 Kiyokawa Hachirō formed the Rōshigumi with funding from the Tokugawa bakufu in October 19, 1862.Originally, he claimed it was formed for protecting the Tokugawa "shōgun" in Kyoto and preparing for military action against Western countries.However, he lied to the regime; his goal was to gather people to work with the imperialists and not the shogunate government.