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Description
A "historical" portrait of Hijikata Toshizo , the vice-commander of Shinsengumi *.

All the Shinsengumi were good swordsmen, but Hijikata Toshizo was an exceptional one. The guy also had an extremely strong and influential personality, and made a great military leader. He was nicknamed by his own troops "Demon(Oni) vice-commander" (and that's what the kanji on the panel are)...... Which in translation to the modern language means "a total control freak with a katana"

Shinsengumi have this romantic aura of the true last samurai, so no wonder that this theme emerges quite often in the Japanese pop culture: video games, movies, and anime. However, I wanted to portrait the historical personality rather then purple-eyed anime bishonen Toshizo (even though I adore this Hakuouki version)
For the references I used the only two existing photographs (made in 1860s) of the vice-commander, as well as the photo of the statue of him. It looks like I made him a bit older than he really ever was, though (he was killed when he was 34) - guess I was influenced by a movie where he was portrayed by Beat Takeshi .
The background based on recognizable landmarks of Kyoto, where the Shinsengumi were initially located.
Under the "atmospherical" impression after the visit to the Toei studio in Kyoto where a lot of Shinsengumi movies were shot, I tried to make my picture to look like an old samurai movie poster... Yeah, so much for staying away from the popular culture's influence

Description
A "historical" portrait of Hijikata Toshizo , the vice-commander of Shinsengumi *.

All the Shinsengumi were good swordsmen, but Hijikata Toshizo was an exceptional one. The guy also had an extremely strong and influential personality, and made a great military leader. He was nicknamed by his own troops "Demon(Oni) vice-commander" (and that's what the kanji on the panel are)...... Which in translation to the modern language means "a total control freak with a katana"

Shinsengumi have this romantic aura of the true last samurai, so no wonder that this theme emerges quite often in the Japanese pop culture: video games, movies, and anime. However, I wanted to portrait the historical personality rather then purple-eyed anime bishonen Toshizo (even though I adore this Hakuouki version)
For the references I used the only two existing photographs (made in 1860s) of the vice-commander, as well as the photo of the statue of him. It looks like I made him a bit older than he really ever was, though (he was killed when he was 34) - guess I was influenced by a movie where he was portrayed by Beat Takeshi .
The background based on recognizable landmarks of Kyoto, where the Shinsengumi were initially located.
Under the "atmospherical" impression after the visit to the Toei studio in Kyoto where a lot of Shinsengumi movies were shot, I tried to make my picture to look like an old samurai movie poster... Yeah, so much for staying away from the popular culture's influence