SHINSENGUMI 新選組

The Rōnin
The Shinsengumi was renamed from Mibu Rōshigumi after several months in operation. The term rōshigumi implies a samurai group consisting of rōnins, who were generally referred as the people who wandered around after leaving from their own daimyo without authorization, or known as dappan. These samurai chose to leave their lord due to cultural or political view conflicts, while some were forced to lose their ground upon the daimyo’s fall or demise.

In the Tokugawa shogunate’s early days, an authoritarian form of government was well demonstrated to maintain a strong central power and harshly take over or even exterminate any daimyo not in line with the shogunate policy through military and administrative means. The wipe-out of certain daimyo led to a rōnin acceleration in the community, with over five hundred thousand in number by estimation. Though the shogunate managed to consolidate its power, society suffered from another serious threat to its stability as the rōnin, equipped with katana, had been committing evil all around. It sounded normal since they had been lacking work, income and residence. Without any sense of social belonging, the rōnin were suffering from a state of instability and generally tended to resent the shogunate.

In recent decades, numerous movies and animations highlighted rōnin as righteous samurai fighting injustice for the less privileged and victims. It is definitely out of entertainment purpose needs, given their mysterious background yet skilled swordsmanship. Rurouni Kenshin, a Japanese manga series by Nobuhiro Watsuki since 1994, has represented an example of creation work on the rōnin theme. The story revolves around Himura Kenshin, an assassin serving the Chōshū-han at the shogunate’s end, who decided to wander around to help the weak with a sakabatō (reverse blade katana) since the Meiji Restoration, upon his own promise of not taking any more lives. It is a self-redemption process. The anime plot integrates perfectly creative roles into historical scenes and characters, captivating young audiences with the bakumatsu’s history where society’s turbulence and helplessness was well-depicted.

The Himura Kenshin prototype, as created by Nobuhiro Watsuki, was based on the Kawakami Gensai reference, one of the four bakumatsu remarkable assassins. He was under five feet tall, relatively smaller in size compared with other swordsmen. His swordsmanship genre remained unknown but he was well recognized for his speed and agility. In the Ikedaya Jiken on 5 June 1864, Miyabe Teizō, who was a devoted sonnō jōi proponent and close friend of Kawakami Gensai, was killed during the Shinsengumi raid. Out of anger, Kawakami Gensai immediately set off to Kyoto for revenge. He was however commissioned for another assassination, Sakuma Shōzan being the target. Sakuma Shōzan was an important figure in the Japan political, science and education fields. His academic works and preachings were influential and his notable students, including Katsu Kaishū and Sakamoto Ryōma, later played a significant role in the political reform leading to the Meiji Restoration. Setting out his vision for Japan’s betterment under the foreign powers’ existing threat, he advocated the opening of seaports to foreigners in order to facilitate international trading. And at the same time, it should be accompanied with an administrative reform where the bakufu fostered collaboration and integrated with the Imperial government, or known as Kōbu gattai, leading to a more effective governance and an alleviated Emperor status. Kawakami Gensai, however, held a strong view of sonnō jōi and a denial of any foreigner partnership. As instructed, at the time when Sakuma Shōzan reached Kyoto’s Sanyo-kiya-cho district on horseback, on 11 July 1864, Kawakami Gensai launched a relentless attack upon him in broad daylight among the market crowd. The ambush demonstrated his acrobatic technique which would have inspired Nobuhiro Watsuki on the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū creation, a fictional sword style based on speed and agility practiced by Himura Kenshin. Upon a better understanding of his background, Kawakami Gensai confessed at Kyoto’s Tenryuji Temple that Sakuma Shōzan was ‘the greatest man of all time’ and was confused if his assassination would be justifiable. This triggered his reflection on the rationality of killing and, similar to what Himura Kenshin was going through in his wandering days, he experienced a psychological struggle and vowed eventually not to kill.

In early 1863, with the goal of protecting Kyoto’s Tokugawa shōgun, Kiyokawa Hachirō called for a setup of the Rōshigumi in the bakufu’s name. He openly recruited in Edo, and founded a group of two hundred thirty-four rōnin loyal to the shogun shortly thereafter. The reason behind it was the prospect provided by the Rōshigumi. During the Edo period, a social stratification was implemented based on profession. It was shinōkōshō or society’s four divisions comprising Samurai, Peasants, Artisans and Merchants. The system’s nature was hereditary that social classes would be inherited by their following generation. Taking Kondō Isami as an example, he was the Tennen Rishin-ryū’s Shieikan Dojo’s master. Under his family’s hereditary class however, he was born as Peasant and would not be recognized as Samurai despite his skill and personal achievements.   Owing to the rigid societal class, in 1862, he was eventually denied any bureaucratic position, including an unofficial teaching post offer at the Kōbusho, a military training school established by the Tokugawa shogunate in the bakumatsu. In response to the technology military threat coming from the west, the Kōbusho served as an academy in the swordsmanship, artillery, machinery, military strategy and weaponry advances field. Students were mainly shogun, officials and samurai affiliates and it was a prestigious honour to be involved in any form of the Kōbusho. It was first stationed at Edo’s Tsukiji in 1856 and was later joined by the Naval Training Centre after its relocation from Nagasaki, headed by Katsu Kaishū. In 1859 the Kōbusho was moved to Chiyoda district’s Misakichō.

Many rōnins, along with Kondō Isami’s squad, were enthusiastic to join the Rōshigumi in hopes of social status promotion via achievements. furthermore, recruitment criteria appeared relatively simple, they would basically be shortlisted basically upon the merit of swordsmanship and loyalty to the shōgun, regardless of their social status, profession and personal background. More importantly, being part of the Rōshigumi, would give them allowances. Wouldn’t it be an appealing job for the rōnin?