The Shinsengumi was a police force organized in the spring of 1863 to guard the shōgun, quell sedition and restore law and order in the Imperial capital of Kyōto during the upheaval of the 1860s. In this book, previously published under a different title,I have demonstrated how the Shinsengumi earned its well-deserved reputation as the most feared police force in Japanese history. But the Shinsengumi was much more than that. While this book is a history-in-brief of the Shinsengumi, providing a solid foundation for understanding “the shōgun’s last samurai corps” and the complex intricacies of the final years and collapse of the shōgun’s regime, further research has led me to write a second book that will be an in-depth history and more complete study of the Shinsengumi.

While readers of the current volume will become familiar with an array of historical figures, including several of the key members of the Shinsengumi, the focal personalities are the commander, Kondō Isami, and the vice commander, Hijikata Toshizō. Kondō was chief instructor of the Tennen Rishin style of kenjutsu (Japanese swordsmanship). Since I did not write much on the history of the style in the original publication, the following brief historical background, based on my subsequent research, will benefit readers of this book. Readers will also benefit from a brief comparison between Kondō’s and Hijikata’s practice of kenjutsu, along with a short discussion of the swords that each man favored, both of which, included in this Introduction, are also the result of my subsequent research.

[1]This book was originally published in 2005 under the title Shinsengumi: The Shōgun’s Last Samurai Corps. There is no change in the contents, other than the addition of the Introduction.