Help with History of Kyoto

[countess_d]

I'd be very grateful if anyone could help me with this.
With a friend we are planning on opening up a PbEM/Forum (We still need to decide) RPG with a setting based on Feudal Japan. We decided to separate it by regions, as could be by islands/prefectures. We decided to start with Kyoto , because we already know part of it's history, mainly the Geisha districts name and main houses through history (Though if anyone wants to add to this, we will be happy too, anyhow... )
We want to be as acurate as possible with this, with as many facts straight as we can. We won't put every single detail of history, but we need to decide on a time period, and the most important Samurai names on the area for that time period will be put as a basic guide for players, and to serve under...

Now, we're having problem finding this info. So... culd someone point me to either a site with information on Kyoto Samurai, or give me the names of the most important Samurai through time so I can search by that in which I might have more chances to find things?
We would also need, if anyone knows/has/whatever, to be pointed to a map or site (or even both!) that explains the regions names inside Kyoto through time.
We know on the habits of the time and all, but if just in case, someone could point us out to that info (how they treated eachother, etc), that would be great also.
Crests of the families will also be very much needed... so if anyone could point us there too...

In brief, any information you can drop for me on all of the time periods of Kyoto, namechanges, leaders, etc... will be greatly appreciated.


Thank you for your patience with me

 

[Hiroshi66]

Hey! Good luck with your RPG!

Well, just a question - what time period are you targeting? Because there were many notable samurai, as you probably know, and it would depend what period you wanted.

 

[countess_d]

Thanks!

Thank you!

Well we still hadn't decided about the time period, we wanted to see most possible options first... but... I was aiming for either Edo/Late Edo or Meiji, Probably Edo would work fine, because -if I recall my history classes correctly- it had most notable samurai but on the other hand, an early Meiji, before the westernization must have had some notable samurai too left, am I right? And Meiji would give the chance to people to add Western characters on the plots. So those two time periods are the two I'm focusing on the most.
Please correct me if I'm wrong. My knowledge on Samurai and Shogunate is very limited, I'm really more familiarized with Geisha, Ochaya and Karyukai related issues.

 

[senseiman]

Forget late Edo, you should be setting it during the late Heian era (towards the end of the twelth century) when the two great samurai clans, the Heike and the Minamoto, usurped the power of the court nobility in Kyoto and fought a lengthy civil war for control of the country. That is the time when the most famous Samurai in Japanese history could be found on the streets of Kyoto. The exploits of these samurai are recorded in the military adventure stories of the time, notably the "Tale of the Heike", which has been translated into English. There weren't many notable Samurai on hand in Kyoto during the Edo era because 1) it was a time of extended peace so large numbers of samurai became bureacrats or merchants rather than practicing martial skills and 2) most of the remaining warriors would have lived either in the home provinces with their feudal masters or in Edo, where the Tokugawa government had its capital. Kyoto wasn't of much political importance at that time, though the Tokugawa shogunate did have a small group of retainers known as the Shinsengumi stationed in Kyoto at the time to stamp out any anti-shogun political activity. Their exploits are pretty famous.

The problem though with setting it before the Edo period though is that most of the famous arts like the tea ceremony hadn't really been developed yet. So that would change the entire aesthetic look of your game. So if its late-Edo your are set on, you'd do best to use the Shinsengumi and some of their imperial adversaries as a basis.

 

[Hiroshi66]

Yes, that's what I was going to say before I saw senseiman replied. There is a lot known about the Shinsengumi , or you can do the "golden age" of the samurai, which is the Heian period-Kamakura period . You decide.

 

[countess_d]

Mmmn, I guess I'll go with late Edo then, as I had first thought, I have a vague knowledge of Shinsengumi and know of a few sites I can get info from... Thank you both for your help so far. I really appreciate it
Could you perhaps tell me the names of some Shinsengumi adversaries? So as to get an idea, for when I search.

Thank you again for all the help ^_^

 

[Hiroshi66]

No problem!

Before I can tell you that - I need some information about what you know so far about this topic. DO you know much about the Shinsengumi or have you seen the popular J-drama? It'll kinda tell me where I need to start helping.

 

[countess_d]

Whoops

Sorry for the late reply. :sorry: I was kind of without computer there for a while.. anyhow, about the Shinsengumi , I've really seen few of the drama, and mostly seen the anime and read the manga for peace Maker Kurogane, so that's about it on my knowledge of it.
I know of the characters pictured there very basically, just because I googled the most important ones.

 

[Hiroshi66]

No problem!

Have you heard of Kondo? He was the leader of the Shinsengumi .

 

[countess_d]

I've heard of Kondo. I've also heard of Okita, Hijikata, and a couple more, which name escapes my thought now.
I'm having troubles though to find the names of opossing group and their leaders. Was it... *tries to remember* Choshu ... ?

 

[Hiroshi66]

Yup. It was the Satsuma and the Choshu. They were both from deep Kyushu - and supported the new Meiji regime until their initial leaders died out in the late 1800's and the early 1900's.

 

[countess_d]

I see, thank you very much for your help, Hiroshi! I think I'll be able to find whatever else I need by myself, but if not, I'll be sure to post over here again.

Once more, thank you!

 

[countess_d]

Ahh, okay, I'm having a bit of a problem again!

We've started the RP, and so far it's going fine. It's mostly only introductions, and we have some Shinsengumi and a Choshu already However, I'm having troubles finding information on the following, and any help would be appreciated:

- Satsuma
- Detailed description/map of Kyoto and it's district in that time
- General map of Japan with names of districts or prefectures on that time

Some of my players (and I count myself among them on certain aspects), are not very savvy on the geography then, if it was like it is now or when had the names changed... if any. So any help on that would be loved.

:genji: Also, some more info on the Shogunate of that era would be greatly appreciated. All of the links I've found visiting Shinsengumi pages were mostly dead, and the ones that worked mostly refered to different manga that had in some way modified things, and where therefore helpful only partially.

So... yeah. Thank you in advance

 

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

If you understand Japanese, I can introduce some homepages.
bakumatu(The late Tokugawa period)
http://www.eva.hi-ho.ne.jp/iwaemon/english.htm
http://www.eva.hi-ho.ne.jp/iwaemon/
http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/tenjikai/tenjikai95-2/
サービス終了のお知らせ
幕末Ｗｅｂ世に棲む日々
http://saimon.kt.fc2.com/
http://bosinwar.hp.infoseek.co.jp/

sinsengumi
http://www1.odn.ne.jp/makoto/
http://www.kyoto-web.com/shinsengumi/
http://www.rbsaika.com/shinsengumi/index005.html
http://www.rbsaika.com/shinsengumi/index004.html
http://www.digistyle-kyoto.com/kikaku/shinsengumi/shinsengumi_index.html

Kyoto Imperial Palace
http://sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/guide/kyoto.html
http://homepage2.nifty.com/cub/niwa/gosho.htm

kaientai
http://www1.cts.ne.jp/~fleet7/Museum/Muse020.html
http://www2.inforyoma.or.jp/~kaien/
http://www.nipponhyojun.co.jp/search/syakai/6_jinbutu/jd5/ryoma.html
http://homepage3.nifty.com/chomin/ryoma.htm#top
http://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/datas/89.html?c=0

choushu
http://db.gakken.co.jp/jiten/ta/310190.htm
http://bakumatu.727.net/satu-cho-tosa/choshu-top.htm
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/長州藩
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Bookend/9552/KIHEI.html
http://www.rbsaika.com/saccho/index007.html

satuma
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/薩摩藩
http://db.gakken.co.jp/jiten/sa/202430.htm
http://bakumatu.727.net/bakumatu/tuushi-b2-hisamitu.htm
http://www.page.sannet.ne.jp/ytsubu/zatsuwa.htm
http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~hakuga/rekisizinbutu/saigoutakamori.htm
http://www.nipponhyojun.co.jp/search/syakai/6_jinbutu/jd6/saigo.html
http://www.page.sannet.ne.jp/ytsubu/ryoumato.htm
http://db.gakken.co.jp/jiten/sa/200320.htm


maiko
http://www5.ocn.ne.jp/~buchi/grary.htm

Kyoto
http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/ogurasansou/photo/shirakawa.html
http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~kyoto/new.html

The homepage that helps translation
http://www.infoseek.co.jp/Honyaku?pg=honyaku_top.html
http://world.altavista.com/
http://eigo-navi.com/

 

[countess_d]

I understand.... very little. But, I'll manage to make my way there. Thank you very much!

 

[Hiroshi66]

Countess_d, if you haven't already, try to find and watch Shinsengumi with Eng subs. It will help you much more than you think.

 

[countess_d]

I'll try to find it. Thank you very much for all your help Hiroshi66.

 

[Hiroshi66]

No problem!

It should give you a good representation of live in Bakumatsu (the late Edo period) both socially, economically, and politically.

 

[TuskCracker]

.
The movie "The Sisters of the Gion" is famous for showing Kyoto in the 1930's.

"Sisters of the Gion" (Gion no shimai) (1936)