Matsudaira Katamori, daimyo of Aizu, was officially appointed by the Bakufu as protector of Kyoto (Kyoto shugoshoku) in the early fall of 1862 at age twenty-seven. During the following six years that he held this high post, he had the dubious responsibility of protecting the Emperor, whom he revered, and the Imperial Capital, not only from the “foreign barbarians” who had been threatening the country since Perry’s first arrival nearly a decade past, but also from the anti-Bakufu “Imperial Loyalists” who were intent on “expelling the barbarians.” For the latter purpose he employed the service of the Shinsengumi, who were no less determined to drive out the foreigners and devoted to “Imperial Loyalism” than the rebels they hunted and killed.
[This photo of Matsudaira Katamori is used in Samurai Assassins, courtesy of the National Diet Library, Japan. Matsudaira Katamori is also featured in Shinsengumi: The Shogun’s Last Samurai Corps.]
