"Yamaguchi Jiro. Age at death, 27. A former Tokugawa retainer, he joined Shinsengumi in Kyoto, serving as an assistant commander. He was a skilled and fierce swordsman. Coming to Aizu, he fought and won distinguishment, becoming unit commander. On the 4th day of the 9th month of Keio 4 (1868 ), he fought alongside 13 comrades at Nyoraido in Aizu, surrounded on all four sides by over 300 enemies. Taking the Choshu men down with him, he died a resplendent death. Truly he was a splendid, faithful, and brave warrior."
A friend of mine translated this for me from somewhere
Sure, we were feared, but we were fools, too. Kyoto people don’t take outsiders easily. We could say we were Shinsengumi, under the command of Aizu-han, but if you looked closely, we were just a gathering of freeloading men with no station in life. Ill-behaved and ill-mannered. Anyway, we borrowed the local town hall north of the temple; this made our encampment larger, and we picked up recruits there. It worked better than we thought. After all, we'd been recruiting in Kyoto, Osaka, and Edo, too. I was hanging around Osaka then. Sure, I had name and sword, but I was the second son of a nameless foot soldier peon too small for chopsticks or staff, so I wasn't anyone important enough to be classed as a "deserter" from a clan. I was young, too, so I left home.
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