Serizawa Kamo
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Serizawa Kamo(芹沢鴨; 1826?-October 30, 1863) was a famous samurai, known for being the original lead captain of the Shinsengumi. "Kamo" means goose in Japanese which was an odd name to call oneself at the time. His former namer is "Taira no Mitsumoto". He trained in and received a licence in the Shinto Munen-ryu style.
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Family background
The Serizawa family were upper-class Goshi rank samurai in Serizawa village in Mito which is now the capital of Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. Kamo was born as the youngest son and his childhood name was Genta. He had two older brothers and an older sister. He was educated with the Sonnō jōi ideals (meaning revere the Tenno and expel the foreigners) and swordsmanship since childhood at Kodoukan which was a state school in Mito. Mito is a sub-branch of the Tokugawa family and it was considered the motherland of the Sonnō Jōi ideology and was a center of support for the Tennō and the Imperial court, which helped fuel the Meiji Revolution.
Tenguto period
Kamo was the priest for a Shinto temple under the Kimura family. He married the daughter of the Kimura family, so his name was changed to Kimura Keiji. In 1860, he took part in an extremist anti-foreigner group "Tengu-to" (alternative name is Tamazukurisei)which assassinated Tairo Ii Naosuke. He made a name for himself as he joined the higher ranks of the group. What is little known that he was originally supposed to participate in the famous Tairo assassination, but he was not able to make it in time. In early 1861, he found out that three of the younger members in the group had broken the rules, causing him to lose his temper; he made them sit in a line and beheaded them all at once. He was jailed within the Tengu-to group for executing them without any permission. When political power shifted to the pro-Tokugawa government, those in the Tengu-two were jailed for their involvement on the assassination of Ii. There, he wrote this famous poem written on his ripped piece of clothing with his own blood from biting his pinky finger:
「 雪霜 に 色 よく 花 の 魁て 散り ても 後に 匂ほう 梅が 香」
- Yukishimo ni
- Iroyoku hana no
- Sakigakete
- Chiritemo nochi ni
- Niyou ume ga ka
This roughly translates as:
- In the snow and mist,
- The color remains,
- And still giving off its scent after the scattering of the petals;
- Such plum is the perfume.
Many were surprised at Kamo's never-before-demonstrated poetic talent. Serizawa was released in late 1862 when the government started to weaken and political power shifted back to the anti-foreigners. Then, he changed his name from Kimura Keiji to "Serizawa Kamo" after his release. He later joined Kiyokawa Hachirou's Roushigumi.
Mibu Roushigumi/Shinsengumi period
Kiyokawa Hachirou formed Roushigumi with funding from the Tokugawa regime. Originally, he claimed it was formed for protecting the Tokugawa shogun in Kyoto and preparing for military action against Western countries. But he lied to the regime; his goal was to gather people to work under the Imperial court and not the government. The members of the group, around 250 people, met on February 8, 1863 in Edo and they all left for Kyoto. Serizawa joined as a member along with Niimi Nishiki, Hirayama Gorou, Hirama Juusuke and Noguchi Kengi. Also joining the group were Kondo Isami along with Hijikata Toshizo, Okita Souji, Inoue Gensaburou, Todou Heisuke, Harada Sanosuke, and Nagakura Shinpachi. Two days later, while the Roushigroup left for Kyoto on February 10, Kondo was responsible for assigning lodges for the members. However, he accidentally forgot about Serizawa's group, leading to a famous incident where Serizawa lost his temper and, with the help of his group, created a huge bonfire outside the lodges as an insult to Kondo. On February 23rd, the Roushigumi arrived at Kyoto and Kondou and Serizawa's group stayed in Yagitei, a Mibu village outside Kyoto. Surprisingly, Kiyokawa suddenly commanded the group to return to Edo when they had just arrived in Kyoto. By then, he had secretly submitted a letter to the Imperial court stating that his Roushigumi were to serve under the court. Kondo and Serizawa decided to separate from the group and stay in Kyoto. In response, a government official made spies out of Roushigumi members Tomouchi Yoshio and Iesato Jiro, forcing them to stay in Kyoto and join Serizawa and Kondo's group and keep an eye on them.
Serizawa and Kondou's group separated from the Roushigumi, becoming nothing more than an isolated group of samurais who had no ties to the Tokugawa regime or the Imperial court. On March 10th, Serizawa and Kondou decided to submit a letter to the Aizu clan asking to join them in policing Kyoto, claiming the Tokugawa regime wasn't able to handle the job. The Aizu clan were assigned by the Tokugawa regime to police the streets in Kyoto by samurais (most of them lower-class samurais from Choshu, Tosa, and other states) who rampantly started fights and committed assassinations. The idea of working under the Aizu may have originated with Serizawa's older brother, who had connections with the Aizu clan. On March 12th, the Aizu clan accepted the letter's request, making the 22 samurai into a group under the Aizu clan.
It was then that the group began calling themselves the Mibu Roushigumi and Serizawa becomes the lead captain. Originally, the group was made out of three major sects, Serizawa's group, Kondo's group, and Tomouchi's group (members below). But Tomouchi and Iesato were assassinated shortly afterwards, leaving two sects led by Serizawa and Kondo.
| Serizawa's sect:
Serizawa Kamo | Kondo's sect:
Kondo Isami | Tomouchi's sect:
Tomouchi Yoshio |
Again, Serizawa started numerous incidents. On June 3rd, Aizu commanded Mibu Roushigumi members to police Osaka. Serizawa and his group were out drinking and later Serizawa got in a fight with a sumo. This created a conflict with the 25-30 sumos in the same dojo. Serizawa's group had only ten or so members but managed to overcome their attackers. At the end ten sumos were dead and the rest had sustained serious injuries, yet Serizawa's group barely had any injuries at all. News of this incident spread quickly, enhancing the Mibu Roushigumi's reputation. Later in June, Serizawa had a drinking gathering with his members in a restaurant in Shimahara. He lost his temper while drinking and wrecked the whole restaurant; the restaurant had to be closed for business because of it. On August 12th, Serizawa and his group destroyed Yamatoya, a silk cloth store, in daylight with a cannon given to the group by the Aizu clan when they would not give them money.
On August 18th, the Choshu clan were forced out of the Imperial court by the Tokugawa regime by the Aizu clan and Satsuma clan. All members of the Mibu Roushigumi were sent to support Aizu and help keep Choshu out of the imperial court by guarding its gates. This caused a political shift from the extreme anti-Tokugawa Choshu forces to the pro-Tokugawa Aizu forces in the political arena in Kyoto. The new name "Shinsengumi" was said to be given to the group from Aizu leader Matsudaira Katamori for their job in guarding the gates.
Serizawa sect assassination
On September 10th, Niimi Nishiki, who was sub-captain of Mibu Roushigumi, was forced to commit seppuku by Hijikata and Yamanami. Most likely, this was the beginning of the plan by the Kondo sect to get rid of Serizawa and his group. When Serizawa, Hirayama, and Hirama found out about the involuntary seppuku, they were unable to retaliate because in August they had started recruiting many of their members to side with Kondo. Noguchi was not in Mibu village at this time of the assassination. But there is a possibility that Niimi was forced seppuku by a Mito samurai for the murder of a Mibu Roushigumi member and Kondo's group was not involved with his death. Therefore, Serizawa's group may have not known about Kondo's assassination plans. On September 18th (there is debate that it could have happened on the September 16th), all of the Mibu Roushigumi had a drinking party at which was a plan to assassinate Serizawa. Serizawa was then assassinated along with Oume, a woman who was sleeping with him, and also Hirayama. Hirama, the sole survivor in Serizawa's group, managed to flee back to Mito where he reported Serizawa Kamo's death to his family. Kondo's group reported to Aizu that Serizawa and Hirayama died from disease. Later that year, on December 27th, Noguchi was forced to commit seppuku by the Shinsengumi.
Details of assassination
There is some debate about who exactly was involved with killing Serizawa. Obviously those chosen to take part in the plot would have been members that Kondou and Hijikata trusted and also able to keep it a secret. The lineup is mostly like Hijikata, Okita, Yamanami (or Inoue), and Harada. There an alternative theory that the assassination was done by Hijikata, Todou, Saitou and Harada. It is highly unlikely that Kondou himself was involved with the assassination because it would have been too risky to get the newly planned lead captain to be injured or killed.
They struck late around midnight on September 18th - 19th after Serizawa and his group came back to Yagi residence following the drinking party. Okita sneaked into Kamo's room where he was with Oume and slashed his shoulder. It is said that Kamo crawled naked down the hall and he tripped over a small desk as he went into another room. Then he got killed, stabbed through the back by either Hijikata or Okita. Oume was killed by Okita to avoid having any witnesses for the murder. There is still a dent on the top of the top bridge of the hall which could have been done by Hijikata or Harada trying to slash Kamo but getting the sword stuck on the bridge. Harada beheaded Hirayama with his spear while he was asleep, though the geisha with whom he was sleeping was not found. Hirama fled the scene. It is possible that he was not killed because they did not feel he was as important in rank compared to Hirayama and Serizawa. Otherwise, it may be that he already knew about the assassination plan, thus fleeing beforehand.
Theories
There have been a number of theories about the motive for the assassination:
- Serizawa was too out of hand, so Aizu secretly planned to assassinate Serizawa Kamo with Kondo and Hijikata.
This is the most mainstream and widely believed theory. It's quite possible that both Aizu and Kondo felt Serizawa was too reckless to be the lead captain of a group was intended to regulate peace in Kyoto, and one who would react violently to dismissal.
- The Mito clan was thinking of taking Serizawa's Mibu Roushigumi to the fore-runner of sonno joi. Aizu clan felt this was a threat because they are more pro-Tokugawa than pro-Imperial court like Mito, so they commanded Kondo to assassinate Serizawa's group.<p> This is a lesser-known theory. The Aizu clan could have commanded Kondo to assassinate Serizawa because he was reckless in order to hide the true motive; an underlying political conflict with Mito. Aizu was having trouble in Kyoto already from samurais from Choshu and Tosa causing violence openly in the streets, so they could have wanted to prevent Mito samurais from entering the blood bath of Kyoto. Then, extreme samurais from 3 states (Mito, Choshu and Tosa) were competing with each other carrying out terrorist actions against those who they believed were against anti-foreigner ideals. A Mito official in Kyoto could have been plotting to take Serizawa's group and make them side with Mito.
- Kondo and Hijikata used Serizawa to have connections with Aizu and now that was accomplished they eliminated Serizawa's group to take a hold of the group.<p> It's likely that Kondo and Hijikata hated Serizawa in the first place. But, they probably wouldn't have been able to form Mibu Roushigumi, which later became the Shinsengumi, if it wasn't for Serizawa's brother's close relations with the Aizu clan; they allowed him to be lead captain because they were just using him to get connections with Aizu. When they felt they securely had the trust to Aizu they assassinated Serizawa because they no longer needed him. It is possible that they also kept the assassination in the dark from the Aizu clan since they have reported Serizawa's cause of death from illness.
- Serizawa's group was from Mito; therefore they had pro-Imperial beliefs. Kondo was very close to Serizawa and he respected him, so Hijikata feared he would be taken in by Serizawa's beliefs. He planned Serizawa's assassination to prevent this.<p>
This is another less-believed theory but it is unlikely to be true. Kondo and Hijikata were very pro-Tokugawa, since they were born as farmers, so they had a strong admiration for and desire to become samurais. The Tokugawa regime and the Shogun was a symbol of power to samurai society to them, so they wanted to work under the Tokugawa regime to be accepted as true samurais.
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Grave
Kondou's group held a funeral for his death and Serizawa's older brother came to it. His grave was built a year after his death in Mibu Temple and it still resides there today.
[edit]Appearace
No portrait of Kamo remains, but it is said he was a large, fat man with very white skin and small eyes.
[edit]Personality
Serizawa was quite bold and fearless but on the other hand extremely selfish and he had a terribly short temper so he often started fights. If he was in a bad mood he got violent, especially when he was drinking, and he was a heavy drinker. It is said he raped numerous women. He forced Oume to live with him in Yagi residence after raping her. There is a theory that he had syphilis and he started drinking constantly to forget the fear from having the disease; some believed the disease was beginning to infect his brain. It is hard to tell if this theory is reliable or not. He was an idealist who held very strong pro-Imperial court beliefs and took the Sonno-joi beliefs very seriously while at the same time siding with the Tokugawa regime. A small fact that is less well-known is that Serizawa was good at drawing and showed his drawings to children.
There is a quote about him from Nagakura Shinpachi:◎新選組顛末記－永倉 新八 猛烈な勤皇思想を抱き、つねに攘夷を叫んでいた。 大勢からは先生と呼ばれていた。 それほどの才幹で、国家有事の時にむざむざと横死したことは、彼自身のみならず、国家的損害であるとは、当時、心あるものの一致するところであった。
roughly translates as:
"He held extremely strong pro-Imperial court ideals and screamed for the expelling out of foreigners. Everyone called him sensei. He was that much of a man but he died when the country needed him. We felt this is not just a loss for him but a loss for the country".
Obiously Nagakura felt a lot of respect for Serizawa.
[edit]Sources
- Shiba Ryotaro's non-fiction books Moero Ken (Burn O Sword) and Shinsengumi Keppuroku (Shinsengumi Bloody Record).
- The Man who created the Shinsengumi "Serizawa Kamo". In Japanese.ja:芹沢鴨