Hi!! I just wanted to tell that I looooooove your tumblr!!! And I was wondering if u had some information about Nagakura Shinpachi during Meiji era. Something like his wife name or how many kids he had. If u don't it's ok :3 and again I really love all the things u posted.
It took me quite a while to find his wife’s name. It’s not mentioned in most sources, only that she was the daughter of the Sugimura family, who adopted Nagakura into the family via this marriage. Finally, found a personal name to go with that: Yone.
Like a bunch of Edo period women’s names, it’s written down in kana, not kanji, so I don’t have to worry I misread the kanji here.
Poking around Japanese Shinsengumi fansites, I found the following information.
Yone was born in 1849, and married Shinpachi in 1870. Her father was a Matsumae-clan physician. (Remember that Nagakura Shinpachi was born a Matsumae retainer as well, so he went back to his old connections to create a new life after the war.) She died in 1921.
Their son Yoshitaro was born February 24, 1873, and as far as I can find, was their only child. Through Yoshitaro, Nagakura Shinpachi has a bunch of descendants. I’m not sure when Yoshitaro died but he outlived his father, who died in 1915.
Nagakura also had a daughter named Iso from his Shinsengumi days, born just before Toba-Fushimi in late 1867. Her mother Kotsune, a geisha, died soon after childbirth, and Nagakura arranged for the baby to be brought up by Kotsune’s sister who lived near Kyoto. He probably never expected to see her again, but Iso grew up to be a famous actress in the Kansai region, under the name Onoe Kogame, and eventually she and her father had a reunion meeting. She died December 21, 1905.
I’ve heard that it blew Nagakura’s mind, in the late Meiji, that he had fought in the Bakumatsu in an era of swords, muskets, and samurai, and now lived in an era where there were things like movies and airplanes. But here’s my favorite Old Nagakura story:
Old Nagakura, holding the hand of one of his grandsons, was walking along somewhere, cane in the other hand and back bent. Along the way they ran into some yakuza, who tried to pick a fight with the old man.
Nagakura dropped his cane, straightened his back, and glared at the yakuza so terrifyingly and murderously that they ran away.
Nagakura then picked up his cane, bent his back, took his grandson’s hand, and kept walking.