Historical Stuff

Here you will find some write-ups on real, historical characters/places/things that either appear in the anime or are referred to. Since it's so chock-full of them. @_@

Please note that so far all the articles here refer only to web sources because yours truly is unable to get the required books.

Furthermore yours truly actually sucks at writing and failed History in school so don't expect it to be a lovely annotated completely-reliable accurate essay. It's only a bunch of pages acting as a start-off point those who are interested in the show's background, and perhaps to understand the setting and characters of the anime better.

Said author also is painfully aware that they could all do with much editing, reorganising and rewording...

And finally, the author also has had no formal training in Japanese so take that as you will.

Contributions, corrections, suggestions etc. are definitely welcome - go to "About Us" on the right and send an email!

A look at what historical figures look like compared to their anime counterparts can be found here.

Historical figures

Katsu Kaishu (勝海舟) - Open-minded Tokugawa navy official and diplomat, later negotiator

Sir Harry Smith Parkes - British consul and minister to Japan from 1865 to 1882

Nakaiya Juubee (中居屋重兵衛) - Merchant, scholar and supporter of Mito-han

Kawai Tsuginosuke (河井継之助) - Important retainer and decision-maker of Nagaoka-han

Historical groups

Tengutou 天狗党 - Extremist anti-foreigner group from Mito-han, largely died out in 1864