Kondō Isami — Commander of the Shinsengumi
In the Kyoto of the Bakumatsu, a band sought to uphold a crumbling order with the sword — the Shinsengumi. At its head, leading the corps, stood commander Kondō Isami.
Contents
From a Tama dojo
Kondō Isami was born in 1834 into a farming family in Tama, Musashi Province. He distinguished himself in Tennen Rishin-ryū swordsmanship and went on to head the school. Gathered at this dojo were the very men — Hijikata Toshizō, Okita Sōji, and others — who would later sustain the Shinsengumi.
Around Kondō, who combined skill with the blade and a gift for drawing loyalty, men of like mind naturally gathered.
Commander of the Shinsengumi
Bakumatsu Kyoto was thick with activists preaching "revere the emperor, expel the barbarians," and order had badly broken down. Kondō and his companions began operating as part of a body charged with policing the city, and came to call themselves the Shinsengumi.
As commander, Kondō led the corps together with vice-commander Hijikata. Honed under strict discipline, the Shinsengumi became known as an armed band responsible for keeping the peace in Kyoto.
The Ikedaya Incident
What suddenly raised the Shinsengumi's name was the Ikedaya Incident, in which Kondō and his men raided activists gathered at the Ikedaya, an inn in Kyoto.
The affair announced the Shinsengumi's existence to the world — and at the same time made them the object of deep hatred among the activists. The last flash of the age of the sword, and its peril, are distilled in this event.
Defeat in the Boshin War
As the age tilted toward overthrowing the shogunate and the Boshin War began, the Shinsengumi fought for the old regime. But they were defeated again and again before the new government's army, and Kondō was finally captured.
In 1868 Kondō Isami was executed, and his life closed. He was thirty-five — a man who admired the samurai, and who tried to live as one.
His comrades and the corps's history can be traced in Bakumatsu Figures and The Shinsengumi and Mibu.
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