The Farmers of Edo and the Warriors in Kyoto

:: Gono :: Profile of the Families :: Shinsengumi Connection :: Onoji-nohei ::

:: Kondou's Chinbuntai :: The Men from Tama Meet Their End :: A Student of Kondou Isami :: Epilogue :: Bibliography ::

The following is a summary of a work written by one of the most well respected scholars in the field
of Japanese studies:

Steele, M. William. Alternative Narratives in Modern Japanese History.
New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003.Isbn 0415305705 this book is available at many public libraries as well

Chapter 3 The Village Elite in the Restoration Drama pages 32-44

Often you will read of the Shinsengumi in the context of their role as a security force in Kyoto sanctioned by the Aizu domain. Rarely, in English, will you come across these individuals in connection to their more humble beginnings in rural Edo. The Shinsengumi, may forever be connected to the preservation of the feudal order and the legacy of the samurai. However, their very origins were unique because they were part of the peasant tapestry which entered into the samurai class. One may even consider their upward social movement to be subversive and to some extent "revolutionary" in itself.

Steele explores the history of two gono families, the Kojima and Ishizaka, wealthy farmers and members of the rural political, economic and culture elite who happen to have deep ties to Kondou Isami (in Steele's text, his name is spelled Kondo) and Hijikata Toshizo.

::Gono:: [return to top]
"Tokugawa writers, most of them warriors, evinced the keen interest they did in the "gono," as wealthy peasants were called. Fascinated by this new social phenomenon, they rightly regarded it as a threat to their way of life...in numerous ways wealthy peasants were taking on the social characteristics of the warrior class. The most important distinction between the warrior and the peasant was that only the warrior had the right to bear a surname and to wear a sword; swords particularly were forbidden to peasants on the pain of severest punishment...By the early nineteenth century, however, both the Shogunate and baronial governments as a financial measure were resorting to the sale of the right to both arms and names---the sale above all to wealthy peasants...From at least the early Tokugawa period the upper stratum of peasants had been literate, but by the last century of the period the literacy of wealthy peasants in many cases went far beyond its former utilitarian limits. Peasants began to cultivate the fine arts and invade the field of scholarship and speculative thought, all previously the special province of warriors and the city rich." (Smith 176-177)

"Of the various arts that wealthy peasants cultivated in the late Tokugawa period---such as poetry, painting, calligraphy---the military arts were the least proper of all to their class. Buyo Inshi wrote that wealthy peasants "...keep masterless warriors around them and study military arts unsuitable to their status; they take teachers...and study the Japanese and Chinese styles of writing and painting." (43)..."We hear that in recent times peasants have retained masterless samurai and study military arts from them, and that peasants of like mind band together for practice." (44) At least one peasant's diary also mentions such groups practicing---with guns, too!(45)"..."...In recent years many peasants have studied under samurai and masterless warriors who go about the country...teaching swordsmanship." (46)" (Smith 178-179)

(43) Thomas C. Smith, "The Japanese Village in the Seventeenth Century," Journal of Economic History, XII, I (1952), 7.
(44) Nihon Zaisei keizai shiryo, compiled by the Ministry of Finance, Tokyo, 1924-25, II, 1058.
(45) Toya, Nogyo keiei, p. 218
(46) Oyama Shikitaro, Noheiron, Tokyo, 1942, p. 140.

In 1827 the bakufu ordered the creation of a system of village leagues which were composed of several smaller groupings. Kojima and Ishizaka family members were administrators in these leagues. Duties were handed down father to son. Kojima Tamemasa and Ishizaka Shoko had legal ties of brotherhood. Both lived within half a day’s walk to the Shogun’s castle and close to Yokohama the site of foreign intrusion.

“To these scholars must be added the famous swordsman Kondo Isami. Fear of lawlessness led wealthy farmers to promote the study of swordsmanship in their villages. The Tennen Rishin school was especially popular. In the 1840s the Kojima family set up a fencing hall (dojo) in Onoji and invited Kondo Shusuke from neighboring Oyama to give instruction to the village youth. In the 1850s and 1860s such halls were set up throughout the Tama district. Kojima Tamemasa enrolled as a Kondo disciple and received his license in 1848…alongside Confucian scholarship and composition of Chinese verse, swordsmanship became part of the required cultivation of male members of the wealthy farming class. Kondo Shusuke and his adopted son, Kondo Isami, were regular visitors to the Kojima household as they traveled from village to village, offering instruction in swordsmanship." (Steele 35)

"Sato [Hikogoro, Hijikata's brother-in-law] Kojima was three years Kondo's senior. The two older men tutored their fencing master in literature while Kondo taught kenjutsu at the private dojo of Sato and in the front garden of the Kojima estate." (Hillsborough 26)

"Kojima and Sato provided an important source of financial support to the humble Kondo household...both men sent provisions, including much-needed armor to Kondo and Hijikata during the bloody years in Kyoto, and during the New Year holidays Kojima collected money from local kenjutsu students to send to their master in the west." (Hillsborough 26-27)

"Tamemasa was especially close to Isami…formalized ties of brotherhood in 1863, just before Isami left for Kyoto. Tamemasa…and other wealthy families in the Tama district continued to support Isami and another local swordsman, Hijikata Toshizo by sending cash and other gifts.” (Steele 35)

The network of elite farmers established constant communication with their friends in Kyoto. They were concerned about the events in Kyoto. Their friends were the Shinsengumi.

::Onoji-nohei:: [return to top]
“...1863 the bakufu allowed farmers to arm, in effect passing responsibility for local law and order into the hands of the village elite” (Steele 39). By 1866 the price on goods began to soar, the poor could not afford to use pawn shops and soon lawlessness spread. The Bushu Outburst, severe rioting which began in Edo spread to Tama. Ishizaka Shoko reported 10 incidents of murder and use of rifles and cannons on farmers who were armed with only bamboo spears. Kojima Tamemasa noted in his diary between the years 1865-66 that robberies and murders were frequent and the rich were afraid of being attacked. Kojima distributed rice to prevent local cultivators from rioting. In 1867 village academy the Bunbukan (Academy of Letters and Arms) established for academic and military drills with Kojima as the chief instructor. The problem of outside criminal activity entering their village was still loomed.

The solution adopted was the establishment of the village self-defense force called the Onoji-nohei. Kojima and Ishizaka were in charge of training the officers. Seventy-five men drilled at Manshoji Temple with spears and swords.They purchased 15 rifles from Tomita family, and ordered uniforms, helmets, packs canteens. The special chop on nohei documents read: “civility bun for peace within; military force bu for threats from without”.

“On the 25th day of the tenth month 1867, [Ishizaka Shoko] and Kojima Tamemasa discussed reports that the shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, had returned governing authority to the emperor in Kyoto. Tamemasa was worried; he yearned for an imperial restoration, but was necessarily opposed to Tokugawa rule. He and Shoko were, after all, patrons of the special Tokugawa police force stations in Kyoto, the Shinsengumi. Thus, in the twelfth month, news that the imperial palace had been taken over by Satsuma and Choshu forces and the office of shogun abolished was the cause for further anxiety. On the 23rd, Shoko made his way to Edo were he stayed five days gathering information. He was in Edo when Aizu troops attacked the Satsuma residence and burnt it to the ground [there is more than one culprit for the burning of the Satsuma mansion]. War seemed imminent.” (Steele 39)

::Kondou's Chinbuntai:: [return to top]
After the battle at Toba and Fushimi in 1868, Kondo Isami's "Chinbuntai or "Pacification Squad,” …some of the former member of the Shinsengumi, sent into the Musashi and Kozuke regions with orders to suppress rural rioting…Kondo’s men made an unsuccessful attack on the advance guard of the imperial army in the Kofu Basin." (Steele 67)

Ishizaka Shoko, the leader of the Kankokai (estimated 30 armed Tama villagers) were willing to resist the advancing Imperial Army in Kofu. However, Ishizaka was unable to join Kondo who "may have thought twice about allowing his Onoji friends to join what was certain to be a death march.” (Steele 40)

Ishizaka Shoko was placed under house arrest by Tomita (the hatamoto family who ruled Onoji Village) for aiding the enemy and refusing to contribute money to the Imperial War coffers. The Imperial Army had demanded that villages pay 3 gold ryo for every 100 koku of the village harvest and supply packhorses. Local leaders had pleaded with the new army and “asked for immediate withdrawal of all special levies, pleading general impoverishment, poor harvests, hunger and even starvation, let alone any ability to pay regular taxes” (Steele 40)

::The Men from Tama Meet Their End::[return to top]
"Ironically, it was the head of a young Tama farmer turned swordsman, Kondo Isami, that was displayed in the streets of Kyoto as proof of victory over the Tokugawa. Another Tama man, Hijikata Toshizo, fought in Hakodate in the spring of 1869, and was one of the last men to give his life for the old regime.” (Steele 42)

"The monument was built twenty years after Kondo Isami's execution, nineteen years after Hijikata fell in battle. It was the work of a group of their friends and relatives, including Sato Hikogoro, Kojima Shikanosuke (Tamemasa), and Kondo Yugoro. Their purpose was to clear the names of Kondo and Hijikata, who had been branded traitors by the Meiji government." (Hillsborough 181)

::A Student of Kondou Isami: Yoshino Taizo:: [return to top]
Yoshino Taizo was born in 1841 and studied medicine under his father and in nearby Osawa studied fencing under Kondou Isami. In 1873, he succeeded his father and became village headman and used Western-inspired reforms to encourage local commerce and industry.
Soon he became interested in People’s Rights Movements in the 1870s and became a spokesman. In the 1880s he held various offices known for advocacy of political autonomy at the local level and participated in the Progressive Self-Government Pary (Jichi Kaishinto).

::Bibliography:: [return to top]
Hillsborough, Romulus. Shinsengumi: The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps. Tuttle Publishing ISBN: 0804836272
Kondou Isami's black training robe shown on page 24 is courtesy of Kojima Masataka

Smith, Thomas C. The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959.

Steele, M. William. Alternative Narratives in Modern Japanese History.
New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003.
Isbn 0415305705

Kojima Center http://www.ceres.dti.ne.jp/~kojishir/