Okita Soji

Captain of the First Shinsengumi Squad; child prodigy of the Tennen Rishin Ryu dojo. (Independent ask and rp blog)

[kondo-hijikata]

i had no expectation of relating so hard to this ridiculous show but here we are today

[okita-soji]

“In the dark, flowers and water cannot be discerned unless they move.”

Okita Souji, (1868).

[tokio-fujita]

OKITA SOUJI AND BLACK CAT (in history)

Unlike most of Western world, black cats are considered lucky in Japan.

In pre-modern Japan, for reasons such as “their eyes can be seen at night”, black cats are considered as “fortune cats” (福猫) that ward off evil and bring good luck.

That’s why maneki neko (welcoming cat) in black is popular. Maneki neko brings prosperous business. And a black one serves additional purpose as an amulet against evil (魔除け).

What’s more…

During the Edo period, there’s a superstition that keeping a black cat would cure tuberculosis, and is also helpful in lovesickness.

(Source: Shogakukan’s Japanese Dictionary, the largest Jpn dict published. Actually, Googling 黒猫+労咳 will get 5000 results saying black cats cure tuberculosis.)

In Edo period, for incurable diseases that doctors can’t help on, it’s believed that keeping a black cat would cure it naturally. 

Okita Soji is said to have kept a black cat because he believed this superstition.

There’s also a senryuu poem describing a pale girl with tuberculosis and a black cat came to her side. This implies black cats would approach patients with this disease.

Now, the well-known story about Okita Souji and black cat:

Not long before his death, Okita tried to kill a black cat that appeared in the garden. After several failed attempts, Okita fully realized how weak he became, and lamented “ah, I can’t kill it, baa-san, I can’t kill it.” to the old woman attending him.

This came from Shimozawa Kan’s novel. Shimozawa Kan wrote Shinsengumi Trilogy based on field research and interview with people who survived that era. But he admitted spicing up a bit. ;)

Chased. Can’t catch. Period. About Okita messing with a black cat, this is the one and only story with historical background (history novel, to be exact). No other “version” or “rumor” ever existed. Anything similar is simply mistranslation or fanfic.

Side note

1. That section in shinsengumi-no-makoto.net saying “black cat is bad omen” and Okita suddenly drop dead while chasing the cat… are simply guesses & mistranslation. Tell that to any Japanese Shinsengumi fan and he/she would go this.

2. This fan art of Okita and Fukuchou black cat came from fan-illustrated version of CD Drama “Two Toshizou’s”. Its translation is in my LJ. :)

[hakuouki-history]

Okita Souji - 2010 Japanese Wiki Entry

From the Japanese-English Bilingual Corpus of Wikipedia’s Kyoto Articles . This is a translation from Okita Souji’s Japanese wiki entry, exactly as it was in 2010. It is taken from PNM00891 in that collection.

For information on the database and how to use it, please check this post.

Just like English wikipedia, none of this information is guaranteed to be accurate. It’s not a current version of the Japanese article either.

As these wiki articles go, Okita’s article is pretty good, because it often explains the sources for some of the facts and stories about him. You have to know where a story came from to be able to judge its reliability. The article isn’t well-organized; like many wiki articles, it suffers from too many authors just editing in their revisions and theories wherever they like, but I think you’ll get a lot out of it.

Some notes on the translation. They’ve consistently written “It is believed that ….. but not proven” when the original article’s meaning is that *someone* has such-and-such a theory, not that it’s commonly believed. 

Imina is translated as “original name” when “posthumous name” is the more common English translation. And when it states that Okita’s “real name” was Fujiwara, it’s referring to his clan name, literally “honsei” - real name, but doesn’t mean Okita’s a fake name, just that the Okita family were - like many people - descendants of the Fujiwara clan.  (As a bonus, if you’re a Gintama fan. Yorinuki Gintama ED4 is full of all sorts of symbols, including this shot of Okita with wisteria, the symbol of the Fujiwara.)

The translated sentences used in this service contain English contents which are translated by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) from Japanese sentences on Wikipedia. My use of these translated sentences is licensed by the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Please refer to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or http://alaginrc.nict.go.jp/WikiCorpus/ for details. 

Soji OKITA (summer, 1842 or 1844 - July 19, 1868) was a member of the Shinsengumi, a special police force in Kyoto, at the end of Edo period (there are two theories about the year of his birth, but no decisive historical materials against either of them have been found. Also, no historical materials confirming his birth date have ever been identified, and all that is known is that he was born in summer). He was the Assistant Vice Commander, captain of the First Corps and a master of kenjutsu sword fighting.

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[hijikata-toshizo]

Fever

//Cont’d from here// 

The smile startled him as he turned, and the rice bowl he’d been carrying, clattered noisily against the tea cup and tray, he had not expected Kondo to have awoken so soon. 

“What are you smiling at?” Was his disgruntled inquiry, annoyed to have been caught so visibly off-guard.

Keep reading

[kondo-hijikata]

[kondo-hijikata]

[kondo-hijikata]

[kondo-isami]

// continued from here //

Kondo Isami wasn’t a late sleeper–under usual circumstances, anyway.

Rising with the sun had always been part of his nature, from the time he was a boy known as Miyagawa Katsugoro and lived peacefully in Edo. Born into a simple farming family and reared by a simple farming father after the untimely passing of his mom, he’d had the graces of humility instilled within the very fabric of his person.

Respect and responsibility were paramount in the Miyagawa residence. Katsu and his brothers never talked back, never fought each other outside the playful sparring and banter one would expect from three siblings close in age. Their assigned chores were completed with diligence and no complaint, their rapport for each other strong and the family kept tight-knit with their loving father in the center.

This situation was a striking difference from Katsu’s school friend, Toshi, who lived a few streets away–who was always fighting everyone and causing so much trouble that he’d earned himself the nickname baragaki from other kids and adults alike. Toshi was ever the one cropping up wild plots on how to rile shop keepers for kicks or sneak past his family to get into the sake…ever the one to go out with fists swinging and firing off stinging insults no one else his age dared to even think, let alone say.

It was like that one sweltering summer afternoon when they’d just dried off from going swimming and Katsu pushed him back into the water. Toshi rose from the lake with a punch wound up–something Katsu hadn’t seen, as his eyes were closed from laughing so hard that he had to hold his belly. But as soon as they did open…bam!

“Geeze, Toshi!” Katsu grumbled later, massaging his freshly swollen jaw. “I was just playing around.”

“Psht, no.” With a piece of straw in his mouth, Toshi’s hands were folded behind his head and he nonchalantly countered, “Pushing me was a real dick move, Kat-chan. You deserved to get decked. In fact, I should punch you again for thinking you didn’t.”

Katsu sucked his teeth. “You’d punch the moon if you could.”

And of course, Toshi replied, “You’re damn right.” He squinted at the tree overhead and its boughs of green gently swaying with the breeze–and as if the view inspired something within him, he sat up quickly thereafter. Reaching for a short fallen branch at his side, Toshi jumped to his feet, and swiped it through the air before assuming a fighting stance. “But I’d rather slash it instead because I’m definitely gonna become a samurai.”

This again…Katsu huffed out of his nose with a smile; he’d given up fighting about the ludicrous nature of that statement by now. In the end, it was all nonsense talk, of course; they were both country boys from the farming class and had no hope of ever being anything more than that. But a little bold dreaming never hurt anyone, he reckoned and decided to start a bit of his own.

So, Katsu stood, dusted off his hakama, and shouted with a clenched fist, “Yeah?! Well, not before me, you shitty brat!” He tossed himself forward with a yell, drawing his arm back to finally return that punch he owed.

The branch Toshi held struck him hard on the top of his head before he could reach him and Katsu decided that sometimes, dreaming did hurt after all. But as they laughed about it together afterward, he supposed a little suffering was worth it if it brought good things in the end.

Seasons passed from there and the cuts and bruises from that day healed. Toshi moved. Katsu was adopted by his sensei, inherited the Tennen Rishin-ryu, and took the name Kondo Isami. Toshi randomly appeared at the dojo entrance with a medicine case strapped to his back and the years fell as they would from there.

Somehow, all of this had led to Kondo’s lashes parting in Kyoto this morning, after the early sun already hung in the sky. As the blurry view of the ceiling began to clear, the full force to which his head pounded hit him like Toshi had on that day so long ago.

“Oi, baragaki…” Kondo groaned, snapping his eyes shut tight again and reaching to the scorching heat of his forehead. “Why are you so rude? Ne…”

When he received no reply, he prompted for one again without success and his palm dropped to the right–only to land on an empty futon.

Kondo turned his head, studying the barren mattress next to his. When had Toshi…? He blinked and lifted his eyes across the room, staring blankly at the closed shoji glowing from mid-morning light. His brows pulled inward.

Catching a cold was already annoying as it was with the coughing fits and aches in his tired joints, but having a stuffed nose now was worst of all. Because if Kondo could, he’d roll over and press his face to Toshi’s sheet, inhale his scent and feel consoled in the absence of his better half.

But alas, that was useless now.

He kept staring toward the doors forlornly, ignoring the sweat beading on his brow again and the voice of reason in his mind telling him to not look at light in his current state.

Facts were facts, though; Toshi was gone and Kondo couldn’t breathe through his nose.

Just before he was about to resign himself to accepting that, the shoji slid open. And all Kondo could do at that moment was blink and then grin so widely that his eyes shut–headache or none.

@hijikata-toshizo

[incorrectkazehikaruquotes]

Is this your usual grave look, or should I be worried?

Okita Souji, to Saito Hajime (via incorrectkazehikaruquotes)

[okita-soji]

Invitation

//Continued from here//

An obvious wave of relief washed over Okita as he found himself in the grips of the very man he sought. He allowed the silence to stretch on for a time and smiled a genuine smile, feeling nothing but comfort in the presence of the taller captain. 

“…Okita-kun.”

His fingers curled against Saito’s palms with a lingering touch, finding pleasure in the subtle contact before those strong hands fell away from his person. “Hajime.” He responded quietly, using a hushed tone to add an air of intimacy to the name. As if this were nothing more than an extension of their private affair.

While homosexuality presented no shock to their peers or those around them, it was safer to keep such personal matters to themselves. To flaunt their relationship, would only complicate their circumstance in the long run, so they’d decided to leave things unsaid. Very few speculated over what took place behind closed doors, but none ever questioned it. 

They did not dare to. 

Okita’s brown-eyed gaze rested on Saito’s pipe and he asked, “is everything alright?” He knew that it wasn’t; he’d heard of the loss the third unit had undergone the night prior, but wouldn’t displace Hajime’s concerns with his own. 

@saito–hajime 

[hijikata-toshizo]

Fever

The marketplace had been as noisy and busy as it ever was; the hurry of those trying to collect what was needed for their households before the best was taken or supplies were depleted, the clamoring yells of merchants and shopkeepers alike, and the pushing… GODS, Hijikata Toshizo could not stand the incessant PUSHING that came with a crowd of this nature! 

Keep reading

[kondo-hijikata]

this is….this is fine?????????

[kondo-hijikata]

i can’t believe sakamoto knew the struggle of shipping in 1866

[kondo-hijikata]

[kondo-hijikata]

saito hajime is the most relatable person of all time

[kondo-hijikata]