Isami Kondo · Shinsengumi
Person
Commander of the Shinsengumi and head of the Tennen Rishin-ryu school, executed at Itabashi. Rising from farmer to shogunate retainer, he carried the pride and tragedy of the Shinsengumi into defeat.
Translation
Alone, with aid cut off, I become a prisoner; remembering my lord’s grace, tears fall, yet my loyal heart dies for duty.
Reading
This Chinese poem receives defeat from the position of commander. The feeling of gratitude to the shogunate is dense in a man who rose from farmer to retainer. Read together with Isami Kondo, the poem is not only a matter of literal meaning; it shows resolve turning inward inside confinement. With the figure in mind, what remains after reading is resolve, solitude, and the beauty that often belongs to the defeated side.
Background
Introduced as one of Kondo Isami's death poems. Before his execution at Itabashi, the defeat of the Shinsengumi and loyalty to the shogunate are compressed into it. Commander of the Shinsengumi and head of the Tennen Rishin-ryu school, executed at Itabashi. The words carry the inner pressure of someone caught in Bakumatsu politics, war, execution, exile, or the losses that followed the Restoration. Even where the transmission is uncertain, they quietly preserve the pain of the age.
Source / Transmission Wording and readings may differ by transmission; this page treats the text as one circulated form.
