SHINSENGUMI: THE SHOGUN'S LAST SAMURAI CORPS

FIRST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ACCOUNT OF THE SHOGUN?S LAST SAMURAI CORPS,
BY ACCLAIMED WRITER OF SAMURAI HISTORY

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SHINSENGUMI: THE SHOGUN?S LAST SAMURAI CORPS, BY ROMULUS HILLSBOROUGH

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Signed copies available to subscribers of Samurai History Papers

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The Shinsengumi was the most dreaded police force in Japanese
history. It was formed by the shogun?s government, the Tokugawa
Shogunate, to combat revolutionaries who wreaked terror on the
streets of the Imperial Capital. The corps existed for 5 years (1863-
1868). It disintegrated with the collapse of the shogunate.

The Shinsengumi is widely depicted in Japan. SHINSENGUMI: The Shogun?
s Last Samurai Corps (Tuttle Publishing) is the first book about the
corps in English. While focusing on the Shinsengumi, Hillsborough
has written a history-in-brief of the Meiji Restoration, Japan?s
greatest revolution. The revolution centered around the overthrow of
the shogunate in 1868 and the restoration of power to the emperor.
Just as the Meiji Restoration is considered ?the dawn of modern
Japan,? knowledge of this history is essential to understanding how
and why Japan has evolved into the nation that it is today.

In this nonfiction historical narrative of the Shinsengumi,
Hillsborough spotlights the personalities of the corps? leaders. ?
This book is about bloodshed and death and atrocity,? begins the
Preface. ?It is also about courage and honor and fidelity. It
explores some of the darkest regions of the human soul, and some of
its most noble parts. The underlying themes?are the extraordinary
will to power and sense of self-importance of the leaders of this
most lethal samurai corps, and the unsurpassed propensity to kill
instilled by them into the rank and file.? The narrative is
embellished by numerous vivid anecdotal episodes, including sword
fights, assassinations and personal stories to illustrate the nature
and spirit of the Shinsengumi. Also included are numerous quotes
from letters, memoirs and interviews by corpsmen, eyewitnesses of
events and other people directly involved with the Shinsengumi and
their history.

Ridgeback Press, publisher of Hillsborough?s Samurai History Papers,
an electronic quarterly, is making signed copies of SHINSENGUMI
available to subscribers of the Papers. For more information on this
offer and to view the book cover visit www.ridgebackpress.com.

Romulus Hillsborough is an expert in Meiji Restoration history. His
other books include RYOMA: Life of a Renaissance Samurai (Ridgeback
Press, 1999) and Samurai Sketches: From the Bloody Final Years of
the Shogun (Ridgeback Press, 2001). He has appeared on TV specials
focusing on this history, including broadcasts of the History
Channel, and NHK (Japan?s national public broadcaster). Hillsborough
lived in Japan for sixteen years. Fluent in Japanese, he has worked
as a staff writer for a Japanese magazine in Tokyo, and as a US
correspondent for the Japanese press.

In a message dated 9/16/2005 7:55:06 PM Pacific Standard Time,
samurai-listowner@... writes:
The Shinsengumi is widely depicted in Japan. SHINSENGUMI: The Shogun?
s Last Samurai Corps (Tuttle Publishing) is the first book about the
corps in English. While focusing on the Shinsengumi, Hillsborough
has written a history-in-brief of the Meiji Restoration, Japan?s
Thanks for the post.. I wll be checking into this book...


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