It's been many years that I've been a fan of the Shinsengumi, starting from the Rurouni Kenshin days with Saitou Hajime and eventually coming to love every single Captain, President, Vice-commander and Commander. Many things have changed with me but I still feel a certain affinity and love for the men of Kyoto and Mibu village. But time hasn't been kind to this website nor to it's webmaster. I'd like to say this website has aged gracefully but it likely did not. I am a hobbyist without a tech background and even my kosho has moved on in real life. The same with me though I still play as a spectator, checking in once in a while in Japanese websites, google news and yes I was happy that we actually now know what Saitou looks like. I always knew that would happen... And maybe that was really an indication to me it was an end to an era. There are still new stories to tell of the Shinsengumi, new games, movies, fanfic, novels and even recently a new anime "Bakumatsu" where the Shinsengumi plays a major role. Rurouni Kenshin is even getting it's Hokkaido arc so there are many things to rejoice and be happy about. That is what's great about the Shinsengumi, it ebbs and flows but there's always something. So it's bitter sweet in a way that I know the future of this website is at best murky. So where do we go from here?

The truth is nowhere even today. I will likely repurpose hajimenokizu.com as a cel gallery, yes still full of Shinsengumi but other things as well. It just seems more fitting as hajimenokizu has always been a personal handle (username) of mine. But what about all the work and memories of this website? The last update was more than 5 years ago but I do still cherish what's here, it may take another ten years for me to let this website go completely so I am relocating it to "Shinsengumi.Org", more as a memorial than anything else to an old era full of good memories. Thank you.