In January 2026, I was extremely fortunate to receive a travel grant from the Graduate Art History Department toward a trip to Japan so that I could research the topic of my upcoming qualifying paper: the triangle-patterned haori uniform of the Shinsengumi.

The Shinsengumi were a pro-shogunate police force in 1860s Kyoto who were ultimately on the losing side of the brief civil war that led up to the Meiji Restoration, but who have had an immense impact on Japanese pop culture throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries. One of the images continually associated with the Shinsengumi is their uniform: a haori coat, often blue, with a yamagata (mountain-shaped) pattern on the sleeves. This uniform appears in a multitude of media depicting them, including films, manga, anime, TV dramas, video games, merchandise, and more.

So, during my trip, I kept a keen eye out for where this uniform appeared and how it was used. The place it appeared the most was in Kyoto, where the Shinsengumi are an important aspect of heritage tourism. Most souvenir shops had figures wearing the uniform – stuffed animals, magnets, keychains, etc. – and one municipal poster near Mibudera (where the Shinsengumi were headquartered for a time) depicted a cartoon police officer wearing the yamagata haori. But this was not limited to Kyoto: plenty of souvenir shops in Tokyo also featured Shinsengumi merchandise, such as hand towels and miniature swords.

In addition to searching out places where the uniform was used for tourism purposes, I was also able to visit some specialized museums and speak to the curators about the Shinsengumi’s yamagata haori, including the Ryozen Museum of History in Kyoto and the Shinsengumi Hometown History Museum in Hino. I also visited the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum at Waseda University and the library of the National Film Archive of Japan; in both places, the librarians were very helpful in tracking down various images that I could not otherwise have accessed.

Overall, the trip was fruitful and educational, and I’m grateful that I had the opportunity. As my first research trip, I learned a lot – not only about the Shinsengumi haori, but also about how to track down information in places outside the comfort of the internet and my own library!