Shinsengumi : The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps

The Shogun's last Samurai Corps  is the true story of the notorioussamurai corps formed in 1863 to arrest or kill the enemies of the TokugawaShogun. The only book in English about the Shinsengumi, it focuses on thecorps' two charismatic leaders, Kondo Isami and Hijikata Toshizo, bothimpeccable swordsmen. It is a history-in-brief of the final years of theBakufu, which collapsed in 1867 with the restoration of Imperial rule. Inwriting Shinsengumi, Hillsborough referred mostly toJapanese-language primary sources, including letters, memoirs, journals,interviews, and eyewitness accounts, as well as definitive biographies andhistories of the era.                               The fall of the shogun's government (Tokugawa Bakufu, or simply Bakufu) in1868, which had ruled Japan for over two and a half centuries, was the greatestevent in modern Japanese history.The revolution, known as the Meiji Restoration, began with the violentreaction of samurai to the Bakufu's decision in 1854 to open the theretoforeisolated country to "Western barbarians." Though opening the country wasunavoidable, it was seen as a sign of weakness by the samurai who clamored to"expel the barbarians."Those samurai plotted to overthrow the shogun and restore the holy emperorto his ancient seat of power. Screaming "heaven's revenge," they wielded theirswords with a vengeance upon those loyal to the shogun.They unleashed a wave of terror at the center of the revolution - theemperor's capital of Kyoto. Murder and assassination were rampant. By the endof 1862, hordes of renegade samurai, called ronin,had transformed the streets of the Imperial Capital into a "sea of blood."The shogun's administrators were desperate to stop the terror. A band ofexpert swordsmen was formed. It was given the name Shinsengumi ("NewlySelected Corps") - and commissioned to eliminate the ronin andother enemies of the Bakufu.With unrestrained brutality bolstered by an official sanction to kill, theShinsengumi soon became the shogun's most dreaded security force.In this vivid historical narrative of the Shinsengumi, the only one in the English language,author Romulus Hillsborough paints a provocative and thrilling picture of thismost fascinating period in Japanese history.