---
node: shinsengumi
type: organization
slug: shinsengumi
title: "Shinsengumi"
lead: "The Shinsengumi (1863–1869) was a special police corps of masterless-samurai swordsmen who suppressed anti-shogunate radicals in Kyoto. Its doomed loyalty to the shogunate became one of Japan's most retold stories."
published: 2026-07-09
updated: 2026-07-09
image_file: shinsengumi.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shinsengumi-Uniformen.jpg"
image_author: "Unknown"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## What it was

Organized in 1863 under the authority of the Aizu domain, protector of Kyoto, it suppressed anti-shogunate radicals in the capital. Its core leaders came from one country dojo: commander Kondo Isami, vice-commander Hijikata Toshizo, and the prodigy Okita Soji.

## Role

The Ikedaya raid of July 1864 broke up a radical plot and made them celebrities. They were equally feared for an iron internal code enforced by death.

## Fate

In the Boshin War they fought for the shogunate — at Toba-Fushimi, then retreating north. Kondo was captured and executed in 1868; Hijikata died at Hakodate's Goryokaku fortress in 1869, the war's last act.

Their doomed-loyalty romance of the bakumatsu is among the most retold stories in Japanese fiction, drama and manga.