(born ; March 30, 1826 – February 13, 1883) was a Japanese samurai of the late
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
who was a of the ''
Shinchōgumi'' (the
Shinsengumi
The was a special police force organized by the (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was active until 1869. It was founded to protect the shogunate representatives in Kyoto at a time when ...
's counterpart in
Edo).
Biography
Born in
Hino,
Edo in 1826, he was Inoue Sōzō's younger brother and related to
Inoue Genzaburō
was born in Hino, Tokyo. He was the captain of the sixth unit of the Shinsengumi which were a special police force for the Tokugawa regime. Inoue is the oldest unit captain of Shinsengumi.
Like his older brother, Inoue Matsugoro, Inoue Genzabu ...
's family.
[Mori Makiko 森満喜子. ''Okita Sōji omokage-shō'' 沖田総司・おもかげ抄. Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Oraisha, 1999.] He later became an adopted son of Okita Katsujirō (
Okita Sōji
was the captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi, a special police force in Kyoto during the late shogunate period. He was one of the best swordsmen of the Shinsengumi.
Background
He was born in 1842 or 1844 from a samurai family in the S ...
's father) and changed his name to Okita Rintarō before his marriage to Katsujirō's daughter Mitsu in 1846 (
Kōka
was a after ''Tenpō'' and before ''Kaei.'' This period spanned the years from December 1844 through February 1848. The reigning emperors were and .
Change of era
* December 2, 1844 (): The new era name of ''Kōka'', meaning "Becoming Wide ...
3). He then served as the head of the Okita family in place of Sōji.
A licensed practitioner of the
Tennen Rishin Ryu,
[清河八郎関係人物録（沖田林太郎【おきた りんたろう】）〜回天の魁士 清河八郎〜]
in 1863 he joined the
Rōshigumi
The Rōshigumi (浪士組, meaning "the rōnin squad"), the "Kyoto Defenders", was a group of 234 masterless samurai (''rōnin''), founded by Kiyokawa Hachirō in 1862. Loyal to the Bakufu, they were supposed to act as the protectors of the Tokug ...
together with Okita Sōji and Inoue Genzaburō. However, not long after their arrival in Kyoto, the Rōshigumi was disbanded, he and the rest went back to Edo, leaving behind Okita Sōji, Inoue Genzaburō and few members there. While in Edo, he later became a commander of the
Shinchōgumi, which was under the sponsorship of the
Shōnai-han.
At that time, he and Mitsu moved to one of the barracks (''kumi-yashiki'' 組屋敷) in the former Edo residence of
Tanuma Okitaka with their children. They lived there until the
Boshin War
The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...
.
[Kikuchi, p. 25.]
After the start of the Boshin War, he and Mitsu took care of a terminally ill Okita Sōji until the forces of the northern domains, as well as the soldiers of the former shogunate, retreated to the
Tohoku region. Since Sōji was not fit for traveling, Rintarō and Mitsu had no choice but to leave him in Edo.
Joining the Shōnai daimyō
Sakai Tadazumi in leaving the city, Rintarō and his family traveled to Shōnai.
Rintarō subsequently fought alongside the Shōnai forces during the height of the Boshin War.
In 1872, the family returned to
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
and lived in a place called Ume-yashiki (梅屋敷; "Plum Mansion") in Sumida-Mukaijima.
[Kikuchi, p. 25] Okita Rintarō died in Tokyo, on February 13, 1883, at age 56.
See also
*
Okita Soji
*
Inoue Genzaburō
was born in Hino, Tokyo. He was the captain of the sixth unit of the Shinsengumi which were a special police force for the Tokugawa regime. Inoue is the oldest unit captain of Shinsengumi.
Like his older brother, Inoue Matsugoro, Inoue Genzabu ...
Notes
References
*Kikuchi Akira 菊池明. ''Shinsengumi 101 no Nazo'' 新選組101の謎. Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Oraisha, 2000.
*Mori Makiko 森満喜子. ''Okita Sōji omokage-shō'' 沖田総司・おもかげ抄. Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Oraisha, 1999.
External links
Brief biography of Rintarō at the Shōnai town webpage (in Japanese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okita, Rintaro
Meiji Restoration
Samurai
Tennen Rishin-ryū
1826 births
1883 deaths