"Shinsengumi: The Last Samurai Corps of the Shogun" is the true story of the notorious samurai unit formed in 1863 to arrest or kill the enemies of the Tokugawa shogun. The only book in English about Shinsengumi, it focuses on two charismatic corps leaders, Kondo Isami and Hijikata Toshizo - impeccable swordsmen. This is a brief history of the last years of the bakufu, which collapsed in 1867 with the restoration of imperial rule. By the end of 1862, hordes of renegade samurai called ronin had turned the streets of the Imperial capital into a "sea of blood." The shōgun's administrators were desperate to stop the terror. A group of experienced fencers was formed. He was given the name Shinsengumi ("Newly Recruited Detachment") and tasked with destroying the ronin and other enemies of the bakufu. With rampant brutality bolstered by official sanction of assassination, Shinsengumi soon became the shōgun's most feared military force.