Nagakura Shinpachi (永倉 新八, May 23, 1839 – January 5, 1915) was the captain of the 2nd troop of the Shinsengumi, He was later known as Sugimura Yoshie (杉村 義衛) during the Meiji era.
Nagakura Shinpachi Noriyuki, known as Eikichi or Eiji during his childhood, was born in the Matsumae clan's "kami-yashiki" (upper residence) in Edo on the 11th day of the fourth month of Tenpō 10 (May 23, 1839).
At eight, Nagakura entered Okada Juusuke Toshisada's Shindō Munen-ryū dojo; at age eighteen he reached mokuroku (6th dan), and received the menkyo kaiden certification.
Nagakura also spent time at Tsubouchi Shume's Shingyoto Ryu dojo, where he met Shimada Kai, the future vice-captain of the Shinsengumi 2nd unit.
While most of the Rōshigumi returned to Edo, Nagakura, Kondō, Hijikata Toshizō, Serizawa Kamo were among nineteen Roshigumi members stayed behind in Kyoto.
A month later on August 20, 1864, he was also involved in the Kinmon incident along with Kondō, Okita and several others to suppress the Chōshū rebellion at the Hamaguri Gate of the Imperial Palace.
Nagakura had a daughter Iso (磯) with a geisha from Shimabara Kameya in Kyoto known only by her stage name as Kotsune (小常), who died after her birth in December 1867.
On January 27, 1868, in the Battle of Toba–Fushimi in Kyoto, Nagakura shown his courage by leading the members of a suicide squad Kesshitai (決死隊) and charging with a sword towards the bullet-firing Imperial Army.
Right after the Battle of Kōshū-Katsunuma in April 1868, Nagukura and Harada Sanosuke left the Kōyō Chinbutai (the renamed Shinsengumi) after disagreements with long-time comrades Kondo and Hijikata.
[2] Nagakura and Harada, taking with them some other members, joined with a group of former Tokugawa retainers with Haga Gidou being one of them to form a new unit, the Seiheitai.
While in Edo, he had to hide for a while because he had fought against the Imperial forces and would turn himself in to the senior councilor Shimokuni Toshichiro of the Matsumae clan and served as an infantry instructor and was stipended at his father's original rate of 150 koku.
However, he would often run into Suzuki Mikisaburō, the younger brother of deceased Itō Kashitarō and one of the four Shinsengumi defectors who narrowly escaped from the assassination attempt during the Aburanokōji incident back then in December 1867.
In 1900 (Meiji 33), Sugimura was on his way to attend the funeral of his former Shinsengumi comrade Shimada Kai in Kyoto, he was reunited with his daughter Isoko there, who had become a well-known geisha actress of the Kansai region under the stage name Ogami Kogame (尾上 小亀).