The Shinsengumi (æ°éžç”, "Newly Selected Corps") was a small secret police organization, an elite group of swordsmen organized by commoners and low-ranking samurai, commissioned by the bakufu (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was active until 1869. It was founded to protect shogunate representatives in Kyoto at a time when a controversial imperial edict to exclude foreign trade from Japan had been made and the ChĆshĆ« clan had been forced from the imperial court. They gained considerable fame from events such as the Ikedaya incident and the August 18 coup, among others. The members were drawn from the sword schools of Edo.
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đ Shinsengumi in the context of Shishi (organization)
Shishi (ćżćŁ«), sometimes known as Ishin Shishi (ç¶æ°ćżćŁ«), were a group of Japanese political activists of the late Edo period. While it is usually applied to the anti-shogunate, pro-sonnĆ jĆi (ć°çæ怷; lit.â'Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarian[s]') samurai primarily from the southwestern clans of Satsuma, ChĆshĆ«, and Tosa, the term shishi is also used by some with reference to supporters of the shogunate, such as the Shinsengumi.
There were many different varieties of shishi. Some, such as the assassins Kawakami Gensai, Nakamura HanjirĆ, Okada IzĆ, and Tanaka Shinbei, opted for a more violent approach in asserting their views. Kawakami Gensai, in particular, is recalled as the assassin of Sakuma ShĆzan, a renowned pro-Western thinker of the time. Several assaults on westerners in Japan have been attributed to the shishi and associated rĆnin warriors. In a 2013 article, these assassins have been called "early terrorists" (German: frĂŒhe Terroristen) since they opted to spread terror among the foreigners. Other more radical shishi, such as Miyabe TeizĆ, plotted large-scale attacks with little regard for public safety. Miyabe himself was one of the ringleaders of the plot, foiled by the Shinsengumi at the Ikedaya Incident, to burn Kyoto at the height of the Gion Festival.
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Shinsengumi in the context of Bakumatsu
Bakumatsu (ćčæ«; Japanese pronunciation: [ba.kÉŻ.ma.tsÉŻ], 'end of the bakufu') were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government. The major ideological-political divide during this period was between the pro-imperial nationalists called ishin shishi and the shogunate forces, which included the elite shinsengumi swordsmen.
Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of bakumatsu to seize personal power. Furthermore, there were two other main driving forces for dissent: first, growing resentment on the part of the tozama daimyĆ (or outside lords), and second, growing anti-Western sentiment following the arrival of Matthew C. Perry. The first related to those lords whose predecessors had fought against Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, after which they had been permanently excluded from all powerful positions within the shogunate. The second was to be expressed in the phrase sonnĆ jĆi, or "revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians". The turning point of the Bakumatsu was during the Boshin War and the Battle of TobaâFushimi when pro-shogunate forces were defeated.
Shinsengumi in the context of Ikedaya Incident
The Ikedaya incident (æ± ç°ć±äș件, Ikedaya jiken), also known as the Ikedaya affair or Ikedaya riot, was an armed encounter between the shishi which included masterless samurai (rĆnin) formally employed by the ChĆshĆ«, Tosa and Higo domains (han), and the Shinsengumi, the Bakufu's special police force in Kyoto on July 8, 1864, at the Ikedaya Inn in SanjĆ-Kawaramachi, Kyoto, Japan.
Shinsengumi in the context of Sakamoto RyĆma
Sakamoto RyĆma (ćæŹéŸéŠŹ or ćæŹç«éŠŹ; 3 January 1836 â 10 December 1867) was a Japanese samurai, a shishi and influential figure of the Bakumatsu, and establishment of the Empire of Japan in the late Edo period.
Sakamoto was a low-ranking samurai from the Tosa Domain on Shikoku and became an active opponent of the Tokugawa Shogunate after the end of Japan's sakoku isolationist policy. Under the alias Saitani UmetarĆ (æè°·æą ć€Șé), he worked against the Bakufu, the government of the Tokugawa shogunate, and was often hunted by their supporters and the Shinsengumi. Sakamoto advocated for democracy, Japanese nationalism, return of power to the Imperial Court, abolition of feudalism, and moderate modernization and industrialization of Japan. Sakamoto successfully negotiated the SatchĆ Alliance between the powerful rival ChĆshĆ« and Satsuma domains and united them against the Bakufu. Sakamoto was assassinated in December 1867 with his companion Nakaoka ShintarĆ, shortly before the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration.