Hijikata in Ezo and Tetsu/Tatsu....

First of all I would like to say that it's great to be hearing from
Okita and Angrybee on the ML again. Secondly, thanks to Wu Jia-Xin
and Yuki for answering as well.

I can answer both of your questions at least a little bit.

Yes Tetsu and Tatsu were both real. And Tetsu really was Hijikata's
page. However, they did not join the Shinsengumi until 1867. I think
Tatsu left the group after either Toba-Fushimi? Or Was it Kofu? But
Tetsu followed Hijikata all the way to Hakodate, Ezo (Hokkaido).

As for what happened to Hijikata up north...

The basic story as I have it so far is that he left Aizu on a mission
to get reinforcements, but was unsuccessful for a reason I have yet
to exactly determine. I think the domain he went to might have also
been in trouble at that time? He eventually wound up in Sendai and
had a council of war with Enomoto's group. It was decided that they
would go to Ezo and try to build a new government there. Hijikata was
one of two men appointed as leaders of their army. (? I think this is
correct. Not sure who the other guy was.)

Hijikata really had no hope of winning a battle at that point. He
pretty much knew that if he went to Ezo he would be going to his
death. However he did not care. He said that if he ever made peace
with his enemies he would not be able to face Kondo in the next life.
He also told a doctor acquaintance (You've probably read this
before): "I am not going to battle to win. With the Tokugawa
government about to collapse, it would be a disgrace if no one is
willing to go down with it. That is why I must go. I will fight the
best battle of my life to die for the country." It is believed that
this is about the time at least one of those pictures of him was
taken.

Setting out by boat, Enomoto's group landed on Washinoki beach in
order to keep Hakodate, an important seaport, from being destroyed in
a fight. They managed to enter Fort Goryokaku a few days later
without a struggle. (This was sometime in October, but I do not have
the dates handy at the moment.) Goryokaku had only been completed a
few years before and was made for modern warfare, which is why they
chose it for their headquarters. It was shaped like a star, making it
hard to approach without being in the line of fire. It was destroyed
after the war by the Meiji government, but you can still see the
general outline of it today. They declared their new government
the "Republic of Ezo."

After this Enomoto's people began to take control of the rest of Ezo.
they sent word to the Matsumae clan demanding that they join with
them and were ignored. Enomoto sent Hijikata and his army to force
them to surrender. There were a few fights in this campaign that as
far as I can tell Hijikata won, including one surprise raid on his
camp. He finally succeeded in taking the castle itself. There seems
to be some debate on how it happened, but the most reliable source
(Shimada Kai's diary) says that they entered the fortress by using a
ladder to climb over a wall and caught the defenders off-guard.

Shortly after this, they held a democratic election and Enomoto was
voted President. Hijikata was voted Army Magistrate and had charge of
the defence of Hakodate. (People have critized this attempt at
a "democratic" government, but it seems to me to have been at least
if not far more "progressive" the the Meiji government.)

It gets a bit fuzzy for me again here. They seem to have been left
alone for the rest of that winter. It is said that at this time
Hijikata's personality was very mild and that his men adored him. The
people of Hakodate seemed to have respected him as well.

Some attempt was made to gain outside help, but no one wanted to risk
going up against Great Britain which was allied with the Meiji
government. Even France had long before withdrawn from its alliance
with the Shogunate. The sole exception was a few soilders who
deserted and joined up with Enomoto's forces. Among these Frenchmen
was a man named Jules Burnet who would later remember that Hijikata
was a "true warrior" and that if he had been in a European army he
would have been a general. (Burnet was the model for Tom Cruise's
character in The Last Samurai, BTW. But he was not nearly so heroic.
He hid on a boat during the final battle. -_-)

These outside "specialist" suggested a plan to Enomoto the next
spring to take or sink an ironside warship that the Meiji government
sent against the outlaw republic. It involved both a land and sea
battle. Hijikata lead the land forces. Both proved to be disasterous
for the Ezo forces and they retreated back to Hakodate to prepare for
the final showdown.

During this time Hijikata finished settling things about him. On May
5, 1869 he gave several items (a letter, the picture of him, a sword,
and I think a poem?) to Tetsu and ordered him to get out of Hakodate
and take these things to his family.

Tetsu tried to refuse, saying he wanted to stay and fight. Hijikata
became angry with him and said that if he didn't go like he had told
him to then he would be the one to kill him. Tetsu went and
eventually managed to slip past the Meiji government's forces by
disguising as a beggar. (I am not sure accurate this is because I had
to use a translator to get most of this part of the story. I could be
wrong about a thing or two...)

At some point the remaining Shinsengumi members were sent to defend a
fairly isolated fort called Benten Daiba. (No longer exists.) As head
of the army Hijikata had to remain at Goryokaku.

(This information came from Momoiro-usagi.)The Meiji government
finally began it's attack on May 11, 1869. Enomoto and the others
were determined to hold the fort, but Hijikata was opposed to their
plan. "Reinforcements do not come. It is meaningless to hold
Goryokaku castle." He was also angry because this decision abandoned
the Shinsengumi members at Benten Daiba. Enomoto basically told him
to shut up, but Hijikata would not be stopped. He took some men and
led a sortie to save the men at Benten Daiba.

What he could not know was that the Meiji government forces were
already between him and the fort. As his group came out of Hakodate
and into an area called Ippongi-Sekisyo they encountered this army
and there was a battle. He is said to have been shot in the abdomen,
the bullet shattering his lower back and killing him. However they
never had a body to prove it. It seems most likely that his men took
it away from the battlefield and hid it someplace. To this day no one
knows for sure where his final resting place is located.

The saddest irony was that the men he was trying to help remained
fairly safe. Benten Daiba surrendered on May 15, 1869. It was only
then that they learned of his fate. One memeber later remembered that
they "cried like babies who had lost their mother." Nakajima Nobori
would later repeat that sentiment on his famous painting of Hijikata.

I remeber reading from one website that those who fought with
Hijikata in Hakodate said that he "was more samurai-like than the
real samurai and more brave than any other men."

As for Tetsu, he sought out the Sato family in Hino as Hijikata had
instructed him. He was sheltered by them for three years. After that
it became unclear what happened to him. Some say that he died of an
illness at age 20. Others that he tried to fight the Meiji government
again during the Senian War and was killed in battle.

-MissB

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

> Yes Tetsu and Tatsu were both real. And Tetsu really was

Hijikata's

> page. However, they did not join the Shinsengumi until 1867. I

think

> Tatsu left the group after either Toba-Fushimi? Or Was it Kofu?

But

> Tetsu followed Hijikata all the way to Hakodate, Ezo (Hokkaido).

Probably it is Goheishinden or Nagareyama that Tatsu escaped. After
that, he returned to the hometown and became a merchant. He died of
an illness in Meiji 5. However, his posterity exists.

> During this time Hijikata finished settling things about him. On

May

> 5, 1869 he gave several items (a letter, the picture of him, a

sword,

> and I think a poem?) to Tetsu and ordered him to get out of

Hakodate

> and take these things to his family.

Tetsu is not sending the sword to Hino. This is the fact which many
Japanese Shinsengumi fans' people also misunderstand. I also thought
that Tetsu sent the sword to Hino. It is only Hijikata's photograph
and letter which Tetsu sent. It is the fiction of "Moeyo ken" of
Shiba Ryotaro that Tetsu sent the sword. Kanesada which Hijikata's
posterity has is the sword which it left to the Hijikata family,
when he goes to Kofu.

momoiro-usagi

Oh really? Cool. Thanks for clearing that up about the sword and Tatsu,
Momoiro-usagi-san! We appreciate it.

-MissB


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

Thanks for the info! I have the vague urge to go doodle something on
it now . . . ^^;

And a side note to Bunny:
RK's Okita-san and Soujirou should look similar, Watsuki used Okita-
san (the real one) as inspiration for Soujirou. Apparently, he
thought the look worked and used amost the same design for RK's Okita-
san. =3 I believe there may be a short explanation to this effect at
http://www.geocities.com/meowcarrot

Seta Sojiro is in fact based on a darker Okita from novel "Shinsengumi Keppuroku."
Please do not confuse this fictional version of Okita with the real Okita.

--- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, "jiaxin_nyo" wrote:
>
>
> Thanks for the info! I have the vague urge to go doodle something on
> it now . . . ^^;
>
> And a side note to Bunny:
> RK's Okita-san and Soujirou should look similar, Watsuki used Okita-
> san (the real one) as inspiration for Soujirou. Apparently, he
> thought the look worked and used amost the same design for RK's Okita-
> san. =3 I believe there may be a short explanation to this effect at
> http://www.geocities.com/meowcarrot
>