Shimosawa Kan’s Shinsengumi Shimatsuki is one of the earliest accounts of the Shinsengumi. It was first published in 1928, just before Hirao Michio’s groundbreaking history Shinsengumi Shiroku (新撰組史緑; original title, Shinsengumishi, 新撰組史). As I mention in my Shinsengumi: The Shogun’s Last Samurai Corps, Shimosawa’s narrative is partially based on interviews with former corpsmen and other people who had direct contact with the Shinsengumi. But he was first and foremost a novelist. He began the preface of his book by stating, “It is not my intention to write history.” Some of his information has been repudiated by more recent studies, whose authors have enjoyed the benefits of nearly a century of subsequent scholarship unavailable to Shimosawa. Accordingly, like other early historical narratives of the Shinsengumi, Shimosawa’s book should best be taken for what it’s worth, and relished for its portrayal of the spirit of the men of Shinsengumi rather than a faithful history.

Hirao, on the other hand, was an historian, widely known for his writings about Tosa history including biographies of Sakamoto Ryoma, Nakaoka Shintaro and Yamauchi Yodo.

I have many books about the Shinsengumi in my private library. This edition of Shimosawa’s book (photo above), published in 1967, which I found in a used bookstore in Tokyo’s Kanda district years ago, is one of my prized possessions.