Okita and Saito's age difference

Ran into some confusion about who exactly was older: Saito or Okita?
Saito was born in 1844. He was about 25 in 1868, correct? But what
about Okita?

I thought it was pretty much settled that he was 25 when he died in
1868. Most sites I know of list his birth year as 1844. It's also
said that he was 10 years younger than Kondo, who was born in 1834.
But is this absolutely true?

One site did mention that there was a possibility that Okita might
have been born in 1842. It also gives the date of 1844 and says that
it has been handed down through the family that he was 25 when he
died. But then it makes the bizarre claim, without any explanation
why, that it's now "generally accepted" he was born in 1842.

Does anyone have any insight into this?

The site is:
http://www4.ocn.ne.jp/~sohzi/about_Okita.html

It's in Japanese of course.

-MissBehavin

The site http://www4.ocn.ne.jp/~sohzi/about_Okita.html doesn't work when I
tried to access.

As I know, he has two possible year of birth, 1842 or 1844, so it's not sure
if he died at the age of 25 or 27.
Some reliable Shinsengumi site like http://www.toshizo.com/ mentions these
two possibility.
But I don't know so far why many people mention 1842, either where did these
difference come from. May be could momoiro san clarify it better than me?

BTW, I don't have seen Azumi yet, but I like Jo's sword fight very much!

Tama












[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, "warg3791" wrote:

> Ran into some confusion about who exactly was older: Saito or

Okita?

> Saito was born in 1844. He was about 25 in 1868, correct? But what
> about Okita?
>
> I thought it was pretty much settled that he was 25 when he died

in

> 1868. Most sites I know of list his birth year as 1844. It's also
> said that he was 10 years younger than Kondo, who was born in

1834.

> But is this absolutely true?
>
> One site did mention that there was a possibility that Okita might
> have been born in 1842. It also gives the date of 1844 and says

that

> it has been handed down through the family that he was 25 when he
> died. But then it makes the bizarre claim, without any explanation
> why, that it's now "generally accepted" he was born in 1842.
>
> Does anyone have any insight into this?
>
> The site is:
> http://www4.ocn.ne.jp/~sohzi/about_Okita.html
>
> It's in Japanese of course.
>
> -MissBehavin

His exact year of birth is not known.
In the document which remains in Okita's house, there are data that
Souji was 20 years old in Bunkyu 3 (1863), and it is the basis of
the opinion in 1844.
(Please calculate by kazoedoshi.)
And it is the basis of the opinion in 1842 which was written to be
22 years old to the list of names when participating in Roushi-tai.
Recently, the opinion in 1842 is said to be leading. That is because
these list of names are the documents of a public institution.

In my memory, when I got to know Shinsengumi, almost all researchers
were writing the opinion in 1844.
(Incidentally, it is about 18 years ago that I got to know
Shinsengumi.)
In the world of manga, since there is a tendency which makes age of
the character young, most works set up Souji in the opinion in 1844.
^^;

momoiro-usagi

In a message dated 7/24/2004 11:21:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time, "momomanjyuu2004" <momomanjyuu2004@...> writes:

>--- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, "warg3791" wrote:
>> Ran into some confusion about who exactly was older: Saito or
>Okita?
>> Saito was born in 1844. He was about 25 in 1868, correct? But what
>> about Okita?
>>
>> I thought it was pretty much settled that he was 25 when he died
>in
>> 1868. Most sites I know of list his birth year as 1844. It's also
>> said that he was 10 years younger than Kondo, who was born in
>1834.
>> But is this absolutely true?
>>
>> One site did mention that there was a possibility that Okita might
>> have been born in 1842. It also gives the date of 1844 and says
>that
>> it has been handed down through the family that he was 25 when he
>> died. But then it makes the bizarre claim, without any explanation
>> why, that it's now "generally accepted" he was born in 1842.
>>
>> Does anyone have any insight into this?
>>
>> The site is:
>> http://www4.ocn.ne.jp/~sohzi/about_Okita.html
>>
>> It's in Japanese of course.
>>
>> -MissBehavin
>
>
>His exact year of birth is not known.
>In the document which remains in Okita's house, there are data that
>Souji was 20 years old in Bunkyu 3 (1863), and it is the basis of
>the opinion in 1844.
>(Please calculate by kazoedoshi.)
>And it is the basis of the opinion in 1842 which was written to be
>22 years old to the list of names when participating in Roushi-tai.
>Recently, the opinion in 1842 is said to be leading. That is because
>these list of names are the documents of a public institution.
>
>In my memory, when I got to know Shinsengumi, almost all researchers
>were writing the opinion in 1844.
>(Incidentally, it is about 18 years ago that I got to know
>Shinsengumi.)
>In the world of manga, since there is a tendency which makes age of
>the character young, most works set up Souji in the opinion in 1844.
>^^;
>
>momoiro-usagi
>
>

Thanks Momoiro-san! I was wondering why there was such a conflict.

-MissBehavin