I have still some backlogs. I must make efforts to solve those problems.
i received a letter. It dealt with ikeda-ya Affair. I must study harder. I reflected.
>Hi.
>I saw your page, the Rurouni Kenshin and related page,
>and since you seem to know a lot about the historic
>part of it, maybe you can help me out with something.
>The first fight between Saitou and Battousai, the one
>that appears in the flashbacks when they are fighting
>at the Kamiya dojo. That fight was in the night of the
>Ikedaya thing, I mean, the killing of the Ishin Shishi
>guys in that house or the place it was, by the Shinsen
>Gumi was the Ikedaya affair.
>I don't know much about the Ikedaya affair, and I really
>want to know if that event is included in the anime.
>Hope you can help me with this and thanks.
04/06/1999 Tokyo, JAPAN
Dear Sir,
Thank you very much for your letter.
I am sorry but I would like to inform you of my terminal's crashing. My termial had been crashed since 03/03/1999. A standby set was given on 03/19/99. Thereafter A new machine was given on 03/26/99. I still set it up. While its crashing, an agent for my university, Sun Microsystems Japan Co. set up a strong firewall on our mail servers.
Therefore since then I cannot send my private mails. Moreover I cannot find messages to me frequently. Of course my collegues blame the firewall. However some crackers have invaded our mail servers via foreign telephone exchange company's servers. I cannot use telnet software.
I've just received your letter. I read it and thought...
First, in the end of Tokugawa Shogunate, Battousai Himura met Hajime Saitou several times. In the original cartoon (The Weekly Shounen Jump 11/24/97 issue), Nobuhiro Watsuki drew a scene that Battousai saw Saitou, Souji Okita, and their collegues parading in Kyoto city. The scene was drawn as the end of Ikeda-ya Affair.
I saw the pictures. But I did not think it was the result of a fight between Saitou and Battousai.
Second, Sony's anime does not include the scene of a fight between Battousai and Saitou in the end of Tokugawa Shogunate yet. Next anime of Kenshin is going to be released on 04/21/1999 in Japan.
Third, the ruin or the memorial monument of Ikeda-ya is still left in Kyoto. Ikeda-ya was a kind of inn including Japanese-style restaurant.
It is said that in the end of Tokugawa Shogunate it was rather large. But people in that time in Japan were 150 cm tall. Very small. The Ikeda-ya was small, in fact.
In 1864, Ishin Shishi (Royalist swordsmen, in English) met together in Inn Ikeda-ya in order to defeat the Tokugawa Shogunate. They invited Mr. Kogorou Katsura, their leader. Why? In fact, he left Ikeda-ya early in the evening. (Therefore or perhaps Battousai or Katsura's guard also left Ikeda-ya.... Then Battousai worked as Katsura's guard, his follower and an assassin.)
Most of royalist swordsmen still left Ikeda-ya to drink Japanese Sake (alcohol). They were drunk. In the midnight, Shinsen-gumi company happened to know the meeting had been held.
Thus several members of Shinsen-gumi rushed to Ikeda-ya. In fact, Ikeda-ya was small. Moreover a lot of drunk people slept in the small room. Shinsen-gumi easily killed them.
This was the Affair of Ikeda-ya.
After the affair, Shinsen-gumi knew royalist swordsmen planned to set fire to Kyoto city to defeat Tokugawa Shogunate there. Shinsen-gumi's action was much admired.
In Watsuki's original cartoon (The Weekly Shounen Jump 02/16/98), in the end of Tokugawa Shogunate, Kenshin fought against Saitou. But the result of the fight was not drawn by Watsuki.
This is all data on the fights between Mr. Kenshin Himura and Assistant Police Inspector Gorou Fujita.
In Japan, in the latest issue of The Weekly Shounen Jump, Kenshin and Sanosuke came back again. They decided to meet Ms Kaoru Kamiya. I also expect their next adventure!
Thank you very much for your time and cooperation. I would like to study harder.
Yours sincerely,
Dr.FangLang
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