Kawakami gensai biography of albert king

His imina personal name was Haruakira. Generally, he is known as "Hitokiri Gensai" Gensai the killer ; however, the only person he actually killed was Shozan SAKUMA , and it is unknown as to when, who and how many people he killed thereafter. He stood only about cm and had fair skin, looking like a woman at first glance. He taught himself how to use a sword; yet he was known to be adept at drawing a sword with only one hand from the position as low as one knee almost touching the ground, cutting the opponent slashing from bottom to top up to the shoulder.

Some say that he was trained at Katayama-Hoki school; however, bases for this theory are that at the time most popular iai instantaneous drawing of sword had been that of Hoki style, and although the movement had been different, Hoki style of iai included cutting the opponent slashing from bottom to top up to the shoulder.

On August 12, , he killed Shozan SAKUMA , who belonged to kobu-gattai integration of the imperial court and the shogunate group and the leading figure advocating the opening of the country. After assassinating Shozan , Gensai had not killed anyone.

Kawakami gensai biography of albert king: On this date in

During the Baku-cho War war between bakufu and Choshu , he joined the Choshu force and was victorious. In , he returned to his domain; however, because the real power for Kumamoto Domain had been held by the Sabaku-ha supporters of the Shogun , he was imprisoned. Due to his imprisonment, he was not able to participate in the Taisei Hokan transfer of power back to the Emperor , Restoration of Imperial Rule and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi.

In February , he was released from prison. The Kumamoto Domain belonging to Sabaku-ha attempted to ride the tide of the Meiji Restoration by using Gensai; however, Gensai refused to cooperate.