Kondō Isami

Kondō Isami was the commander of the Shinsengumi who dominated Bakumatsu-era Kyoto as a master swordsman. Born to a farming family in Musashi Province, he inherited the fourth-generation headship of Tennen Rishin-ryū and led the Shinsengumi with extraordinary courage and skill. His beloved sword was a Nagasone Kotetsu, attributed to the celebrated Edo-period smith Nagasone Okisato (Kotetsu), though a persistent theory holds it was actually a forgery by Minamoto Kiyomaro. Regardless, Kondō wielded this blade in the Ikedaya Incident and countless other engagements, placing absolute trust in its cutting edge. The famous line 'Tonight, my Kotetsu thirsts for blood' is widely associated with him, but it does not come from his own letters — it is a later invention popularized by novels and dramas. Even so, its enduring image of pre-battle exhilaration and absolute trust in his blade speaks to how deeply Kondo and his Kotetsu became linked in popular memory. After the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, he surrendered at Nagareyama and was beheaded at Itabashi. Kondō's life — rising from peasant origins to the pinnacle of the warrior class, only to fall — perfectly symbolizes the turbulent Bakumatsu era.