Bakumatsu (Top)

The Late Tokugawa Shogunate (幕末 Bakumatsu) is the period between 1853 and 1867 during which Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy called sakoku and modernized from a feudal shogunate to the Meiji government.

Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryu (Top)

Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryu, practiced by both Himura Kenshin and Hiko Seijuro.  It contains a variety of techniques only mastered by the two men.  Kenshin is the last one to ever learn the full list of techniques. 

Techniques of the Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryu:

 Ryu Tsui Sen
This technique is a downward slash from the air.

 Ryu Tsui Sen - Zan
This technique is similar to Ryu Tsui Sen, but performed by thrusting the sword downwards instead of slashing with it.

 Hi Ryu Sen
This is a surprise attack where you thrust your sword out of its scabbard and hit your unsuspecting opponent with the butt end of the sword.

Ryu Kan Sen
The aspect of this technique where one sidesteps a thrusting attack and attacks the opponent's weak side is technically very sound, and is a common principle across many martial arts. After Kenshin sidesteps the oncoming attack, he spins 180 degrees and slashes at the end of the spin. Generally, spin moves are dangerous because they expose your back to your opponent and it takes longer for your attack to reach the target.  Kenshin probably got away with the spin technique because of his godlike speed.

Ryu Kan Sen - Tsumuji
This technique requires one to move towards your opponent, twist around his attack, and then slash him when he's within range.

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Ryu Sou Sen
This technique involves attacking all nine target points on your opponent's body in quick succession.

Ryu Sou Sen - Garami
This technique attacks a single point over and over again in rapid succession.

Ryu Shou Sen
This technique is to counterattack aerial attacks.

Dou Ryu Sen
This one lets the swordsman cut the ground and uses the force of the cut to throw up rocks and dirt at the opponent, distracting him as a setup for a more powerful technique.

Sou Ryu Sen
Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryu is most famous for its battou-jutsu (sword-drawing) techniques, and this is one of them. Sou Ryu Sen is a double attack battou-jutsu. The initial sword draw and slash is followed by a slash using the scabbard

Sou Ryu Sen - Ikazuchi
Instead of attacking with the sword first, you attack with the scabbard first, and then draw the sword and attack second. Just make sure you are able to draw your sword quickly and reliably after the first hit.

Kuzu Ryu Sen
Kuzu Ryu Sen involves striking all nine of your enemy's target points simultaneously.

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Ama Kakeru Ryu no Hirameki
The succession technique of Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryu also happens to be a form of battou-jutsu. Like Sou Ryu Sen, it's simple yet remarkably clever and effective. 

Surprise Factor

It easily makes sense that leading with the left foot results in a slightly faster attack on the draw, since the sword is closer to the opponent than if one led with the right foot. Beyond speed however, the technique has an element of surprise to it--most swordsmen do not perform a left foot-leading battou-jutsu.  In the anime, it's mentioned how leading with the left foot is dangerous because one might cut one's own leg on the upswing if the technique is performed improperly. This is true, but I think there's an even more important reason why opposing swordsmen don't expect the left foot to lead on the draw, and that's the fact that most sword-drawing techniques tend to be high-to-low, as opposed to low-to-high. For high-to-low slashes, a right-handed swordsman would invariably lead with the right foot because the full follow-through of a high-to-low slash ends with the sword more on the left side of the body than the right side, so one wouldn't want the left leg in the way of the down swing. Since most swordsmen are used to encountering high-to-low slashes on the draw, they'd find it surprising that one would lead with the left foot.

Efficient Utilization of Body Mechanics

Leading with the left foot instead of the right completely changes the body mechanics of the technique. In addition, the motion of making a full step forward with the left foot is stronger than the motion of shuffling one's right foot forward. When Kenshin performed this technique against Aoshi, his left foot left cracks in the ground!  And very importantly, leading with the left foot makes the second part of the succession technique possible. With the right foot forward, one would have to spin a full 360 degrees in order to make the second slash. On the other hand, leading with the left foot, one only has to spin 180 degrees, which is much faster.

Hitokiri Battousai (Top)

The title implies he has mastered the technique of Battōjutsu (sword drawing technique, studied in modern times as Iaijutsu) and can draw his sword with lightning speed. Hitokiri was the title given to samurai assassins ("man slayers" in the English anime).

Ishin Shishi (Top)

Shishi (志士; sometimes known as 維新志士 Ishin-shishi) was a term used to describe Japanese political activists of the late Edo period. The term "shishi" literally translates as "men of high purpose”. While it is usually applied to the anti-shogunate, pro-sonnō jōi (尊王攘夷; "Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarian[s]") samurai primarily from the southwestern clans of Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa, the term "shishi" is also used by some with reference to supporters of the shogunate who held similar sonnō jōi views.  There were many different varieties of shishi. Some, such as the assassins Kawakami Gensai, Nakamura Hanjiro, Okada Izo, and Tanaka Shimbe, opted for a more violent approach in asserting their views. Kawakami Gensai, in particular, is recalled as the assassin of Sakuma Shozan, a renowned pro-Western thinker of the time. Other more radical shishi, such as Miyabe Teizō, plotted large-scale attacks with little regard for public safety. Miyabe himself was one of the ringleaders of the plot, foiled by the Shinsengumi at the Ikedaya Incident, to burn Kyoto at the height of the Gion Festival.

Juppongatana (Top)

The Juppongatana are a group of ten deadly men and women who are determined to take over the Ishin government by force. They revel in battle and death and lust for power and revenge. Shishio Makoto leads this terrifying band of skilled fighters.

Kamiya-Kashin Ryu (Top)

A technique taught by Kamiya Kaoru that makes sword use as a non-killing weapon for protection.

Kendo (Top)

The Japanese martial art of fencing with bamboo swords.

Kenshin-gumi (Top)

The term given to the group of friends that makes up the main characters in Rurouni Kenshin.

Meiji Era (Top)

The Meiji Era was a 45-year reign of Emperor Meiji, running, in the Gregorian calendar, from 23 October 1868 to 30 July 1912. During this time, Japan started its modernization and rose to world power status. This era name (年号, nengō, lit. year name) means "Period of Enlightened Rule”.

Oniwaban (Top)

The Oniwabanshū (お庭番衆) was a group of ninja and onmitsu established by the 8th Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune, who was considered one of Japan's greatest shoguns (1684-1751).  Yoshimune established the Oniwabanshū to perform security, information gathering, and espionage functions. It is believed that during the tumultuous time of the Bakumatsu Revolution that the Oniwabanshū were sent to America to spy not only on the Shogun's opposition, but on the Americans as well.

Originally mercenaries serving different warlords, by the Edo Period, they were in the service of the central government. Oniwabanshū acted as secret agents, gathering intelligence and working as guards for the shogun, while also protecting generals or other high-ranking officials of the shogunate. They also followed a strict set of regulations, which, in some cases, forbade them from socializing with the general public. The most famous were the ninja of Iga and Kouga, north of Kyoto. Oniwabanshu-type characters in films and television are most often portrayed simply as ninja.

Opium (Top)

The dried, condensed juice of a poppy, Papaver somniferum, that has a narcotic, soporific, analgesic, and astringent effect and contains morphine, codeine, papaverine, and other alkaloids used in medicine in their isolated or derived forms: a narcotic substance, poisonous in large doses.

Rurouni (Top)

Term used to describe a wanderer or wandering Samurai.

Sakabato (Top)

The sakabatō (逆刃刀, lit. reverse-blade sword) is the main weapon of the character Himura Kenshin. It was created by Nobuhiro Watsuki as an original weapon that represents Kenshin's unwillingness to kill.

On a normal katana, the outwardly curved side of the sword is sharp, while the inwardly curved side of the sword (棟, mune) is blunt. In contrast, the sakabatō has the cutting edge on the inwardly curved side of the sword. The sakabatō is able to break other katana while fencing because the outward side is blunt, so the edge is bolder and it could damage the sharp edge sword.

Although the origin of the sakabatō is the cause of some confusion amongst fans, Watsuki has stated in an interview that the sakabatō was his creation. There is no record of reverse-bladed katana ever having been used historically in Japan and there is no existing school of swordsmanship that employs them. However, since the manga was published, non-functional sakabatō have been produced for purchase by collectors and fans.

Sekihoutai (Top)

This was a group of Japanese political extremists in the Bakumatsu, the Japanese civil war in the 1860's. The Sekihoutai had three units and Sagara Souzou was the captain of the first unit. The captain of the Sekihoutai's second unit was the former captain of the Shinsengumi's ninth unit, Suzuki Mikisaburo (Ito Kashitaro's younger brother.) The Sekihotai traveled the countryside spreading news about the upcoming change of regime. The Meiji government had made promises such as tax cuts that could not be kept, so they blamed it on the Sekihotai, calling them a 'false army.' While Sagara and members of the first unit were arrested and sentenced to death, Suzuki and the second unit continued to serve the Ishin Shishi. As for the members of third unit, many were executed due to their plundering behavior.

Tokugawa Shogunate (Top)

(1603–1868) This was the last and most powerful of the Japanese shogunates (1603–1868), established by Ieyasu Tokugawa at Edo (modern Tokyo). Tokugawa power was cemented through ruthless domination of daimyo (noble) lands and lifestyles. Western commercial contacts were developed, important poetry and the great ukiyo-e art were produced, and there was rapid educational advance. Nevertheless, a series of diplomatic reversals after 1853, in which Japan was unable through technological backwardness to resist Western demands for trading rights led to samurai-inspired civil war from 1865, and the restoration of imperial authority in 1868.  The Tokugawa bakufu (徳川幕府), or Edo bakufu (江戸幕府), was a feudal military dictatorship of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city of Edo, now Tokyo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo castle until the Meiji Restoration.  Following the Sengoku Period of "warring states", central government had been largely re-established by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Azuchi-Momoyama period. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu who completed this process and received the title of shogun in 1603. In order to become shogun, one traditionally was a descendant of the ancient Minamoto clan. The Tokugawa period, unlike the shogunates before it, was supposedly based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The warrior-caste of samurai was at the top, followed by farmers, artisans, and traders. The inflexible nature of the caste system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants, ranging from simple local disturbances to much bigger rebellions. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers. Toward the end of the 19th century, an alliance of several of the more powerful daimyo with the titular Emperor finally succeeded in the overthrow of the shogunate after the Boshin War, culminating in the Meiji Restoration. The Tokugawa Shogunate came to an official end in 1868, with the resignation of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu and the "restoration" (Ōssei fukko) of imperial rule.

Zanza (Top)

Sanosuke Sagara took this as a nickname due to his wielding of the zanbatō (斬馬刀, literally "horse-slaying sword" or "horse-chopping saber"). It is an especially large type of Japanese sword, the historical use of which is completely fictional. The sword closely resembles the nodachi or ōdachi, however it differs from the nodachi by having a ricasso of approximately 12" to 18" inches. This lends more to the theory of the sword having a practical use in feudal Japan. The increased length of the blade, along with the extra grip, would give it dual use both as a sword and as a spear-type weapon used for attacking advancing cavalry. This style of zanbatō sword can be found for sale in rural tourist shops and stands in Kyoto and Nara prefectures of Japan. This sword may have been inspired by the Chinese zhan ma dao (see below), as both were said to have been used for killing the horse and rider in one swing. It is likely that the zanbatō is actually a mis-construction of the zhǎn mǎ dāo, poorly drawn or translated by Japanese travellers who witnessed the weapon being used during battle.