Seikawa Hachiro, creator of the Shinsengumi | What is the personality of the anti-foreigner patriots who opened the curtain on the end of the Edo period? [Yamagata Prefecture]

Do you know Kiyokawa Hachiro , the man who inspired the formation of the Shinsengumi

"Kiyokawa Hachiro opened the end of the Edo period and Sakamoto Ryoma closed," but his popularity is by no means higher than Sakamoto Ryoma and other patriots at the end of the Edo period.

It is also true that among history buffs, people do not have a very good image of him as an ``agitator'' who greatly disrupts Japan, or a ``charlatan'' who deceives the shogunate.

We would like to introduce you to what kind of person Hachiro Kiyokawa was, focusing on his personality.

Who is Hachiro Kiyokawa?

Kiyokawa Hachiro was a patriot from the end of the Edo period, from the Shonai Domain in Yamagata Prefecture (now Shonai Town), and was a man who worked tirelessly to overthrow the shogunate. he was called "Yoshida Shoin in the west and Kiyokawa Hachiro in the east" as a pioneer of the Sonno Joi era

One of the greatest geniuses at the end of the Edo period, a person with both literary and military skills

Disappointed with the best education in Japan, he opened his own cram school

After running away from home at the age of 18, Kiyokawa pursued the path of learning at a private school in Edo.

I only went to bed and took a two-hour nap at my desk. He continued to live this academic life for 74 days, and finally he enrolled in Shohei Ko, At the time, Shohei-Kong was said to be Japan's highest academic school, but disappointed by the authoritarian atmosphere and educational content, Kiyokawa chose to expel himself and opened

his private school, Kiyokawa Juku At that time, Kiyokawa was the only scholar in Edo who could teach both academics and swordsmanship at the same time. Kiyokawa Juku has quickly become a school with a reputation and has become famous overnight.

The face of a swordsman

Kiyokawa was famous in Edo not only as a scholar but also as a great swordsman.

Genbukan, the Chiba Shusaku dojo of the Hokushin Itto-ryu , one of the three major dojos at the end of the Edo period , and will learn the "first catalog" in just one year, which usually takes 2-3 years to acquire.

Why did you become wanted by the Shogunate?

Formation of the Sonno-joi group “Torao-no-kai”

By the time Kiyokawa was 31 years old, all the radical sonno and anti-foreigner patriots began gathering at Kiyokawa Juku.

" in which the great old Ii Naosuke was murdered by the Mito Domain's ronin .

The Torao no Kai plans actions to drive foreign countries away from Japan. In the end, some of the patriotic members assassinated Heusken, who was an interpreter at the American legation and was known as a pro-Japanese person, and the wave of sonno-joi rapidly accelerated throughout Japan.

Kiyokawa caught in the Shogunate's trap

The shogunate suspected that Kiyokawa was the mastermind behind Heusken's assassination, and sent assassins to capture Kiyokawa, who deliberately interfered with him on the street and provoked a fight. Kiyokawa fell into the shogunate's trap and cut off the assassin's neck in an instant, becoming a wanted person of the shogunate.

Life on the run changes, Cheongha Theater opens

pardoned by the shogunate

Despite being a wanted person, Kiyokawa was vigorously escorting patriots across the country to overthrow the shogunate, but in order to save his wife and friends who were captured, he submitted , "The Three Urgent Strategy."

Three urgent measures

1. Execution of Joi
2. Exoneration of past sins of Roshigumi participants (amnesty)
3. Education of English materials that excel in literature and martial arts

At that time, the shogunate, which was faced with pressure from the Imperial Court to ``exterminate Joi,'' adopted Kiyokawa's opinion.

He gathers all the ronin in Edo to form the ``Roshi-gumi'' and gives them the job of guarding the shogun's visit to Kyoto. This Ronin-gumi gathered 234 Ronin, including Isamu Kondo, Kamo Serizawa, Toshizo Hijikata, and Souji Okita, who later became the Shinsengumi.

For the first time in Japanese history, a ronin receives an imperial proclamation from the emperor.

In the third year of Bunkyu, an event that all Shinsengumi fans know happens.

Kiyokawa gathered all the Roshi-gumi who had arrived in Kyoto to protect the shogun, and delivered a speech that would make you doubt your ears.

"Our purpose is not to protect the shogun! We have nothing to do with the shogunate. We support the imperial court, stand up for the Emperor, and for Japan!" The

shogunate guard unit instantly became a unit that overthrew the shogunate. It's a moment.

Captivated by the power of Kiyokawa, everyone signed a letter of intent to the Imperial Court. The Imperial Court accepts this and sends an imperial reprimand (words from the Emperor) to the Roshi-gumi. It was an unprecedented event for the emperor to issue a command to civilians, especially the lowly samurai samurai.

After this, the ronin group including Kiyokawa decides to turn back to Edo to implement the Sonno and foreigners, but Kondo Isamu and others, opposed the decision to deceive the shogunate, and withdrew from the ronin group. This incident led to the formation of the Shinsengumi

Half-hearted assassination

Sixteen days after the Roshi-gumi returned to Edo, and two days before the expulsion of the Joi, Kiyokawa was assassinated by an assassin from the shogunate, and his short life of 34 years came to an end, half way through his ambitions.
Perhaps instinctively sensing something, Kiyokawa left behind a song on the day of his assassination.

``The mountain of sakigake and sakigake and death, the path of the Semaji emperor who has lost his way, and the wave that approaches even if it is broken, and the rock's corner.''

Feeling the ominousness of this song, his ally Takahashi Dofune desperately stops Kiyokawa from going out, but he goes out because he has made an appointment with a senior patriot in his hometown of Yamagata, and ends up not returning.

Kiyokawa was known as a magnificent deceiving the shogunate, but it can be said that he was the last moment when he could give a glimpse of his loyal, original personality.

Hachiro Kiyokawa Memorial Museum

Introducing the Hachiro Kiyokawa Memorial Museum in Shonai Town, Yamagata Prefecture.

It is a valuable place where you can get a glimpse of Kiyokawa's warm and sincere personality, which is different from the image of him as one of Japan's most talented people.

``Roshi-gumi Meijidome'' where the names of Shinsengumi members are lined up

In this memorial hall, a list of Roshi-gumi participants, ``Roshi-gumi Kaijodome,'' is displayed. This time, I took a photo of a copy of "Roshigumi Kaijodome".

It is said that descendants of the Ronin group also visit this memorial hall, and you can see sticky notes added to the copy of the ronin with information about the visitors and the relationships among the ronin.

This is an extremely valuable document that clearly shows how each soldier survived the end of the Edo period as a human being, rather than as a historical figure.

Hachiro Kiyokawa Memorial Museum＜Information＞

• Name: Kiyokawa Hachiro Memorial Museum
• Address: 37 Kamikawara, Kiyokawa, Shonai-cho, Higashitagawa-gun, Yamagata 999-6606
• Phone number: 0234-57-2104
• Official URL: https://hachiro.navishonai.jp/

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Hachiro Kiyokawa's true desire

Although Kiyokawa is known as a radical advocate of respecting the king and banishing the foreigners, he did not actually hate foreign countries.

There is a record that Heihachi Tanaka, a great businessman who later earned a huge fortune through the raw silk trade, met Kiyokawa on a trip and told him, ``From now on, the era of trade will come.''

Qingha could not tolerate the way American diplomacy was put under pressure and the shogunate succumbed to it, and his true hope was to remain on equal footing with foreign countries .

summary

During the turbulent times of the opening of the country and the expulsion of foreigners, Hachiro Kiyokawa was known as a ``charlatan'' due to his strong will and clear mind, and his strategies that were difficult for ordinary people to understand.

On the inside, he was honest and warm-hearted, and was a person who spared no effort and action to follow through on his beliefs.

Reference: “Hachiro Kiyokawa Graffiti: The life of a hero who ran through the end of the Edo period” (Tachikawa Town editor)