Saeki Matasaburo (佐伯又三郎)
Matasaburo Saeki (year of birth unknown – September 22, 1863) was a Fukucho jokin (assistant vice commander) of Shinsengumi (a special police force of the late Tokugawa shogunate period). It is said that he was from Choshu Domain or Edo.
It is said that he participated in Mibu-Roshi (Mibu masterless warriors group) with Hajime SAITO.
In front of Katamori MATSUDAIRA, the Kyoto shugoshoku (Military governor of Kyoto), he showed swordsmanship match with Goro Hirayama.
He was acting together with the Serizawa group.
In Kyoto Shimabara, he was murdered by someone.
The mystery of Saeki
The spy theory
His origin was unknown and he was a spy sent by the Choshu Domain or the bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun).
Therefore he and Saito who participated in the group around the same time, spied dividing into each side.
The death of Saeki
Serizawa killed him.
His spy operation was found out.
He stole Serizawa's possession.
It is because Saeki killed Aijiro SASAKI. Also Saeki raped Aguri, a concubine of Aijiro, therefore he was killed by Serizawa who wanted Aguri.
Niimi killed him.
Because Saeki was looking for the fact that Niimi was a spy of Choshu, he was lured and killed by Niimi.
Feudal retainers of Choshu Domain killed him.
In Shimabara he was tangled and tortured to death by some feudal retainers of Choshu Domain.
He failed his spy operation or his double operation was found out. Originally he infiltrated Shinsengumi serving under Genzui KUSAKA, but Saeki neglected his duty to give information to Kusaka and placed himself in Shinsengumi for real, therefore he was killed by Kusaka.
The mystery of his origin
The Choshu theory
The Edo theory
It is almost impossible to solve the mystery of Saeki because there are not so many relevant documents and stories of witnesses from that period.
Fiction
In the historical drama of 2004 "Shinsengumi!" he appeared as a servant of the Yagi family where Mibu-Roshi was based.
He volunteered to participate in Mibu-Roshigumi and while he was trying to gain the favor of the leader Kamo SERIAWA, he threw his weight about among people of lower positions, which amazed people around him.
However, he was longing to be a samurai more than others and making efforts to be successful, while he saved money to purchase a fine sword secretly.
However, just before he finally had enough saving, he was killed by Kamo SERIZAWA who could not stand his servile attitudes.