Серizawa Камо: Шинсэнгүмидің алғашқы басшысы

Serizawa Kamo (芹沢 鴨; September 2, 1826 – October 30, 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.

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 less well known fact is that Serizawa was good at drawing and showed his drawings to children.

After their arrival in Kyoto, Serizawa and Kondō Isami's group separated from the Roushigumi, becoming an independent group. A few weeks later, Serizawa and Kondō decided to submit a letter to the Aizu clan asking to join them in policing Kyoto. The Aizu clan were assigned by the Tokugawa regime to police the streets in Kyoto by samurai (most of them lower class samurai from Chōshū, Tosa, and other states) who rampantly started fights and committed assassinations. The idea of working under the Aizu may have originated with Serizawa's older brother, who had connections with the Aizu clan. The Aizu clan accepted the letter's request, making the twenty two samurai into a group under the Aizu clan. It was then that the group began calling themselves the Mibu Roushigumi and Serizawa becomes joint captain of the group with Kondō. However, Serizawa started numerous incidents. On July 18 (lunar calendar June 3), Aizu commanded Mibu Roushigumi members to police Osaka. Serizawa and his group were out drinking and later Serizawa got in a fight with a sumo wrestler. This created a conflict with the 25 30 wrestlers in the same dojo. Serizawa's group had only ten or so members but managed to overcome their attackers. At the end ten wrestlers were dead and the rest had sustained serious injuries, yet Serizawa's group barely had any injuries at all. News of this incident spread quickly, adding to the Mibu Roushigumi's notoriety. Later in June, Serizawa had a drinking gathering with his members in a restaurant in Shimabara. He lost his temper while drinking and wrecked the whole restaurant; the restaurant had to be closed for business because of it. On September 25 (lunar calendar August 13), Serizawa and his group destroyed Yamatoya, a silk cloth store, in daylight with a cannon given to the group by the Aizu clan when they would not give them money.

On October 19 (lunar calendar September 10), Niimi Nishiki, who was a sub captain of the Shinsengumi, was ordered to commit seppuku by Hijikata and Yamanami. Most likely, this was the beginning of the plan by the Kondō faction to expel Serizawa and his allies. When Serizawa, Hirayama, and Hirama found out about the involuntary seppuku, they were unable to retaliate because in August they had started recruiting many of their members to side with Kondō. Noguchi Kenji, who was a fukuchou jokin and a member of Serizawa's group, was not in Mibu village at this time of the assassination. But there is a possibility that Niimi was forced to commit seppuku by a Mito samurai for the murder of a Mibu Roushigumi member and Kondō's group was not involved with his death. Therefore, Serizawa's group may have not known about Kondō's assassination plans. On October 30 (lunar calendar September 18; however there is debate that it could have happened 2 days earlier in October 28), all of the Shinsengumi had a drinking party at which was a plan to assassinate Serizawa. The selected few led by Hijikata went into the house of Yagi Gennojō that night, Serizawa was then assassinated along with Oume, a woman who was sleeping with him, and also Hirayama. Hirama, the sole survivor in Serizawa's group, managed to flee back to Mito where he reported Serizawa Kamo's death to his family. The assassination was carried out under Matsudaira Katamori's order. Three months later, on February 4, 1864 (lunar calendar December 27, 1863), Noguchi was ordered to commit seppuku by the Shinsengumi.