Serizawa Kamo

Serizawa Kamo (芹沢 鴨; September 2 1826 – October 27, 1863) was a samurai known for being the original lead commander of the Shinsengumi. He trained in and received a licence in the Shindō Munen-ryū. "Kamo" means goose or duck in Japanese which was an odd name to call oneself at the time. His full name was Serizawa Kamo Taira no Mitsumoto (Serizawa=family name, Kamo=given name, Taira=family clan name, Mitsumoto=formal given name.)

The Serizawa family were upper-seat Goshi rank samurai in Serizawa village in Mito which is now the capital of Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. Kamo was born as the youngest son and his childhood name was Genta. He had two older brothers and an older sister. He was educated with the Sonnō jōi ideals (meaning revere the Tenno (emperor) and expel the foreigners) and swordsmanship since childhood at Kodoukan which was a state school in Mito. Mito is a sub-branch of the Tokugawa family and it was considered the motherland of the Sonnō Jōi ideology and was a center of support for the Tennō and the Imperial court, which helped fuel the Revolution.

Although no portrait of Kamo remains, it is said he was a large man with very pale skin and small eyes.

On one hand, Serizawa was quite bold and fearless and on the other hand, he was extremely selfish and had a terribly short temper so he started fights often. If he was in a bad mood he would get violent, especially when he was drinking, and he was a heavy drinker. He was an idealist who held very strong pro-Imperial court beliefs and took the Sonno-joi beliefs very seriously while at the same time siding with the Tokugawa regime. A small fact that is less well-known is that Serizawa was good at drawing and showed his drawings to children.

Kamo was the priest for a Shinto temple under the Kimura family. He married the daughter of the Kimura family, so his name was changed to Kimura Keiji. In 1860, he took part in an extremist anti-foreigner group "Tengu-to" (alternative name is Tamazukurisei) which assassinated Tairo Ii Naosuke. He made a name for himself as he joined the higher ranks of the group. What is little known that he was originally supposed to participate in the famous Tairo assassination, but he was not able to make it in time. In early 1861, he found out that three of the younger members in the group had broken the rules, causing him to lose his temper; he made them sit in a line and beheaded them all at once. He was jailed within the Tengu-to group for executing them without any permission. When political power shifted to the pro-Tokugawa government, those in the Tengu-to were jailed for their involvement on the assassination of Ii. There, he wrote this famous poem written on his ripped piece of clothing with his own blood from biting his pinky finger:

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