Okita Sōji

was the captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi, a special police force in Kyoto during the late shogunate period. He was one of the best swordsmen of the Shinsengumi.
Background.
He was born in 1842 or 1844 from a samurai family in the Shirakawa Domain's Edo mansion. His great-grandfather was Okita Kan'emon (d. 1819) and his grandfather was Okita Sanshiro (d. 1833.) His father, Okita Katsujiro, died in 1845; he had two older sisters, Okita Mitsu (1833–1907) and Okita Kin (1836–1908). In 1846, in order to marry the adopted son of the Okita family, Okita Rintarō (1826–1883), his oldest sister Okita Mitsu became an adopted daughter of Kondo Shusuke in name. Kondo Shusuke was the third master of the "Tennen Rishin-ryū" and Okita started training at the "Shieikan" with him around the age of nine. By that time, Kondo Shusuke had already adopted Shimazaki Katsuta (the later Kondō Isami), but Hijikata Toshizō had not yet enrolled at the Tennen Rishin-ryū school. Okita proved to be a prodigy; he mastered all the techniques and attained the "Menkyo Kaiden" scroll ("license of total transmission") in the "ryū" at the age of eighteen or so.
In 1861, Okita became Head Coach ("Jukutou") at the Shieikan. Even though he was often commented to be honest, polite, and good-natured by those around him, he was also known to be a strict and quick-tempered teacher to his students.
Shinsengumi period.
Okita changed his name to Okita Sōji Fujiwara no Kaneyoshi some time before his departure with the Rōshigumi to Kyoto on March 26, 1863. However, the Rōshigumi was disbanded upon their arrival there on April 10, 1863, while the rest returned to Edo. Okita and several other founding members remained behind in Mibu to form the Mibu Rōshigumi, which would later be renamed as the Shinsengumi on August 18, 1863. Okita was the second youngest among the Shieikan members, most likely with Tōdō Heisuke being the youngest. His brother-in-law Okita Rintarō, also a practitioner of the Tennen Rishin-ryū, became a commander of the "Shinchōgumi" (the Shinsengumi's brother league in Edo.)
Okita Sōji soon became a "Fukuchō Jokin" (vice-commander's assistant) of the Shinsengumi. He was one of the members involved in the Serizawa Kamo (one of the original commanders of the Shinsengumi) and the Uchiyama Hikojiro assassinations in 1863.
Mediocre with the shinai, a master of the bokken/bokutou and bo staff, a fascinating trendsetter of the katana, his signature technique was named the "Hyakkidou-ri" (which roughly translates as "no light blade" or "unenlightened blade") or "Sandanzuki" (which translates as "Three Piece Thrust"), a technique that could attack one's neck, left shoulder, and right shoulder with one strike. (The Mumyo-ken supposedly could hit all three points simultaneously, but this is an embellishment.) The Mumyo-ken was his own invention and may have been derived from an invention of Hijikata's, the Hirazuki.
It is a popular conception by the public that his tuberculosis was first discovered when he fainted during the Ikedaya incident, mostly due to the depiction appearing in a famous work chronicling the Shinsengumi as well as a number of period dramas based upon it. Some sources on the other hand say that he contracted the disease after that. Both theories are fairly reasonable, as tuberculosis can kill quickly (in weeks), or very slowly (many years). However, one should note that people rarely survived the disease longer than a year once it progressed to the point that they would collapse, and Okita did not die until four years after the affair. Some researchers now believe he instead collapsed due to some other ailment, such as anemia or heat stroke. While many of Shinsengumi fans believe that Yoshida Toshimaro was killed by Okita during the Ikedaya Affair (based on Shimosawa Kan and Shiba Ryōtarō's fiction), it is a historical inaccuracy.
Based on Shiba Ryoutarou's fiction, many also believe that Okita and Hijikata were like brothers. In history, Yamanami Keisuke was the vice-commander Okita shared a brotherly relationship with. Yamanami's "seppuku" (with Okita as his second) in 1865 was an extremely painful incident in Okita's short life. There is no record showing that Hijikata and Okita were close; it is debatable whether Okita even got along with Hijikata.
In 1865, Okita became the captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi and also served as a kenjutsu instructor; later that year, he was appointed by Kondo Isami to be the fifth master of the Tennen Rishin-ryu after him.
Although highly unlikely, it was rumored that he wielded a famous katana called "Kiku-ichimonji". However, he surely owned a set of "Kaga Kiyomitsu" (a katana and a wakizashi) and his so-called "Kikuichimonji Norimune" was likely a "Yamashiro Kunikiyo" instead.
Death.
During the Boshin War, after the Battle of Toba–Fushimi in the first month of the year Keiō-4, Okita went into Matsumoto Ryōjun's hospital in Edo. He then moved to a guesthouse with Okita Rintarou, Okita Mitsu, and their children. When the shogunate forces (including the Shinsengumi and the Shinchōgumi) retreated to the Tōhoku region, Okita remained in Edo alone. He died from tuberculosis on July 19 (the 30th day of the fifth month, by the lunar calendar), 1868. Later that night, he was buried at Senshō-ji Temple in Azabu, Edo, under his birth name (with Okita Sōji listed in the death records.) The claim that Okita died when he was 25 is based on the theory that he was born in 1844 and therefore was 25 by East Asian age reckoning when he died in 1868.
The Senshō-ji Temple cemetery had been open to the public for years until the release of NHK's Taiga drama, "Shinsengumi!" in 2004. Due to the newfound interest in the Shinsengumi and Okita thanks to the drama itself, many visitors flocked to the temple to see his grave, resulting in the temple's cemetery to become restricted to the public, except for one day each year in June.
Name.
"Okita" (沖田) was his family name; "Sōji" (総司) was his given name; "Fujiwara" (藤原) was his family clan (the surname of his ancestors); "Kaneyoshi" (房良) was his , a formal given name (like a middle name for gentlemen equivalent). It is unclear whether Okita changed his name to "Okita Sōji Fujiwara no Kaneyoshi" in 1863 or in 1862 (or less likely, in 1861.) There is a theory that he changed his name to Sōji because some people around him called him "Sō-Ji" (short for Sōjirō.) Other than his full name, he could be referred as "Okita Sōji" or "Okita Sōji Kaneyoshi". In writing, he was sometimes referred as "Fujiwara no Kaneyoshi" (formal name used in writing) or "Okita Kaneyoshi" (like the "initials" for his full name.)
In popular culture.
Like the other members of the Shinsengumi, fictionalized accounts of Okita's life and actions appear in novels, period dramas and anime/manga series. Although his given name is sometimes pronounced as "Soushi" in the fictional world, it is actually "Sōji".