The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps

The Bloody Battles and Intrigues of the Shinsengumi

By: Romulus Hillsborough

Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer

The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps tells the thrilling story of the Shinsengumi - the legendary corps of Samurai warriors tasked with keeping order in Kyoto during the final chaotic years of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868).

This book recounts the fascinating tales of political intrigue, murder, and mayhem surrounding the fearsome Shinsengumi, including:

• The infamous slaughter at Ikidaya Inn where, after learning of a plan to torch the city, a group of Shinsengumi viciously attacked and killed a group of anti-Tokugawa plotters
• The bloody assassination of Serizawa Kamo, the Shinsengumi leader, under highly suspicious circumstances
• The final tumultuous battles of the civil war in which the Shinsengumi fought and died in a series of doomed last stands

©2005, 2020 Jeff Cohen (P)2021 Tantor

A Good Source of Shinsengumi Info

I really appreciate the efforts made by the writer to relay all of that information about the Shinsengumi to us non-Japanese speakers. And the narrator did a good job as well.

However, there were a couple of things that I wish were different.
First, repetition of certain words or phrases. I can't count how many times I heard "propensity to kill" or "not withstanding".
Second, the narrator's pronunciation of Japanese names was a bit grating. I was so close to abandoning the book at the start after hearing names pronounced so robotically.

Overall, I would recommend it to those interested in the Shinsengumi.