Incident at Aburano Koji

Japanese:油小路事件(Aburanokoji Jiken)

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

The memorial of assassination of Itô in front of Honkô-ji.

In early 1867, Itô Kashitarô and his comrades separated from the Shinsengumi and formed Goryô Eji. They were connected with Satsuma han secretly. Their status was reported to Kondô Isami and Hijikata Toshizô from Saitô Hajime who joined the Goryô Eji as a spy.

1867/11/18, Ito was invited to a party at Kondô's house.Heavily drunk Itô left there late at the night. He was assassinated on the way by some of Shinsengumi members. They dragged his body to the crossing of Aburanokoji and 7Jô and waited for other Goryô Eji members to pick that up.

According to Shinohara Tainoshin's testimony, a town official reported Ito's death to Kodai-ji. Suzuki Mikisaburô, Hattori Takeo, Kanô Washio, Mônai Arinosuke, Tôdô Heisuke, Tomiyama Yahei and Shinohara rushed to Aburanokoji. When they were putting the body into a kago, about 40 enemies(Shinsengumi) appeared from all sides and assaulted them. Shinohara, Kanô, Suzuki, Tomiyama managed to escape from there and ran into Satsuma han residence but Hattori, Mônai and Tôdô were killed. After leaving the bodies there for 3 days, they were bried in Koen-ji. Later they were reintermented in Kaikô-ji.

References

• Shinsengumi Shiroku (新撰組史録) Hirao Michio
• Shinsengumi 100 Wa (新選組100話) Suzuki Toru

This article is a rough draft which is in need of cleanup (grammar, spelling, corrections, links, formatting, etc.). You can help SamuraiWiki by editing it. Click here for a list of articles that have been tagged as a draft copy.