Question

Hello!

I was wondering if anybody knows the extent of the responibilities of
the Shinsengumi in policing Kyoto from 1864-1865? Were they also
tasked to handle crimes that seemingly do not concern or threaten the
Shogunate? If not, is there a specific agency that handled these
problems?

Also, how does the Shinsengumi heirarchy hand down specific
assignments?

Many thanks in advance for any answers.

Nana

The Shinsengumi were one of many police troops which patrolled
Kyoto. They did not patrol the entire capital. Please see the map
in our 'photos' section provided by our member Masayoshi. Simply,
they were kind of a task force however we do know for sure that one
of the captains Saitou Hajime did capture a burglar (this appears on
his timeline in a translation of the Japanese website http://www.3-
hajime.com, which I'm assuming was your run of the mill burglar and
not some anti-government guy.
To me it would make sense that if they ran across
anything "suspicious" they would respond just because anti-
government activity can take many forms. If they see some guys
snooping around at night they would have to stop them for
questioning at the very least. So they would run across a variety of
bad guys...

Tiffany/secretarytocapt3
http://www.shinsengumimb.com

--- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, "nana_41175" wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I was wondering if anybody knows the extent of the responibilities
of
> the Shinsengumi in policing Kyoto from 1864-1865? Were they also
> tasked to handle crimes that seemingly do not concern or threaten
the
> Shogunate?

Thanks, Barbara and Tiffany, for pointing out the areas of
jurisdiction of the Shinsengumi. One last question: who comes next in
the heirarchy after Kondou and Hijikata? Should these two be away,who
do they leave to take charge of things?

Many thanks!

Nana

I would think Yamanami since he's a vice commander like Hijikata unless
of course he's already left this world by the time your story is set.
Next I would say Ito would step in whether he should or not and then
maybe emphasis on "maybe" Takeda would think he was worthy of being in
charge.

Most likely Hijikata would tell whoever he wanted to be in charge to be
in charge. I think he was a major control freak in that regard. Shhhh
don't tell Miss B. :D

nana_41175 wrote:

>Thanks, Barbara and Tiffany, for pointing out the areas of
>jurisdiction of the Shinsengumi. One last question: who comes next in
>the heirarchy after Kondou and Hijikata? Should these two be away,who
>do they leave to take charge of things?
>
>Many thanks!
>
>Nana
>
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>Yahoo! Groups Links
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--
Barbara Sheridan
http://www.barbarasheridan.net



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

Depends on what time period you're using. Hijikata actually wasn't the only Vice-Commander. Yamanami was his equal, so if both Hijikata and Kondo were out that's the person you would have went to. Of course he was eventually forced to commit seppuku. Also, if you're doing a story about the very beginning of the Shinsengumi then there were two other Commanders besides Kondo. You'll probably want to have a look at Serizawa Kamo's Biography. That site has most all the important members listed and what their positions where, etc.

http://victorian.fortunecity.com/stanford/130/bio.html

-MissBehavin

Thanks very much for the info! The time frame I have in mind is
autumn 1864. Hmm hmm hmm...hmm...okay, I think I know how to do that
part of the story now.^^ Thanks a lot!

I'll post the chapters when they come up and please tell me if I've
got things wrong. The problem with writing Shinsengumi fanfics is the
perpetual danger that one might get the facts wrong. ^______^

Nana