Samurai Swordsmen: The Definitive History of the Shinsengumi amid the Fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate

Samurai Swordsmen is the definitive history of the Shinsengumi, Japan's elite band of swordsmen formed to defend the shogun, suppress rebellion, and uphold order in Kyoto amid the violent collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the 1860s. While Romulus Hillsborough's previous work Samurai Revolution chronicles the era from the perspective of the victors, Samurai Swordsmen focuses on the losing side, whose champion, the Shinsengumi, hunted down and killed their enemies with a ruthlessness unmatched in the annals of samurai history. Through vivid, character-driven narrative and analysis of primary sources-letters, memoirs, diaries, and contemporary accounts previously accessible only in Japanese-Hillsborough masterfully recounts the Shinsengumi's rise, unwavering loyalty to the shogun, and eventual downfall. The culmination of forty years of research and writing, Samurai Swordsmen depicts the Shinsengumi not merely as a feared police force but as a pivotal political and military power during the final years of the Tokugawa regime. Though their legacy is deeply embedded in Japan's modern revolution, the Shinsengumi have received little serious attention from English-language historians-until now. Hillsborough illuminates their role with depth and empathy, providing a definitive portrait of the Shinsengumi leaders and their turbulent age, offering readers an essential key to understanding Japan's dramatic passage from feudalism to modernity. This book appeals not only to students of Japanese and military history, but also to general readers drawn to the moral conflicts, heroism, and ethos of the end of the samurai era. AUTHOR: Romulus Hillsborough is a widely recognized Western authority on the samurai and the political upheaval that reshaped Japan in the nineteenth century. His fascination with the era spans four decades, including sixteen years living in Japan conducting research and exploring the sites where this history unfolded. He is the author of Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai, Samurai Revolution: The Dawn of Modern Japan Seen Through the Eyes of the Shogun's Last Samurai, and Samurai Assassins: Dark Murder and the Meiji Restoration, 1853 1868. A lifelong practitioner of a Japanese martial art, he understands the discipline and ethos of his samurai subjects. 18 b/w photos, 14 colour photos, 12 b/w maps