Historical Background
:Bakumatsu and Battousai:

Disclaimer: There's no way in Hell this could ever be a complete account. This page is meant as an overview of the actual events with info on the series' characters before the series. I will try to be as accurate and concise as possible, as God hates a negligent historian, but it's very difficult to study history of another land when few translations are available. That, and this is a Gentatsu-specific page, not a history page. I'll do my best.

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Rurouni Kenshin takes place in Japan in the late-ish 1800's, a period called the Meiji Era. It was named after the Emperor Meiji, who opened up the country to foreigners for the first time in centuries.

It wasn't that simple, however. When a young Meiji took the throne, he not only fought to open the country, but disbanded the traditional system of government, called a "shogunate" after the leader, the Shogun. Of course the Shogun fought against the Emperor, leading to a full-scale civil war.

There were many sides, as there often are, but the main groups were the Emperor's Ishin Shishi and the traditionalist Shinsen Gumi, which we see in Kenshin.

Himura Kenshin is a fictional character based on one of the real Hitokiris of the Ishin Shishi, Kawakami Genzai. The real man caused such a problem after the war that he was executed in 1871. Kenshin- the Hitokiri Battousai- disappeared at the end of the conflict, and resurfaced as a wanderer sworn not to kill- to make up for all those lives he took. His sword is reversed, with the edge on the wrong side of the blade, as a symbol of this vow. But the past of a killer is never far behind, and that's what the series is about.

Gentatsu
In the Kenshin movie, several new characters are introduced. They are members of the Aizu clan, who fought against the Emperor. Aizu was hard-hit by the war, due to their staunch position against the Emperor. The city itself was razed, and Aizu's elite group, the Byakkoutai, killed themselves when they saw the burning city and could do nothing. (This is the "tragedy of the Byakkoutai" that Kajiki refers to in the scene after Shigure's first flashback.)

The flashback takes place in 1866. The leaders of Choshu and Satsuma are negotiating (or trying to- the two clans hated each other, as evidenced by the difficulty Ryoma had in getting them to speak in Kenshin's flashback to the meeting). They are the core of the Ishin Shishi. The Aizu clan is planning to attack and eliminate the leaders of their enemies in a victory that will change the course of history, as they point out.

They failed. That meeting was guarded by the Battousai, who eliminated the attacking force and it's leader, another hitokiri by the name of Takatsuki Gentatsu. The Ishin Shishi would go on to win the war, raze Aizu, and form the Meiji government that we see in the series.

Timeline

Elise's Notes
Timing- While Meiji was declared Emperor in December, events of the revolution began long before that. The Ishin Shishi was a group of people dedicated to the abolishment of the class system, and had been working underground. The movie flashback would have taken place during the difficult initial stages of the Sacchou alliance negotiations, in perhaps spring or summer.