Harada Sanosuke (原田 左之助, 1840 – July 6, 1868) was a Japanese warrior (samurai) who lived in the late Edo period.
[2] Harada, wishing to prove the man wrong, immediately drew his sword and attempted to commit seppuku; however, the wound was shallow, and he survived.
[2] Harada later boasted of his scar to his fellow Shinsengumi men, and the incident of his near-disembowelment is said to be the origin of the family crest he chose, which depicted a horizontal line, the kanji for one, within a circle (maru ni ichimonji (丸に一文字)).
In Kyoto, Harada married a local woman named Sugawara Masa (菅原まさ), and briefly had a private family residence near the Shinsengumi headquarters at Nishi-Honganji.
[4] At one time he was accused (by former Shinsengumi member Itō Kashitarō) as one of the assassins of the Sakamoto Ryōma and Nakaoka Shintarō who were murdered on December 10, 1867.
[5] The truth behind the incident remains unclear, but according to the confession of the Tokugawa retainer Imai Nobuo later in 1870, the assassins were men of the Mimawarigumi (another Tokugawa-affiliated unit) under the hatamoto Sasaki Tadasaburō.
[6] Later on December 13, 1867, he, Nagakura Shinpachi and several Shinsengumi members were involved in the ambush of Itō Kashitarō's Goryō Eji Kōdai-ji faction during the Aburanokōji incident.
In March, the Shinsengumi was renamed to Kōyō Chinbutai (甲陽鎮撫隊, Pacification Corps) and advanced on Kai Province, and fought at the Battle of Kōshū-Katsunuma, however, the unit was defeated and forced to retreat back to Edo.
[13] Harada Sanosuke appears as a major character in the otome game and anime series Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan.