Cutting down those who were different, shaving off those who were unlike them, and honing the strongest further, only a handful remained... Being the strongest alone does not guarantee victory.

Among the members, there were the likes of a dojo master from a farming family, a delinquent medicine peddler, a fugitive with a past, and a destitute ronin. After its formation in Kyoto, other comrades and new recruits were of a similar sort, with hardly any legitimate samurai among them. To properly mobilize such a rabble, it was necessary to turn 'those who were not samurai into more than samurai.' Therefore, the demon vice commander Hijikata devised five absolute rules.

"Those who cannot stake their lives as samurai for the unit should die by committing seppuku as samurai—this harsh rule transformed a pack of stray dogs into a pack of fanged wolves."

"The regulations within the unit... that was the secret to the Shinsengumi's fangs."

"Indeed. But those fangs also became the poisonous fangs that shortened the Shinsengumi's lifespan."

"This wolf's code brought about a storm of purges within the unit. It bit to death many members and eventually led to a decisive internal conflict, culminating in the Abura Koji incident."

"The Shinsengumi defeated the Goryo Eji. However, later, Commander Kondo was shot by a rifle from a Goryo Eji remnant, seriously wounding his right shoulder. Just before the decisive Boshin War, his life as a swordsman was cut short. Without its key figure, the Shinsengumi subsequently fell into a path of defeat and collapse."

"In the process of becoming stronger, the Shinsengumi must have erred somewhere. Otherwise, the strongest among us should never have lost."

This is a recollection by Nagakura Shinpachi and Saito Hajime in 'Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc'.

---

About once a year, I find myself reflecting on the Shinsengumi.

In elementary school, I was fascinated by Saito Hajime from 'Rurouni Kenshin.' In middle school, after reading 'Ryoma ga Yuku,' I perceived the Shinsengumi as merely a group of killers. In high school, watching the NHK Taiga drama 'Shinsengumi!' helped me understand why the Shinsengumi became a group of killers. In college, reading 'Moeyo Ken' taught me that a man's way of life is defined after defeat.

In August 2023, I visited Goryokaku in Hakodate to see the 'Golden Kamuy Exhibition.'

"Hijikata Toshizo is said to have died here in Hakodate.