The Kinmon Incident (禁門の変, Kinmon no hen), also known as the Kinmon Rebellion, was a battle between three thousand of the Chōshū Ishin Shishi and twenty thousand bakufu troops from Satsuma and Aizu in front of the Imperial Palace at Kyoto on the 16th day of the 6th month of the first year of Genji (July 19, 1864). The march to battle was sparked by the Ikeda-ya Incident eleven days earlier, where the Shinsengumi discovered and massacred several influential Ishin-Shishi leaders who were plotting secretly to burn the city and use the confusion to retrieve the emperor. The Chōshū extremists left behind raised their swords in fury after the incident, but were badly beaten, sustaining roughly four hundred casualties versus only sixty casualties on the bakufu side. During their flight from the battlefield, the Chōshū troops set fire to the 28,000 homes to cover their escape, destroying a large portion of the city.
Rurouni Kenshin[]
In Act 170, it is stated that Himura Kenshin and his comrades took part in the battle, but it is presumed that he was not involved with the setting of fires.