 At 170 cm (5'7"), she was tall for a Japanese woman at that time, so that she was taken for a man when she reported to the Shogunate officers in Kyoto.She took part in the "Kyoto defenders" group led by Kyokawa Hachirō.Although the Rōshigumi was funded by the Tokugawa Bakufu, the leader Kyokawa Hachirō and others had strong loyalties to the emperor and planned to gather other "rōnin" in Kyoto to combat insurgents in the city.