Hijikata Toshizō — The Shinsengumi Vice-Commander Who Fought to the Last
As vice-commander of the Shinsengumi, Hijikata Toshizō enforced an iron discipline that earned him the nickname "the Demon Vice-Commander." As the age of the samurai drew to a close, he fought on to the very end without bending his faith in the sword.
Contents
From Tama to Kyoto
Hijikata Toshizō was born in 1835 into a farming family in Tama, Musashi Province. At a Tennen Rishin-ryū fencing school he met Kondō Isami and others, and they were bound by firm ties.
Amid the turmoil of the Bakumatsu, they began operating as a band charged with keeping order in Kyoto. This grew into the Shinsengumi, whose name would soon resound across the land.
The Demon Vice-Commander
Within the Shinsengumi, Hijikata served as vice-commander, supporting commander Kondō and managing the corps. To hold the band to its standards, he laid down strict regulations and enforced them mercilessly — hence "the Demon Vice-Commander."
That severity was meant to forge a body that might otherwise have collapsed into a mere rabble into a sharp, disciplined organization. His cold control was what held the Shinsengumi together.
North through the Boshin War
As the age tilted decisively toward overthrowing the shogunate and the Boshin War began, the Shinsengumi fought on as part of the old shogunate's forces. Even after losing Kondō, Hijikata did not stop fighting.
Through repeated retreats he pressed ever northward with the remaining shogunal forces, until at last he reached Hakodate in Ezo (Hokkaidō).
Falling at Goryōkaku
In 1869 the old shogunate's forces, holed up in the Goryōkaku fortress at Hakodate, came under all-out assault from the new government's army. Hijikata Toshizō fell to a bullet in the midst of that battle. He was thirty-five.
The image of a man who fought on even after the outcome was decided has been handed down as an emblem of loyalty to a cause already lost.
For the corps itself, see The Shinsengumi and Mibu; for his comrades, Bakumatsu Figures.
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