   was the vice-commander of shinsengumi, a great swordsman and a talented japanese military leader who resisted the meiji restoration. ==background== hijikata toshizÅ yoshitoyo was born on may 31, 1835 in present-day hino, a suburb of tokyo. he was the youngest of six children, and his father, a well-to-do farmer, died shortly before his birth. hijikata's mother also died when he was a young boy, and he was therefore raised by his older brother and sister-in-law. he was apparently tall compared to the average japanese men of the period, and it is said that he was very handsome. he was said to be spoiled at an early age and was alleged to be mean to all but his friends and family. this changed when a 21-year-old swordsman from the aizu clan known for opposing the reformists was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). when hijikata attended the man's funeral, he apparently cried in public. hijikata spent his youth selling his family's ishida sanyaku (medicine for treating injuries such as bruises and broken bones) while practicing his self-taught kenjutsu. his brother-in-law, satÅ hikogorÅ, managed a tennen rishin-ryÅ« dojo in hino; through sato, hijikata later met kondÅ isami and was formally enrolled at the tennen rishin-ryÅ«'s shieikan in 1859. although hijikata himself never fully mastered the tennen rishin-ryÅ«, it is said that he managed to develop the "shinsengumi-kenjutsu" fighting style from the tennen rishin-ryÅ«. ==shinsengumi period== in 1863, he and kondÅ isami formed the shinsengumi. kondÅ and two other men, serizawa kamo and niimi nishiki, became joint leaders of the group, and hijikata served as one of the deputy leaders. shinsengumi served as a special police force in kyoto that fought against the reformists under matsudaira katamori, the daimyo of aizu. however, serizawa and niimi began fighting, drinking, and extorting money from merchants in kyoto, which started to tarnish the reputation of shinsengumi and earned the group the derogatory nickname of "wolves of mib
1835_births 1869_deaths Hatamoto Japanese_swordsmen_of_the_Edo_period Japanese_warriors_killed_in_battle People_of_the_Boshin_War Shinsengumi Tennen_Rishin-ryA<<