Shibata Hikozaburo (柴田彦三郎)
Hikozaburo SHIBATA (1840 - August 3, 1866), was a lowly member of the Shinsengumi (a special force that guarded Kyoto during the end of Tokugawa Shogunate).
In November 1864, he went up to Kyoto to apply for the recruitment carried out by Isami KONDO in Edo (Tokyo). In March 1866, he raised money swindling with a false identity, a retainer of the Hitotsubashi family called a certain HARAGUCHI. Tracked by four Shinsengumi members including Kijiro MATSUMOTO and Yoshisuke KONDO, who prepared his description, he was detained by officials at an inn in Izumo and transferred to the quarters, and he was obliged to commit ritual suicide by disembowelment in front of a lot of his colleagues. He died at the age of 28.
His grave is in Koen-ji Temple.