Hirayama Goro — Killed Beside Serizawa Kamo

On the night Serizawa Kamo was killed, another man died in the same room. Hirayama Gorō. He had one eye.

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Who Was Hirayama Goro?

Hirayama was an assistant vice-commander of the Mibu Rōshi, the body that became the Shinsengumi.

Born in 1829. In October 1863 he was cut down at the Yagi house in Mibu alongside Serizawa Kamo, aged thirty-five by the old inclusive count.

He belonged to the Mito faction around Serizawa and Niimi Nishiki, and went where Serizawa went.

Hirayama Goro's One Eye and His Sword

Hirayama was a Shintō Munen-ryū man.

His training moved from school to school. In 1857 he is recorded as a retainer of a bannerman and a student of Momonoi Shunzo's Kyōshin Meichi-ryū — which made him a fellow student of Takechi Hanpeita. The following year he attached himself to the Himeji domain and to a Suzuki line of Shintō Munen-ryū, fighting bouts in the castle town of the Matsumae domain. In 1859 he became a student of Horikawa Fukutarō.

And he had lost an eye — the left, in a fireworks accident.

An anecdote about that eye survives in fencing terms. Attack him on the blind left side and he counter-cut ferociously; come in on the right, the side he could see, and there was rather more of an opening.

One reading: with no need to guard the side he could see, he had drilled the side he could not.

Hirayama Goro's Service in the Mibu Roshi

In February 1863 he joined the Rōshigumi under Kiyokawa Hachiro, assigned to Serizawa Kamo's sixth company, and went up to Kyoto.

When Kiyokawa manoeuvred the Rōshigumi back to Edo, Hirayama stayed in Kyoto with Serizawa and Kondo Isami. He became an assistant vice-commander of the Mibu Rōshi.

In May, when the corps was received in audience by Matsudaira Katamori, Hirayama paired with Saeki Matasaburō to demonstrate fencing against Hijikata Toshizo and Todo Heisuke.

He also did the actual work. In late August he turned out with Nagakura Shinpachi and Saito Hajime to put down robbers who had broken into a rice merchant's at Shijō-Horikawa, drawing his sword against men firing guns and killing them. He was wounded doing it.

In June he had gone with Serizawa to Osaka and taken a blow to the chest in the brawl with sumo wrestlers.

He also followed Serizawa into his outrages. That September, when Serizawa lost his temper with a geisha who would not have him and stormed a brothel, Hirayama went along with Nagakura, Saitō and Hijikata — and on Serizawa's order cut off the hair of her attendant.

How Hirayama Goro Died

By this point, on the grounds that the court had ordered Serizawa's arrest for his violence, the Aizu domain is said to have given Kondo Isami secret instructions to deal with him.

On 16 September 1863 by the old calendar — some sources say the 18th — Serizawa, Hirayama and Hirama Jūsuke returned late from a banquet at the Sumiya in Shimabara to their quarters at the Yagi house.

Hirayama was so drunk he collapsed in the entrance and could not get up.

Each man's woman was waiting. Hirayama fell asleep with a geisha he knew in the ten-mat room at the back, where Serizawa and his mistress were also sleeping behind a folding screen.

In the middle of the night, several men forced their way in.

Hirayama died without waking. When the Yagi household went to look, the room was a lake of blood and his head had been severed from his body. The geisha survived because she had gone to the privy.

Officially it was written off as the work of Chōshū. The assassins are named as Hijikata Toshizo, Yamanami Keisuke, Okita Soji and Harada Sanosuke, but no document settles it.

Frequently asked questions

Who was Hirayama Goro?

An assistant vice-commander of the Mibu Rōshi, the Shinsengumi's predecessor. A Shintō Munen-ryū swordsman, he belonged to the Mito faction around Serizawa Kamo.

Why did Hirayama Goro have one eye?

His left eye was destroyed in a fireworks accident. An anecdote holds that attacking his blind side drew a ferocious counter-cut, while his sighted side was the weaker.

How did Hirayama Goro die?

He was attacked in his sleep at the Yagi house in Mibu in October 1863 and killed alongside Serizawa Kamo, aged thirty-five.

Who killed Hirayama Goro?

It is not established. Hijikata Toshizo, Yamanami Keisuke, Okita Soji and Harada Sanosuke are the names given; officially the killing was blamed on Chōshū.

Hirayama Goro Timeline

For the man killed beside him see Serizawa Kamo; for the same faction, Niimi Nishiki; for the roster, the Shinsengumi members; for the corps, the Shinsengumi.