Kyoto Mimawarigumi

The Kyoto Mimawarigumi (京都見廻組, Kyōto Mimawarigumi) was a special police force created by the Tokugawa shogunate during the late Bakumatsu period to restore public order to Kyoto.

Kyoto Mimawarigumi
京都見廻組
Active1864 (1864)
DisbandedNovember 9, 1867 (1867-11-09)
CountryKyoto, Japan
AllegianceTokugawa bakufu
Typespecial police
RoleTo protect the Kyoto Imperial Palace
Size200
EngagementsKinmon incident
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Sasaki Tadasaburō

History

In the unsettled period after to ending of the national isolation policy, the political situation in Japan became increasingly chaotic. Anti-government and anti-foreign rōnin congregated on the old imperial capital of Kyoto, and many of the daimyōs from the western feudal domains also established residences in Kyoto in an attempt to exert influence on the Imperial Court to pressure the shogunate towards the sonnō jōi movement ("Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians") against the foreign powers.

Establishment

In 1864, the Kyoto Shugoshoku Matsudaira Katamori authorized the establishment of a militia of approximately 200 samurai formed into two companies under the command of Maita Hirotaka and Matsudaira Yasutada to restore public order to Kyoto. The two companies took their names from the courtesy titles of their commanders: the Sagami-no-kami-gumi and the Izumo-no-kami-gumi. The headquarters for the force was Nijō Castle in Kyoto.

The purpose of the Mimawarigumi was very similar to that of much more famous Shinsengumi.

The Mimawarigumi was composed entirely of higher-ranking samurai and sons of hatamoto-class retainers, all of whom were direct retainers to the Tokugawa Shogunate, predominantly through the Hoshina-Matsudaira clan of the Aizu domain, as opposed to the rōnin-based Shinsengumi.[1] Indicative of this difference in status, the Mimawarigumi was assigned primarily to protect the Kyoto Imperial Palace and area around Nijo Castle, whereas the Shinsengumi was assigned to the Gion entertainment district and areas of the commoners and shopkeepers.

Disbandment

The Mimawarigumi was officially disbanded with the abdication of shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu on November 9, 1867, although the group continued to function as an unofficial combat unit into the Boshin War of the Meiji Restoration.

In 1870 Imai Noburō, a former member of the Mimawarigumi confessed to a Military Judiciary Panel that he and other Mimawarigumi members, including Sasaki Tadasaburo had assassinated Sakamoto Ryōma in 1867, although the veracity of his confession remains a matter of historical debate.

Notes
  1. Jansen, Marius. (1994). Sakamoto Ryōma and the Meiji Restoration, p. 343., p. 343, at Google Books
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References
  • Hillsborough, Romulus. Shinsengumi: The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps, Tuttle Publishing (2005) ISBN 0-8048-3627-2
  • Jansen, Marius B. (1961). Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration. Princeton: Princeton University Press. OCLC 413111


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