Shinsengumi: The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps by Romulus Hillsborough

Author:Romulus Hillsborough [Hillsborough, Romulus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, Asia, Japan, Revolutionary, Modern, 19th Century, Military, weapons, Special Forces
ISBN: 9781462913589
Google: jUzRAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Published: 2013-06-25T23:55:05.575261+00:00

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In May, as Shōgun Tokugawa Iémochi led his army westward from Edo to launch the expedition against Chōshū, a group of samurai of Zézé Han planned to assassinate him. The group was led by one Kawasé Dazai, the son of a hereditary councilor to the Lord of Zézé. While the Zézé daimyō was a direct retainer of the shōgun, Kawasé’s group were ardent Imperial Loyalists who supported Chōshū. By assassinating Iémochi, they would dissuade the Bakufu from launching the expedition. Their plan was foiled when it came to the attention of a certain Zézé man who arranged for the information to be relayed to the protector of Kyōto. The Shinsengumi were immediately dispatched to Kawasé’s house in Ōtsu, just east of Kyōto. But Kawasé had been warned, and by the time the Shinsengumi arrived, he was gone. The only one at home was Kawasé’s wife. When the Shinsengumi informed her that they would take her to their headquarters for questioning, she begged for time to prepare herself. She went to a room at the rear of the house, where she quickly burned letters and other documents that implicated her husband in the assassination plot. After destroying the evidence, and without further ado, she took up a dagger and stabbed herself in the throat. She died of her wound eleven days later. Thirty samurai involved in the plot, including Kawasé, were subsequently arrested. In November, four of them were forced to commit seppuku; seven were executed. Kawasé was beheaded the following year. A samurai of the Yonézawa clan was arrested by the Shinsengumi for harboring Kagawa Keizō of Mito, one of the assassination plotters. The prisoner refused to talk under interrogation by Kondō and Hijikata. Staff Officer Itō Kashitarō was so impressed by the Yonézawa man’s courage that he convinced Kondō and Hijikata to release him, citing his apparent innocence. Itō did not need mention his own Loyalist sympathies, which were growing more and more prevalent.

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