Misc. Shinsengumi Members
Serizawa Kamo’s Group
Niimi Nishiki -
1836(?) - Sept 7, 1863 [Oct 19, 1863]
Niimi started out as one of the three commanders of the Shinsengumi, along with Kondo
and Serizawa. Surprisingly, everything about the man seems to be something of a mystery. It is commonly believed that he was from the Mito domain, though that is far from certain. Even his name is questioned. There is some belief that the name “Niimi” was an assumed one and that his real name was “Iori Tanaka”.
His sword style is also in question, but it was most likely Shinto Munen Ryu. There is reason to believe that he was taught by one Okada Sukezamon and that he held a Menkyo Kaiden rank.
Niimi worked very closely with Serizawa at first, but by nature he was a bit of a loner and it appears he may have gradually distanced himself from the “Chief Boss”. There is also evidence that he was reduced to the same rank as Hijikata and Yamanami towards the end. He was eventually forced to commit seppuku at a shop in Gion called the “Yamano-o” for violating rules. He is thought to have been around 28 [27] at the time of his death.
It is claimed that there is some evidence to connect Niimi to the Choshu clan. Due to his name being listed at a Shishi shrine, it is considered a slight possibility that he may have been a spy.
Hirayama Goro -
1829 - Sept 16 or Sept 18, 1863 [Oct 28 or Oct 30, 1863]
He was probably from the Hitachi area of Mito, though there are some who think he was from Harima. He studied Shinto Munen Ryu under Saito Yakurou at the Renpeikan dojo in Edo, the same school where the infamous Katsura Kagoro of Choshu had once been head student. Hirayama was ranked as a Menkyo Kaiden.
At some point he had lost his left eye in an accident (possibly an attempt on his life or a fight of some sort). He was made one of the captains in the Mibu Roshi, as the group was called then. He kept a mistress named Kichiei from the “Kikyo-ya”. Hirayama died along with Serizawa in the surprise attack launched by Kondo’s group. According to one of the sons of the Yagi family, he was nude and sound asleep at the time of the assault. The corpse had been completely beheaded and had a large gash on the chest.
Harima Jusuke -
1824(?) - ?
Harima was the eldest son of a farmer in Serizawa-mura, Hitachi, Mito domain. He had studied Shinto Munen Ryu under Serizawa Kamo, and so was extremely loyal to the man. Strangely Harima was considered to have been rather moderate in his behavior and seldom drank, a fact that saved his life. He was a captain in the Mibu Roshi and kept a mistress named Itosato from the “Wachigai-ya”.
Since he was not drunk at the time of the attack on Serizawa’s group, he was able to fend off his assailants. It is said that he fled the house while still nude and it is unknown what became of him afterwards.
Noguchi Kenji -
1843 - Dec 27, 1863 [Feb 4, 1864]
Noguchi was also from Mito and yet another student of Shinto Munen Ryu. His teacher was one Yurimoto Shouzou and he seems to have achieved a Mokuroku ranking. He became one of the captains of the Mibu Roshi.
Nagakura Shinpachi it thought to have taken a liking to him and for this reason that he was kept from returning to the Yagi estate on the night of the attack. However by the end of December he had to commit seppuku at the Maekawa estate for unknown reasons. He was only 21 [20] at the time of his death.
Members who joined in 1863 -
Andou Soutarou -
So far I have been able to find out nothing about this person other than the fact that he
was a captain in the Mibu Roshi.
Ogata Shuntaro -
He was a roshi of Kumamoto who joined the group during their first recruitment in 1863 and was made captain of the 5th unit. After the group was reorganized following the Ikeda-ya Affair, he was transferred to the spy division of the group. Because he was a scholar, he also served as a Teacher of Literature and Culture during this time. Although not much else is known about him, it is clear that Ogata was someone who was very loyal to the group and was trusted by Kondo and Hijikata.
Shortly after the battle of Toba-Fushimi, Ogata was once again made a captain in the group and fought at Kofu Castle. He seems to have still been with the group up until around the time of Kondo’s capture. Records appear to show he went to Aizu with Saito, but afterwards he whereabouts are completely unknown.
Tani Mantaro -
1835 - June 30, 1886
The second son of his family, Tani Mantaro was the younger brother of Captain Tani Sanjuro. He had followed his brother to Osaka in October of 1856, where they established a dojo. He then followed his brother into the Shinsengumi in 1863.
Though he does appear to have been in Kyoto at times, Tani was mostly based in Osaka where he continued to operate the dojo and also maintained a headquarters for the Shinsengumi. He left the group after Sanjuro died in 1866, but his dojo later failed and he spent the rest of his life in obscurity. He passed away from an illness in 1886 at age 52 [51].
Incidently Tani’s ability to leave the group without fear of reprisal is one of the reasons the authenticity of the so-called “dreaded articles” is in doubt.
Kondo Shuhei -
May 20, 1848 - 1901
Born Tani Masatake, he was the youngest of the Tani brothers and also followed Tani Sanjuro into the group. Kondo Isami adopted him as his heir before the Ikeda-ya Affair, possibly because he heard a rumor that the boy was actually the illegitimate child of an important person by the name of “Itakura”. Eventually the adoption was broken sometime before they became vassals of the shogunate and his name became Tani Shuhei.
He remained with the group for some time after his older brother’s death, but escaped when they returned to Edo following Toba-Fushimi. He then went back to Osaka and later worked as a prefectural policeman. Eventually he resigned from this job. He is thought to have died in Kobe around 1901 at age 54 [53].
[Note - The Tani brothers were from the Bicchu Matsuyama clan. The “Itakura” that Kondo Isami believed Shuhei was the son of was probably Itakura Katsukiyo (or someone in his family), who was mentioned in one source as having been the daimyo of a “Matsuyama clan” that fought in Ezo with Hijikata. As far as I know, the Bicchu Matsuyama clan were the only ones fighting there, but I will have to try to confirm at a later date if Itakura Katsukiyo was the daimyo of this clan or of another “Matsuyama clan”.]
Kawai Kisaburo -
1838 - 1866
He was the eldest son of a wholesale rice dealer from Harima, Takasago. Because he was from a merchant family he had ability in accounting and was left in charge of the group’s financial matters. Unfortunately a shortage was discovered in the accounts in 1866 which he could not explain and Kawai was obliged to take responsibility for this error by committing seppuku. He was 29 [28] at the time of his death.
Ozeki Masajiro -
Ozeki was the only member other than Shimada who enlisted in 1863, stayed with the group all the way until the end at Hakodate, and survived to see the Meiji era. He was also the man in charge of the Shinsengumi’s banner.
Sasaki Aijiro -
1844 or 1845 - Aug, 1863
Born in or near Osaka, he may have been the son of a blacksmith or other metalworker. He had a very pale complexion and is counted as having been one of the five most handsome men to have ever served in the Shinsengumi. He was enthusiastic about swordsmanship and was also supposed to have been good at jujutsu.
Legend has it Sasaki was very popular with the women, but he fell in love with one in particular who was noted for her beauty. Unfortunately the couple bumped into Serizawa Kamo one day and the “Chief Boss” of the Shinsengumi quickly decided he desired the girl for himself. Sasaki’s boss within the group, Saeki Matasaburo, was a man very loyal to Serizawa and began to plot a way to dispose of the youth for him.
Saeki informed Sasaki that Serizawa wanteed the young woman as his own mistress, which of course caused the youth to attempt to escape the group with her. (This was probably on the night of August 1, 1863.) Saeki was waiting in ambush and killed Sasaki for violating the rules of the Shinsengumi. Sasaki was only about 19-20 [18-19] at the time of his death.
Saeki Matasaburo -
He appears to have been a lower samurai of the Choshu clan who was good at the Sekiguchi style of jujutsu. Because he had lived as a ronin in Kyoto and Osaka for some time, he knew both cities fairly well and was able to help the group find their way around. And because he was from Choshu he was able to keep tabs on what the clan members in Kyoto were up to as well.
Although Saeki was one of his favorite subordinates, it is said that Serizawa eventually killed him for some mistake. There are several versions of what exactly he did wrong.
The first story builds on the story of how he supposedly butchered Sasaki Aijiro so that Serizawa could take the youth’s woman for his mistress. After he killed Sasaki, Saeki found he desired the girl himself and raped her. Serizawa found out what he had done and slew Saeki for his “crimes” in the same place where Sasaki had died.
According to another tale, Saeki stole a rather valuable item, the tusk of a norwhale, from Serizawa and sold it so he could go to Shimabara. Back then norwhale tusks were often sold as “unicorn horns” and people thought that they had the power to cure all sorts of diseases. Serizawa of course was furious over being robbed and killed Saeki.
Yet another story claims that Serizawa never killed Saeki at all. In this version, Saeki was actually a spy for Choshu who entered the Shinsengumi under the orders of Yoshida Toshimaru. However he betrayed the Choshu clan, so Yoshida tracked him down and killed him.
Asano Karou -
Asano joined the group in the autumn of 1863 and is believed to have been from either
Hiroshima or Bizen originally. He appears to have been a doctor before he enlisted.
He first ran into trouble during the Sanjo notice board case. During that incident he was supposed to be one of the men on guard for the enemy. When he spotted them, he was to alert Oishi Kuwajiro’s group, who were hidden out of sight. However when the Tosa men actually came he became frightened and took the scenic route to alert Oishi. This caused them to be too late to participate in the fight and so they did not distinguish themselves and get a share of the reward. Oishi was understandably angry over this and mercilessly taunted Asano for being a coward.
Apparently because of this he wanted to leave with Ito Kashitaro and his followers, yet he somehow missed joining with them during their departure. He later escaped on his own, but then found that there was an agreement between the two groups which prevented him from joining Ito’s group. (It seems that Asano was probably one of the members of the group who held Ito in great respect before the Sanjo notice board case and so might have tried to leave with him anyway. Oishi just sort of pushed him over the edge.)
The next bit is rather fuzzy, as there appear to be two versions of what happened. Asano may have given up at that point and returned to the Shinsengumi’s headquarters, where he was ordered to commit seppuku for deserting. Or he may have been caught in an area near the Katsura River by Okita, who killed him. The corpse was then left unattended.
Sasaki Hyogo -
? - Dec 25, 1866 [Jan 30, 1867]
He was originally from Osaka or else from an area close by. There is a claim that he was the son of a Shinto priest. Sasaki was good at 31-syllable poems and had studied ancient Japanese thought and culture. However he was not very talented with a sword and so was placed in the accounting division.
Sasaki seems to have been an older man and was very concerned that his age would cause him to be banned out of the severe group. Eventually he escaped and sought shelter with a Shinto priest in Osaka. But he didn’t do a very good job of disappearing and was soon tracked down by Okita and some of the other members.
The rather morbid story goes that he was dragged into the middle of the street by them and forced to fight with Okita, who of course cut him to pieces. They then left him for dead, but as fate would have it he survived the attack despite having so many severe sword wounds. This was no blessing however, because the experience seems to have driven him insane.
Members who joined in 1864 -
Oishi Kuwajiro -
1838 - Oct, 1870
The eldest son of his family, Oishi was born in Edo. He was forced to leave home due to a “woman problem” and became a freeloader in the house of a carpenter who lived in the Tama area. This person seems to have had connections to the Sato family in Hino and Oishi was able to join the dojo that Sato Hikogoro had established in his home. Oishi became very good at the quick draw apparently.
He joined the Shinsengumi when Kondo returned to Edo to gather recruits. Before long he had made himself indispensable to the group and was greatly feared by many. His nickname was “Executioner” Kuwajiro. Oishi was in Okita’s unit and may have been one of his assistant captains or “corporals” as they were called. At any rate he appears to have worked very closely with the equally infamous captain and this made the 1st unit notorious for their “cruelty”.
Oishi was entrusted with many important assignments, but there was one which would come back to haunt him - the assassination of Ito Kashitaro. After this event, he fought at Toba-Fushimi and when the group was reorganized afterwards he was made a spy. He was still with the group at the battle at Kofu, but was separated from them during the retreat. His whereabouts afterwards were unknown until October of 1870, when he suddenly appealed to Kano Washio - a close friend of Ito’s and one of the members of the group that the Shinsengumi had tried to wipe out - for sanctuary!
Kano promptly handed Oishi over to the Meiji government. After being interrogated on the suspicion that he was involved in the murder of Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro, he was executed for this “crime”. Like Kondo, he was completely innocent of that particular murder. Oishi was 33 [32] at the time of his death.
Members who joined in 1865 -
Yoshimura Kanichiro -
1840 - 1868
Yoshimura was the second son of a Nanbu clansman and was a highly educated man. He distinguished himself in swordsmanship and may have studied in Edo at the Genbukan dojo under the successor of Chiba Shusaku. It was during one of the recruitment trips to Edo that Yoshimura joined the Shinsengumi in fact.
As a swordsman, he was good enough to be made one of the kenjutsu instructors of the group. In his regular duties, he served the Shinsengumi as a spy and Hijikata could count on him to carry out his will. It is said that when the group became vassals of the shogun, Yoshimura shed tears from too much emotion.
He fought at Toba-Fushimi, but what happened to him is not clear. There are some sources which say that he died in the battle. Others claim that he escaped afterwards and tried to return to his home domain. His request was denied and he was made to commit seppuku. He was 29 [28] at the time.
Members who joined in 1866 -
Matsumoto Sutesuke -
April 24, 1845 - April 6, 1918
Matsumoto was from the Tama area and was the eldest son of a wealthy farmer who was the headman of their village. Like many in the area, he studied Tennen Rishin Ryu. When Kondo and the others decided to go to Kyoto, he planned to go as well. However his family objected. That should have been the end of the matter, but in the autumn of 1863 he suddenly showed up in Mibu and visited Hijikata, asking to be enlisted. He was turned down on the grounds that he was the eldest son and heir of his family and sent back home.
He did not give up however and later managed to get Hijikata’s nephew adopted as the family’s heir and the estate was transferred to him. There is a rumor that Matsumoto got involved with a gambler and was disowned by his parents. At any rate, he was then free to do as he pleased.
Since he was no longer the family heir, he was able to gain entrance into the Shinsengumi in 1866. He fought at Toba-Fushimi and then at Kofu, where he was wounded. It seems that he was separated from the group afterwards. He then joined up with a shogunate troop that was escaping to Sendai, possibly by telling them he was with the Shinsengumi.
In Sendai he visited with Hijikata, but did not follow him to Hakodate. He returned to Tama and married Inoue Genzaburo’s niece. Matsumoto operated a rice store in Nagoya and died in 1918 at the age of 74 [72].
Members who joined in 1867 -
Inoue Taisuke -
? - 1927
He was Inoue Genzaburo’s nephew and the second son of his older brother. He joined the group in October of 1867, when he was around the tender age of 10, and served as Kondo’s page. He was with the group at Toba-Fushimi, where he rather heroically tried to carry away his dead uncle’s head and sword for proper burial. He was eventually forced to hide them at a nearby temple however. After the battle he was sent home so that he would not be killed.
Ito Kashitaro’s Kodaiji Party -
Shinohara Tainoshin -
Oct 10, 1828 - June 13, 1911
Shinohara was the eldest son of a farmer from the Takami Village in the Chikugo Province. His father was named Gensuke and he had been adopted by the 11th generation head of the Shinohara family when he married the man’s daughter, Taki.
There was one source which claimed that the family was very poor and spoke with a Kurume dialect. However this information is not very reliable because the same source went on to claim that they were part of the Kurume clan and that Shinohara was a native of Edo, which is false. He did have some connection with the Kurume clan, because he learned to use the spear from one of their clansmen and entered the service of another in 1852. By 1858 he was in the service of the clan in Edo. (The person he entered the service of in 1852 was probably named “Arima Ukon”. He either continued to serve this person in Edo in 1858 or was referred to someone there by him at that time. However the details were not clear enough to be absolutely certain.)
Shinohara is described as a calm, quiet person with a friendly nature. He seems to have been an educated person and was eager in the martial arts. By 18, he had learned how to use both the sword and the spear, and was good at jujutsu. His sword style is said to have been the same as Ito’s.
The assassination of Ii Naosuke in 1860 greatly shocked Shinohara and he joined the cause of “Sonno-joi” at that time. He traveled around for a bit, visiting Mito, Osaka, Echigo, and other places. At some point during this time period, he also married his first wife, Hagino, and they had a son around 1863.
Also in 1863, he was hired by the Kanagawa magistrate as a guard for the foreigner’s settlement in Yokohama. This brought him into contact with Kano Washio and Hattori Takeo, who were also apparently working at this job. That same year Kano took him to Edo and introduced him to Ito Kashitaro.
Like the others, Shinohara decided to follow Ito into the Shinsengumi when he joined in 1864. However he arrived later than the rest of the group, only showing up on May 10, 1865. After settling in Kyoto, he called for his wife and child to join him there. (The reason for this delay is not listed. He may have stayed behind in Edo to look after Ito’s wife, but this task would have become unnecessary when Ito divorced her for deceiving him. Or he may have hesitated because of something relating to his own family.)
Shinohara was made a spy for the Shinsengumi and was one of the jujutsu instructors. He is said to have been friendly with Matsubara Chuji, who also taught jujutsu.
After Ito’s assassination, he joined the Sekihoutai and became involved in the “False Imperial Army” case, for which he was briefly jailed. In just a matter of a few months he was back in the fighting, this time as a sergeant in the Satsuma clan forces.
As soon as the revolution was over, he changed his name to “Hata Shigechika”. The government gave him a job with the Ministry of Justice, but he did not last too long at this one. (There was some indication that this may have been because of an “anti-government plot”, but the information was not very clear.) He next worked for the Ministry of Finance, but resigned in 1873 after only a year. From there on he “meddled” in various businesses, but never felt any particular need to be “successful”.
The reason for his attitude was the fact that he became a convert to Christianity. At some point he also remarried to a younger woman. (It was not noted whether he divorced his first wife or if she had died.)
In 1911, Shinohara died of an inflammation of the middle ear. He had his sons with him and his passing was calm. He was 84 [82] at the time of his death.
Kano Washio -
Jan 9, 1939 - Oct 27, 1902
Kano was born in the Kano Village in the Izu province. He went to Edo and learned swordsmanship at Ito’s dojo and worked as a guard of the foreigner’s settlement in Yokohama. He followed Ito into the Shinsengumi in 1864, where he served as a corporal. During the Boshin War he was able to get “revenge” for Ito’s death when he was called on to identify Kondo for the Satsuma clan, causing the Shinsengumi commander to be executed. When Oishi Kuwajiro foolishly sought him out for help in 1870, Kano turned him over to the government as well. After the war he worked for the Bureau of Development. Kano passed away in 1902 at the age of 64 [63].
Abe Juro -
1837(?) - 1907
Abe was the second son of a farmer from the Yuri area of the Dewa province. He suffered some sort of childhood illness which left him twisted at the waist.
He first joined the Shinsengumi in 1863 and seems to have held more with Serizawa’s faction than with Kondo and Hijikata. Abe participated in the political change of August 18, 1863, but then left the group sometime after Serizawa’s death. He went to Osaka, where he went by the name “Takano Juro”. It cannot be said that he was hiding from the group however, because he stayed at the Tani dojo during this time and so was never completely out of contact with the Shinsengumi.
In 1866 he helped Tani Mantaro deal with some Tosa ronin for the Shinsengumi. A few months later he was persuaded to return to the group after being told about Ito Kashitaro. He served as a corporal and a teacher of artillery. (There was no mention of exactly when and where he is supposed to have learned that skill, which may go a long way toward explaining why the Shinsengumi never got any better at it.)
After Ito’s death, he joined the Sekihoutai with the other faction members. Later he fought in the Oshu region. After the war, he worked for the Bureau of Development and went to Ezo, which had then been renamed Hokkaido. There he established the Abe Orchard and cultivated apples.
In his later years, Abe appears to have claimed to have been the one who shot Kondo. This lead to his friendship with Shinohara being broken off. Abe also seems to have been responsible for at the murder of at least one former Shinsengumi member after the war. (The murder of Yasutomi Saisuke.) He died in 1907 at age 64 [63] of an illness.
Hattori Takeo -
1842 - 1868
He was originally from Ako in the Harima province. Hattori was noted to have a good build and was a great swordsman. He also knew jujutsu and how to use a spear.
He worked as a guard of the foreigner’s settlement in Yokohama and appears to have been connected with Ito’s dojo. He joined the Shinsengumi at the same time Ito did in 1864 and was first a part of Ogata Shuntaro’s 5th unit. Later on his skill with a sword earned him a position as an instructor of kenjutsu when the group reorganized. He may have also worked as a spy after this time. Hattori was eventually killed with Ito and Todo on Nov 18, 1867. He would have been about 27 [26].
Tomiyama Yabee -
1843 - 1868
Tomiyama was apparently from Satsuma. When he first attempted to join the Shinsengumi (either in Kyoto or Osaka) in 1864, he was almost refused on the suspicion that he was a spy for that clan. Ito intervened and he was accepted, becoming part of Matsubara’s unit at first. Later he served as a corporal in the group.
It is known that Ito established some sort of contact with the Satsuma clan before leaving the Shinsengumi. Since Tomiyama was from there originally, he probably played a part in that. He left the group with Ito’s faction and was wounded fighting at Toba-Fushimi for the Imperialists. This seems to have kept him from joining the Sekihoutai with the other member of the Kodaiji Party.
In April of 1868, he was ordered to make some sort of search for the new government, during which he was captured by an enemy faction (apparently from Mito). He attempted to escape and was killed. He was 26 [25] at the time of his death.
Arai Tadao -
1835 - Feb 15, 1891
Arai was the second son of his family and for some reason it seems he used his mother’s family name rather than his father’s. He first appeared in Edo around 1852 and joined the Shinsengumi in the summer of 1865. He was made a spy and an instructor of kenjutsu. He was also known to have been an “unparralleled” regular drinker.
Arai seems to have been on a mission at the time Ito was killed. During the war he joined the Sekihoutai with the others and was arrested for the “False Imperial Army” case. After his release he was a sergeant in the new government force fighting in the Echigo region.
After the war, he served in some post in Kyoto for until 1870, but was then dismissed. In 1874 he re-entered government service in the Department of Justice. He retired as a local government official in 1886 in Tokyo. He died in 1891 at age 57 [56].
Strangely enough, Arai seems to have been a friend of Saito’s at least in their later years. This is a bit surprising since Saito is believed to have betrayed Ito to the Shinsengumi, either as a spy or to get himself out of trouble. Both men lived in the Hongo area of Tokyo, so perhaps this was a factor in their decision not to continue any hostilities. Also their respective jobs may have forced them to declare a truce. At any rate it seems that they were close enough friends that Saito attended Arai’s funeral.
Hakodate Shinsengumi -
*Most of the men listed here were actually part of the Shinsengumi before the collapse of the Tokugawa government. However they were mainly in the background during the Kyoto years and the early part of the Boshin War. As the old guard of the group began to fall away during the war’s progression, many of these guys began to rise to positions of power around Hijikata. Although not listed here, Shimada Kai and Ozeki Masajiro could rightly be considered part of this group since they were the only men to follow Hijikata from the Shinsengumi’s first year in Kyoto until the group’s final fall in Hakodate.
Yasutomi Saisuke -
He joined the group in October of 1865 and was made a teacher of horsemanship. After Toba-Fushimi he was moved to the accounting division. It appears that he was separated from the group during the retreat from Kofu and so went straight to Aizu. He was later reunited there with Hijikata and followed him to Hakodate, where he served as one of the vice-commander’s aides.
Yasutomi was with Hijikata when he was killed on May 11, 1869. According to some stories, he carried the vice-commander’s body back to Goryokaku for burial. Of course this is only one of many accounts of what happened to Hijikata’s remains and Yasutomi noticeably did not confirm this story in the letter he wrote to the Sato family.
In this letter, Yasutomi details Hijikata’s final moments. He gave it to one Tachikawa Chikara and instructed him to carry it to the Sato family in Hino. Yasutomi then surrendered to the Meiji government troops.
He was released in Edo in 1870. Unfortunately it is said that shortly afterwards he was murdered by Abe Juro. He was about 31 at the time of his death.
Tachikawa Chikara -
One of the “later members” of the group (he joined after Kofu), he does not appear to have been particularly important. He is mostly known for having tried to help Yasutomi escape before the Hakodate government’s collapse, just after Hijikata was killed. He was captured and sent to the Akita feudal clan, who kept him in custody for a time as punishment.
In 1872 he was finally able to deliver Yasutomi’s letter to the Sato house. Tachikawa died in 1903 at the age of 68.
Soma Kazue -
There appears to be some disagreement about what year of the Tenpo era Soma was born in. Some list him as having been born in 1835, the same year as Hijikata. Others say it was in 1843. He was the son of a Kasama clansman in the Hitachi province. They were natives of Heihachiro Funabashi.
There is yet another discrepancy about the year in which he joined the Shinsengumi. One source has him in the group as early as 1863, serving as Kondo’s secretary. However, it also mentioned that he was not made a shogun’s retainer and played no important role while in Kyoto. This may be why the other source did not list him as being with the group before 1867, when the collapse of the Tokugawa government would have forced him to take a more active role in the group.
Soma fought at both Toba-Fushimi and Kofu and was with Kondo at the time of his arrest. He was later jailed for a short period when he was caught trying to pass messages to the commander from Hijikata and the others.
He was released at the end of June and fought in the Kanto region alongside remnants of the Shogitai and other pro-Tokugawa forces. Eventually he made his way to Sendai, where he rejoined Hijikata and the Shinsengumi. From there he went with the vice-commander to Hakodate and served as one of his aides.
Following the surrender, Soma was the only remaining Shinsengumi captain and so was given the dubious honor of being declared a political prisoner of equal importance with Enomoto and other Ezo Republic leaders. But where these men were treated with some fair amount of courtesy, Soma bore the full brunt of the Meiji government’s wrath simply because he was “Shinsengumi” and received the harshest sentence given to anyone involved in the Hakodate war - exile for life. (Although Yasutomi was also Hijikata’s “aide”, he does not seem to have been leading any men of his own at the time. This may have been why he escaped receiving a similar verdict.)
In 1870 he was sent to the island of Nii-jima, located just south of Tokyo. There he taught reading and writing to the islanders. He also married a local woman named Uemura Matsu. In October of 1872 he was pardoned and moved with his wife to Kuramae, Tokyo. Enomoto was now out of jail and serving the new government and offered Soma a job. It was refused.
Later on Soma committed seppuku for unknown reasons. His note indicated simply indicated that, “all disclosure is useless”. There is one rumor which has it that he was fatally wounded by someone and so finished himself by seppuku.
Nomura Risaburo -
1844 - 1869
He was originally an Ogaki clansman and joined the Shinsengumi after June of 1867, serving as Kondo’s page. He was with the commander when he was captured by the enemy and went to Itabashi with him, where he was arrested. Apparently he was either soon released or not put under confinement, because he was arrested again a short time later for his part in trying to pass outside communications on to Kondo.
He later joined Soma in fighting in the Kanto region, then made his way to Sendai where he met up again with Hijikata. In Hakodate he was one of the vice-commander’s aides and proved to be something of a hothead, getting into a quarrel with a higher ranking officer during the invasion! Hijikata was forced to intervene.
At the Battle of Miyako Bay, in March of 1869, Nomura participated in the attempt to seize or sink the imperial ironclad ship, “Kotetsu”. He was killed in this fight at the age of 26.
Nakajima Nobori -
1838 - 1887
He was the eldest son of Nakajima Yukuchi, a member of the Hachiouji Sennin Doushin which was headed by Inoue Genzaburo’s family. The family was from the Nishideragata village in the Musashi province.
Nakajima is described as having been “strong” and had a pale complexion and thin eyes. He began studying the military arts in early childhood and was taught Tennen Rishin Ryu by Yamamoto Manjiro, who had been trained by Kondo Shusuke. Nakajima achieved a Chugokai Mokuroku ranking, although there are some who claim he held a much higher rank.
In 1857 he married a woman named Yasukatsu. This marriage was eventually ended because she didn’t like his later involvement with the Shinsengumi.
Nakajima first attempted to join the group in 1864, but was refused formal entrance because he was married. Informally, Kondo gave him a job conducting espionage missions in the Kanto region for the group. When he divorced in 1867, he was allowed formal entrance into the group.
He served as a spy for much of the Boshin War and surrendered with Soma at Benten Daiba. During his subsequent captivity, he painted the portraits of his departed comrades in the Shinsengumi. Humorously, one of these paintings was of the very-much-still-alive Saito Hajime.
Released in 1870, he settled in a place called Hamamatsu in Shizuoka, where he remarried and grew a plant called “haran” (better known in the Western world as “aspidistra elatior” or “Castiron Plant”). He also opened a successful gunshop. Nakajima passed away in 1887 at the age of 50 [49].
Ichimura Tetsunosuke -
1854 - 1877(?)
Born into the Ogaki clan, Ichimura joined the Shinsengumi in 1867 at the age of 14 [13] and was Hijikata’s page. He followed the vice-commander to Hakodate, where he was the only page to remain with the group.
On May 5, 1869, Hijikata called him into a private room where he was ordered to carry some personal items back to the Sato family in Hino: Hijikata’s picture, his death poem, and letter, and reportedly a lock of his hair. (Some include two swords in this list, but that information is false. The sword in question was left by Hijikata himself in Hino during the Kofu campaign.) Ichimura flatly refused, saying he would stay and die with the vice-commander and that he should get someone else to do it. Hijikata reportedly grew furious with him and threatened to kill the boy himself on the spot if he did not obey orders. The vice-commander resorted to this scare tactic because he felt Ichimura was far too young to die and wanted him out of harm’s way. It worked.
Reportedly, Ichimura said that when he looked back while making his escape from Goryokaku, he could see that someone was watching him from the gate. He believed this person to be Hijikata. It is said that he was able to slip past the imperial army by disguising himself as a beggar. Eventually he was able to board a ship headed for Yokohama and it was while onboard that he heard Hijikata had been killed in the battle.
Three months after escaping Goryokaku, Ichimura showed up at the Sato house in Hino with the mementoes. It appears that he may have been the one who broke the news about Hijikata’s death to them. They took him in and sheltered him for a while, during which time he studied swordsmanship.
In March of 1871 he left and returned to his hometown. It becomes unclear what happened to him afterwards. One rumor says that he died of an illness at age twenty. There is another opinion however that he joined Saigo Takamori’s failed rebellion in 1877. He is supposed to have been killed in the fighting in a place called Tabaruzaka.
Ichimura’s older brother, Tatsunosuke, had also joined the Shinsengumi in 1867. He escaped the group either just before or just after Kondo’s arrest. Returning home, he became a merchant and died of an illness in 1872. He had children before his death and recently some of his descendants have been located.
Miyoshi Yutaka -
There’s not much noted about this person beyond the fact that he was the fourth son of the Karatsu han daimyo. He probably joined the Shinsengumi while they were in Sendai.