In the Preface to Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai I wrote:

“The greatest hardship I faced was not the heavy responsibility of adhering to historical and cultural fact. Rather, it was fathoming the depths of the heart and soul of a genius who had lived and died in a culture completely foreign to my own, nearly a full century before my birth.”

The same applies as I write this next book on the Shinsengumi.