Tani Shuhei (谷周平)
Shuhei TANI (May 20, 1948 - December 2, 1901) was a member of Shinsengumi (a special police force of the late Tokugawa shogunate period). He had other names such as Shuhei KONDO, Masatake HATA and Sentaro TANI. Masatake (being written as either 正武 or 昌武) was his real name while he was alive. Sanjuro TANI and Mantaro TANI, both a member of Shinsengumi, were his real elder brothers.
Biography
Shuhei was born in Matsuyama of Bicchu Province (the western half of Okayama Prefecture) as the third son of Sanjiro Tomoyuki TANI, a feudal retainer of Bicchu Matsuyama clan (Flag magistrate receiving a fief of 120 koku plus a duty allowance [yakuryo] of 20 koku). Joining Shinsengumi together with his elder brothers in somewhere between the end of 1863 and the next spring, Shuhei became an adopted child of Isami KONDO and called himself Shuhei KONDO. He participated in the Ikedaya attack (Ikedaya Incident) accompanying his foster father Isami, and was awarded a bonus of 15-ryo after the event. The adoption arrangement was cancelled after the death of Shuhei's brother Sanjuro and Shuhei resumed his original family name Tani. Shuhei later filled a post of shoshi torishirabe yaku (person in charge of investigation of officers), and he was recruited as a Mimawarigumi-nami (a status which is comparable to Mimawarigumi; the shogunate's security squad placed in Kyoto) receiving an annual stipend of 40 bags of rice at the time of recruitment of Shinsengumi members as shogun's retainers in 1866.
Having been defeated in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, Shinsengumi members retreated to Osaka-jo Castle and then took a sea route back to Edo, where Shuhei is said to have run away.
After the Meiji Restoration, Shuhei returned to his hometown and looked to the Tani family which had been reestablished by his relatives. In around April 1872, he became a police officer of Osaka Prefectural Police under a name of Sentaro TANI, but be resigned in the following year. In 1877, he lived in Kobe with Tsuru HATA, a female sewing instructor who was older than he by 10 years, and married her in 1880, becoming a member of her family and bearing the name of Hata. But they divorced on December 29, 1887. After that, he earned his living by working as a junior staff member in Kobe office of Sanyo Electric Railway Co. Ltd.
In 1901 he died from an illness in the present Motomachi-dori Street of Chuo-ku, Kobe City. Died at the age of 54. His graveyard is in Honden-ji Temple of Kita-ku, Osaka City.
Remarks for reference
It is said that one of the reasons why Isami KONDO adopted Shuhei as his son was that Isami believed in a rumor that Shuhei was 'an illegitimate son of the lord of Bicchu Matsuyama clan, Itakura Suo no kami.'
There are many rumors about the reason for the adoption arrangement cancellation, such as that Shuhei was addicted to wine and women, and that Isami was blessed with his own child.
Reportedly Shuhei visited Isami's wife Tsune accompanied by a woman in 1868. Based on Tsune's comment to her nephew Yugoro, "Shuhei has gone to the bad like that because of a woman.", it is understood that Shuhei ruined himself by indulging in sensual pleasures.
Shuhei already had a two years old daughter called Masae when he started to live together with Tsuru HATA in 1877. Incidentally, Tsuru continued to look after Masae after she was divorced from Shuhei.
His real name while being alive was Masatake which was written as '正武' or '昌武,' but the former kanji expression is used in the name removal register.
Shuhei and his two elder brothers are the relatives (maternal grandfather level without a direct blood relationship) of Kinzo SATOMURA, a proletarian writer of a prewar period. Satomura wrote, "The brothers, who were equivalent of my maternal grandfathers, were all impetuous reactionaries who left their clan, joined Shinsengumi and killed and killed a number of loyalists against the current of the times." However, there is no blood relationship between Satomura and the brothers including Shuhei as Satomura's father was adopted by Sanjiro to restore the Tani family.
According to various records, Shuhei was covered head to foot with old scars.
In the former Maekawa residence in Mibu of Kyoto, which was the military base of Shinsengumi, there remains a storm door on which Isami KONDO has reportedly written some words. The words written with a brush are '会津 新選組隊長 近藤勇' (Aizu Shinsengumi Commander Isami KONDO) and '勤勉 努力 活動 発展' (diligence, effort, activity and development), which, according to one view, was written by Shuhei.