Ikedaya Incident

On the night of July 8, 1864 (Genji 1/6/5), a swordsmen's incident that dramatically altered the course of Japanese history broke out at the long-established Kyoto inn Ikedaya. The Ikedaya Incident, in which the Shinsengumi, charged with guarding Kyoto for the Tokugawa shogunate, burst into a secret meeting of sonnō jōi activists, is an event indispensable to any account of swordsmen culture in the Bakumatsu period.

Kyoto in the Bakumatsu Period and the Sonnō Jōi Movement

In the Bakumatsu period, Kyoto was a tense city where samurai from domains such as Chōshū, Tosa, and Higo, who aimed to overthrow the shogunate, clashed fiercely with the bakufu's forces for maintaining public order. Even after the Chōshū domain was driven out of Kyoto in the coup of the 18th day of the 8th month of Bunkyū 3 (1863), surviving sonnō jōi activists went underground and continued their anti-shogunate activities.

In Genji 1 (1864), the radical activists were said to have devised a bold plan to “set fire to the Imperial Palace, seize the emperor, and carry him off to Chōshū” (there are various theories). The Shinsengumi learned of this plan, gathered intelligence, and on the 5th day of the 6th month stormed the Ikedaya inn, which marks the start of the incident.

The Shinsengumi and Swords: Favored Blades of Bakumatsu Swordsmen

The Ikedaya Incident was one of the greatest occasions in the Bakumatsu period on which the true worth of combat swordsmanship and blades was tested. Senior Shinsengumi members, including Kondō Isami, Hijikata Toshizō, and Okita Sōji, each carried distinctive swords.

The famous favorite sword of Kondō Isami is the “Nagasone Kotetsu.” It is said to be the work of Nagasone Okisato (Kotetsu), a smith who represented Edo shintō. Kotetsu blades are renowned for their sharpness. On the other hand, the view that the sword Kondō owned was not an authentic Kotetsu but a counterfeit is now the mainstream one. Yet such debate over authenticity also reflects the richness of swordsmen culture in the Bakumatsu period.

Okita Sōji is said to have used the Kiku-ichimonji Norimune and the Yamato no Kami Yasusada. Of these, the attribution of the Kiku-ichimonji Norimune as Okita's favorite sword derives from the depiction in Shiba Ryōtarō's novel Shinsengumi Keppūroku and cannot be confirmed as historical fact. The Yamato no Kami Yasusada is the work of an Edo shintō smith. None of the swords traditionally associated with Okita's favorite blades survive.

The Izumi no Kami Kanesada, said to have been favored by Hijikata Toshizō, is now held in Hino, Tokyo (Hijikata's birthplace), and is said to have been sent to Satō Hikogorō, Hijikata's brother-in-law. As one of the few swords to have survived real combat in the Bakumatsu period, this blade has high historical value.

The Night of the Incident: Swordsmanship in Real Combat and the Wear on Blades

Around 10 p.m. on the 5th day of the 6th month, a vanguard of four Shinsengumi members led by Kondō Isami burst into the Ikedaya inn. Some twenty activists had gathered inside, and a fierce hand-to-hand battle began.

What draws attention in this battle is the swordsmanship and the performance of the blades used by the Shinsengumi members. Kondō and Okita, practitioners of Tennen Rishin-ryū, excelled at close-quarters combat and handled the fighting in the narrow inn. It is also said that Okita Sōji coughed up blood (said to be a symptom of tuberculosis) during this incident, and the relationship between his physical condition and his swordsmanship has continued to be taken up in later fiction.

Blades wore down heavily in real combat. In a letter Kondō Isami sent to his home region after the incident, it is recorded that the bōshi (tip of the temper line) of Okita Sōji's sword broke and the swords of Nagakura Shinpachi and Tōdō Heisuke were also damaged, while Kondō's own sword remained intact, “Kotetsu yue ni ya” (“because it is a Kotetsu”). In real combat in the Bakumatsu period, swords were consumables, and owning a famous blade did not automatically make one strong. It was the synergy when a first-rate swordsman wielded a first-rate blade that produced true strength.

Impact of the Incident and Its Ripples in Bakumatsu History

The Ikedaya Incident dealt a heavy blow to the anti-shogunate movement centered on the Chōshū domain. Many important figures, including Miyabe Teizō, were killed or captured, and the plan to set fire to Kyoto and seize the emperor collapsed.

But the incident enraged the Chōshū domain and became the direct trigger for the Kinmon Incident only a month later (the 7th month of Genji 1, 1864). In the Kinmon Incident, the Chōshū domain clashed in the streets of Kyoto with a combined force of the bakufu, Satsuma, and Aizu, and parts of the city burned (the Dondon-yake fire). It could be said that the Ikedaya Incident, an act meant to extinguish the flames of the anti-shogunate movement, instead produced a major backlash.

The Shinsengumi continued to serve as the shogunate's guardians, but they moved toward dissolution with the bakufu's defeat in the Boshin War (1868). Kondō Isami was beheaded in Keiō 4 (1868), Hijikata Toshizō was killed in the Battle of Goryōkaku in Hakodate, and Okita Sōji died of tuberculosis in Edo. The swords of these three men are passed down to later generations along with their respective fates.

The Ikedaya Incident displays the culmination of swordsmen culture in the Bakumatsu era. The night where swords, swordsmanship, and samurai conviction intersected is remembered as a scene that shines eternally in the history of Japanese swords.