Historica Wiki
Advertisement
Saito Hajime

Saito Hajime (18 February 1844-28 September 1915) was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period who served as the captain of the third unit of the Shinsengumi during the Bakumatsu period.

Biography[]

Yamaguchi Hajime was born in Edo, Musashi Province in 1844, and he fled Edo in 1862 after accidentally killing a hatamoto, training at a dojo in Kyoto and becoming a swordsman. He became one of the most gifted swordsman of Kondo Isami's group, which went on to become the Shinsengumi. Saito was known to be a mysterious person who was not a man predisposed to small talk; a later legend claimed that Sakamoto Ryoma had survived his assassination by the Shinsengumi and used "Saito Hajime" as an alias during his infiltration of the group. Saito became captain of the third squad in the Shinsengumi police force, weeding out potential spies within its ranks. He participated in the Ikeyada incident and the Kinmon incident in 1864, and he became a hatamoto in 1867 and fought for the pro-Shogunate cause during the Boshin War. He fought at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi and the Battle of Koshu-Katsunuma before retreating to Edo and then to the Aizu Domain. He took command of the Aizu Shinsengumi after Hijikata Toshizo was wounded at the Battle of Utsonomiya Castle, and he fought until the very end at the Battle of Aizu. After surrendering to the pro-Imperial cause, he adopted a new name, "Fujita Goro", and later became a member of the police bureau in Tonami before fighting for the government during the Satsuma Rebellion. He went on to serve in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department until 1890, after which he worked as a museum guard, a school clerk, and an appraiser of swords, and he died in 1915 from a stomach ulcer caused by his alcoholism.

Advertisement