Ikedaya Incident Sword-scarred Giboshi

The bridge railing here features a copper giboshi ornament marked by deep, jagged gashes. These scars date to the night of July eighth, eighteen sixty-four, when the Shinsengumi—a pro-shogunate police force—raided the Ikedaya Inn nearby to capture anti-government samurai. During the chaotic skirmish that spilled onto the streets, soldiers struck this railing with their steel blades. The physical indentations remain in the metal, preserved as a permanent record of the violence that unfolded in this district over one hundred sixty years ago.