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.