ezo forces and the surviving against the 600 strong Imperial forces during the Battle of Futamata for sixteen hours and were forced to retreat. The Imperial forces attacked again on the next day, only to retreat. On the following night, Hijikata led a successful raid on the Imperial forces' camp, forcing them to flee. Hijikata and his forces would later retreat to Hakodate on June 10.
Hijikata was killed from a gunshot wound on June 20 (lunar calendar May 11), 1869, during the Battle of Hakodate in Hokkaido. Before his death, he wrote of his loyalty to the Tokugawa on the death poem sent by his page Ichimura Tetsunosuke to the house of his brother-in-law:
A remaining group of survivors, under the last commander Sōma Kazue, who had been under Nagai Naoyuki's supervision at Benten Daiba, surrendered three days later on June 23, (lunar calendar May 14), 1869, marked the end of the .[4] The forces of the Republic of Ezo would later surrender on June 27, (lunar calendar May 18), 1869, which marked the end of the Boshin War.
A few core members, such as Nagakura Shinpachi, Saitō Hajime, and Shimada Kai survived the war. Some members, such as, went on to become prominent figures.[10]
In 1875, Nagakura Shinpachi, with the help of the physician Matsumoto Ryōjun and several surviving former comrades including Saitō Hajime among others, erected the monument for Kondō Isami, Hijikata Toshizō, and the fallen comrades of the at Jutoku-ji temple boundary known as Graves of in Itabashi, Tokyo and held requiems for their past comrades' souls.
During the Meiji (1868–1912) and Taisho (1912–1926) periods, the Shinsengumi were generally unpopular. At that time, the Japanese considered the Meiji Restoration a great achievement and regarded the current system centered around Satsuma and Choshu as just. Therefore, the Shinsengumi were perceived as a foolish group resisting the Meiji Restoration. This prevailing notion began to change with Kan Shimozawa's novel "Shinsengumi Shimatsuki" (1928). Furthermore, after World War II, there was a reevaluation of history among the Japanese. Ryōtarō Shiba's novel "Moeyo Ken" (1964) gained popularity, spreading empathy towards the way of life of the Shinsengumi. Today, the Shinsengumi is depicted and beloved by people through various media such as novels, movies, dramas, anime, and more.[11] [9]
Assassins of Honour
, starring Toshiro Mifune was released.[14] It depicted the rise and fall of the .