Though he was a royalist who was worried about the future of Japan, he was sometimes connected with Kaishu KATSU, who worked for the bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun), and also had a strange friendship with Isami KONDO of Shinsengumi (a group who guarded Kyoto during the end of Tokugawa Shogunate).
日本の未来を思う討幕派の志士ではあるが、幕府側である勝海舟と繋がったり、新選組の近藤勇とも奇妙な交友関係をもつ。