As commander of the Shinsengumi, Kondo Isami was devoted to serving the shogun and his government, the Tokugawa Bakufu. The office of shogun was conferred by the Emperor; but Kondo, in his staunch loyalty to the shogun and the Bakufu, was devoted to killing or arresting the Bakufu’s enemies – i.e., so-called Imperial Loyalists hell-bent on overthrowing the Bakufu and replacing it with a new Imperial government. Therefore, some might assume that Kondo felt no loyalty to the Emperor. Nothing could be further from the truth! – as I will demonstrate in my next book.

[The photograph of Kondo Isami is in my previously published Shinsengumi: The Shogun’s Last Samurai Corps, courtesy of the descendants of Sato Hikogoro and Hino-shi Furusato Hakubutsukan Museum.]