Members of the Kyoto Shinsengumi Fans' Group stand tall at one of their formal meetings.

`There is something about their naive integrity and total commitment to the cause that stirs the soul.' KOJI YOSHIKAWA NHK producer

`If he were here in the flesh, I'd rush to the marriage registry office this very moment. I've got to marry him,'' gushed Hiroko Sato, a 17-year-old Tokyo high school girl.

Unfortunately, Sato's fantasy Mr. Right can only to be found in history books. He is Toshizo Hijikata, deputy leader of Shinsengumi, a small, elite group of young swordsmen who vainly resisted the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

Hijikata was born in 1835 in the present-day Hino, a suburb of Tokyo. The sixth and youngest child of a wealthy farmer, Hijikata was 29 years old when he co-founded Shinsengumi with Isami Kondo (1834-1868). Under Kondo's command, the group would serve the Tokugawa shogunate as a special police unit to crack down on imperial loyalist activities in Kyoto.

Starting this month, Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) will run a yearlong TV saga about Shinsengumi. Cast in Hijikata's role is Koji Yamamoto, a young rising star.

``The turbulent era that forms the backdrop of this drama produced such legendary movers and shakers of modern Japan as Ryoma Sakamoto and Kogoro Katsura,'' noted Koji Yoshikawa, the show's senior producer. ``But none stuck to their principles as stubbornly as those young men of Shinsengumi. They knew they were fighting a losing battle, and yet they would remain loyal to the government to the bitter end. There is something about their naive integrity and total commitment to the cause that stirs the soul.''

And many believe Hijikata was the ultimate embodiment of that Shinsengumi spirit.

Miku Imagawa, a 39-year-old freelance editor, has written a book ``Hijikata Toshizo, Fukucho Toshi-san Kaku Egakareki'' (A portrayal of Toshizo Hijikata, aka Toshi-san the second-in-command).

Imagawa has been a confirmed Hijikata groupie since she was in middle school. ``He is every woman's ultimate fantasy male,'' she declared. ``A real hunk. Single. He could have any woman he wanted but there's not the slightest hint of any romantic involvement with anyone. A fiend for self-discipline, he literally fights to the death for the cause. And he dies young and unblemished in any way. You just don't find a man like that today. Never.''

Most men, on the other hand, are attracted to Hijikata for his image as a powerful, stern leader. There are numerous Hijikata fan clubs of all kinds and sizes around the nation, but Kyoto Shinsengumi Fans' Group is perhaps the most famous for its hard-core, guys-only character.

Created in 1976, it is currently made up of 24 ``squad members,'' whose average age is 50. The group is run as sternly as any organization could ever be, as that is exactly what attracts people to it.

To enlist, every candidate is required to submit an 800-character essay explaining his motive for enlistment. An interview then follows, but even if the candidate is accepted into the brotherhood, he remains an ``apprentice'' for a full year.

The group meets four or five times a year. The dress code for the occasion is right out of a period costume play-the traditional haori coat and hakama skirt-trousers, headband, takageta wooden clogs and a ceremonial sword and dagger. Members with poor attendance records face expulsion.

Iwao Nara, 56, is the group's current deputy leader and public relations officer. ``People today are obsessed with becoming `winners' in society,'' he lamented. ``The men of Shinsengumi committed their lives to a cause they knew was never going to be a winner. It was Hijikata who defined the soul of the group by giving it a set of iron rules. This made him an object of hate and fear in Kyoto as a `fiend' of a disciplinarian. But I believe his life was the ultimate example of how men should live.''

When not promoting his group, Nara is a tenured professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design. For all his macho talk, he had the gentlest eyes whenever he smiled. And Hijikata, also, is said to have been an endearing mix of harshness and gentleness.

As a youth, Hijikata was a typical spoiled brat who was nice to his kin and friends but a bully and holy terror to strangers. Had he not gone to Kyoto in 1863, where he would undergo a drastic personality transformation, he might well have ended a mean, pampered punk.

In 1864, a 21-year-old swordsman from the pro-government Aizu clan in northeastern Japan was forced to commit ritual suicide as a political scapegoat. Hijikata attended the man's funeral and wept uncontrollably in public.

``The incident must have jolted Hijikata awake to the painful understanding of how ruthlessly any organization must be run and how one must live up to the Bushido code of honor,'' noted historian Akira Kikuchi.

In April of that year, Shinsengumi recruited members in Edo and the following swelled to about 140 men. The membership included farmers and merchants, which convinced Hijikata the group would disintegrate unless the existing rules were reinforced.

He then drew up a most stringent set of rules for Shinsengumi to follow and this established his reputation as a relentless disciplinarian.

Hijikata was a bold pragmatist as well. Eating meat had yet to become a common custom then, but when he heard from a physician of the nutritional value of pork and chickens, he instructed his men to raise pigs and chicken for food.

In April 1868, Kondo, the Shinsengumi commander, was beheaded after surrendering himself to the imperial loyalist army of the Choshu and Satsuma clans. ``Kondo's execution freed Hijikata from any further involvement with Shinsengumi,'' explained historian Kikuchi. ``But at the same time, Hijikata became consumed with guilt for having forsaken Kondo.''

The burden of guilt made Hijikata seek atonement with his own life. On his way to what would become the final battle between the shogunate forces and the Meiji imperialist forces in 1869, Hijikata told a physician in Sendai in present-day Miyagi Prefecture, ``I am not going to battle to win. With the Tokugawa government about to collapse, it would be a disgrace if no one is willing to go down with it. That is why I must go. I will fight the best battle of my life to die for the country.''

Hijikata was on the horseback on May 11, 1869, when he was mortally wounded by a bullet that shattered his lower back. He was 35. Nothing is known of where his remains were buried.(IHT/Asahi: January 10,2004) (01/10)