Mazume Ryutaro (馬詰柳太郎)
Ryutaro MAZUME (1844 - ?) was a Shinsengumi member, who was said to have come from Chugoku region. He was one of binan goninshu (five men of beauty).
He joined Shinsengumi together with his father, Shintaro MAZUME on or before October 1863.
On October 30 (or 28) in the same year, when members of Shinsengumi went to Yoshiwara for pleasure, he stayed at the place where Shinsengumi quartered. It was a day when Kamo SERIZAWA was assassinated.
He was handsome and ladies' man but so timid that he could not go out for a drink with other members. Instead, he was on good terms with a baby-sitter (a dark-skinned, short-statured and curly-headed ugly woman) hired by Kamejiro NANBU, who was a goshi (country samurai) of Mibu village. As her belly began to swell, other members made fun of him by making the following poem.
Who made the belly bigger of baby-sitter of NANBU ?
Just ask, just ask to the sun of MAZUME
The father and the son of MAZUME family began to feel out of place and got loose from Shinsengumi at one of these nights.
It is said that the father, Shintaro, 45 or 46 years old, was an excellent calligrapher known under the name of Ryugensai, but he did not even know how to wear a sword at all, which often made him run errands for other members.