He was born in Kiyokawa village in the Shōnai domain of Dewa, the son of the rural samurai Saitō Gōju. His real name was Saitō Motoji, and he later took the name Kiyokawa Hachirō after his home village. The family was a prosperous old house of sake brewers, so he could take up study from childhood. An acquaintance later recalled his fiery nature and imposing build.
He studied under Hatada Yasuemon, an official at the Kiyokawa checkpoint, and began serious learning. Three years later he met and befriended Fujimoto Tesseki, who would later lead the Tenchūgumi. Hearing from Tesseki about Edo and Kyoto, he is said to have grown eager to study in the wider world.
He went to Edo and studied under the Confucian Tōjō Ichidō, who chose him as head student, but he declined and moved to Asaka Gonsai's school. Meanwhile he honed his Hokushin Ittō-ryū swordsmanship at Chiba Shūsaku's hall, earning full mastery, and also studied at the Shōheizaka academy. Later he opened the Kiyokawa school in Edo, teaching both learning and swordsmanship himself.
Taking his mother, he set out from home on a half-year journey through Zenkō-ji, Ise, Kyoto, Miyajima, Amanohashidate, Nikkō and elsewhere. His record, Saiyūsō, full of meetings with notable people and sharp criticism, is a valuable source on travel in the late Edo period. It was also a journey of filial devotion.
Deeply shaken by the Sakuradamon Incident, in which the tairō Ii Naosuke was killed, he strengthened his commitment to sonnō jōi and overthrowing the shogunate. The shogunate retainer Yamaoka Tesshū, Satsuma samurai and others gathered at his school and formed the Torao Society with Kiyokawa as leader. They reportedly even planned to burn the foreign settlement at Yokohama to stir up expulsionist feeling.
The shogunate learned of the plan, and after he cut down a man of the shogunate side who had hurled abuse at him in the street, Kiyokawa became a hunted man. Several comrades were arrested and died in prison. Fleeing Edo, he hid in Kyoto and continued his anti-shogunate activity while traveling from region to region.
Touring Kyushu, he met sonnō jōi shishi such as Maki Yasuomi and Hirano Kuniomi and urged them to gather in Kyoto. Then, through Yamaoka Tesshū, he submitted a memorial to the Supreme Councillor Matsudaira Shungaku urging expulsion of foreigners, a general amnesty and the training of talent. The shogunate adopted it and approved forming a corps of masterless samurai.
Ahead of the shogun Tokugawa Iemochi's journey to Kyoto, he led the Rōshigumi of over two hundred men into the city. On the night of their arrival he gathered them at a temple in Mibu and declared that their true purpose was not guarding the shogun but leading the cause of sonnō jōi. He then submitted a memorial to the imperial court, which was accepted.
Kondō Isami, Hijikata Toshizō, Serizawa Kamo and others who opposed Kiyokawa's course stayed in Kyoto and later became the Shinsengumi. Meanwhile, the shogunate, alarmed by Kiyokawa's moves, called the Rōshigumi back to Edo. His actions thus ended up setting the stage for the birth of the Shinsengumi.
Back in Edo he tried to mobilize the corps again, but having set himself against the shogunate he was a marked man. Near the Ichinohashi bridge in Azabu he was attacked by shogunate assassins and lost his life in his early thirties. After his death the corps was renamed the Shinchōgumi and placed under the Shōnai domain, and in the Meiji era Kiyokawa received a posthumous rank.
Ii NaosukeYamaoka TesshūKondō IsamiHijikata Toshizō
Saigō TakamoriMatsudaira Shungaku (Yoshinaga)Takechi Hanpeita (Zuizan)Yoshida ShōinKondō IsamiHashimoto SanaiHijikata ToshizōKomatsu Tatewaki (Kiyokado)
People of the Edo period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.