* Image is for illustrative purposes only.The Shinsengumi and Late Edo Localized Sword Culture
新選組と幕末局地的刀剣文化
From the 1863 formation of the Mibu Ronin to the 1868 Battle of Toba-Fushimi, the Shinsengumi's five-year span represents a concentrated specimen of Bakumatsu swordsmanship and sword culture. This entry examines the swordsmanship legacy of the Shinsengumi as a crossroads of multiple sword traditions and practical combat blades.
Description
Formation of the Shinsengumi and Its Swordsmanship Background
In the 2nd month of Bunkyū 3 (1863), Serizawa Kamo, Kondō Isami, Hijikata Toshizō and others traveled to Kyoto as members of the Rōshigumi, a group of masterless samurai recruited by the bakufu under the pretext of guarding the shogun. They remained in Kyoto, and in the 3rd month of the same year they formed the Mibu Rōshigumi (later the Shinsengumi), placed under the custody of the Aizu Domain of Matsudaira Katamori, Kyoto Protector. The group took the swordsmanship of the Shieikan, Tennen Rishin-ryū, as its core, while encompassing the diversity of swordsmanship that included other schools such as Hokushin Ittō-ryū, Shintō Munen-ryū and Kyōshin Meichi-ryū.
Tennen Rishin-ryū developed as a practical school of rural swordsmanship in the Tama region. Its training uses heavy, thick wooden swords, and it emphasizes the force of its strikes and close-range distance. This physical technique was suited to the street fighting of late Bakumatsu Kyoto, where close-range brawls occurred frequently.
Swords of the Shinsengumi Members
The most famous swords in the Shinsengumi's sword culture are the blade called Kashū Kiyomitsu, said to have been used by Okita Sōji, and Hijikata Toshizō's Izumi-no-kami Kanesada.
Hijikata Toshizō's beloved sword, Izumi-no-kami Kanesada, is a work by a smith of the Aizu lineage and a typical example of the practical shinshintō that circulated in the late Bakumatsu period. The Aizu Kanesada blades, which combined sharpness with durability, matched Hijikata's practical view of swordsmanship. Today the sword is held by the Hijikata Toshizō Museum in Hino, Tokyo, Hijikata's home region, and it is known as an important surviving example of Bakumatsu swords.
The Shinsengumi as a Local Sword Culture
Viewing the Shinsengumi through the lens of “local sword culture,” one can see that its sword culture was highly specialized to a particular temporal and geographic setting: late Bakumatsu Kyoto. Their swords were neither the appraised famous blades that symbolized bakufu authority nor art objects in daimyo collections. They were practical weapons intended for actual street fighting and indoor combat.
This emphasis on practicality shows a tendency that ran counter to its time, when the mainstream of Edo shintō sword culture was shifting toward swords for appreciation and swords of prestigious provenance.
Shinsengumi Sword Culture in the Modern Era
After the Haitōrei (Sword Abolition Edict) of 1876 banned the everyday carrying of swords, swords associated with the Shinsengumi rapidly took on the character of commemorative objects and relics. The Shinsengumi-related swords and belongings that remain at the Hijikata Toshizō Museum in Hino and elsewhere formed the core of the bushidō romanticism of modern Japan.
In the present day, each time a Shinsengumi boom arises from NHK taiga dramas and manga and anime works, interest in related swords rises, and effects on museum special exhibitions and sword auctions are observed. As an intersection of practical sword culture and popular sword romanticism, the Shinsengumi continues to hold a unique position in Japan's contemporary sword culture.
Characteristics of This Era
- Practical close-combat swordsmanship and sword selection centered on Tennen Rishin-ryū
- Izumi-no-kami Kanesada of Hijikata Toshizō and Kashū Kiyomitsu of Okita Sōji are swords that symbolize the era
- Shinsengumi swords that rapidly became relics after the Haitōrei and became the core of bushidō romanticism
- Each Taiga drama and manga boom affects the sword market and museum exhibitions
- As a local practical-sword culture, it occupies a position that contrasts with the mainstream appreciation-sword culture