High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! He was born Okita S?jir? Fujiwara no Harumasa in 1842 or 1844 from a samurai family in the Shirakawa Domain's Edo mansion. His great-grandfather was Okita Kan'emon (? - 1819) and his grandfather was Okita Sanshiro (? - 1833.) His father, Okita Katsujiro, died in 1845; he had two older sisters, Okita Mitsu (1833-1907) and Okita Kin (1836-1908.) In 1846, in order to marry the adopted son of the Okita family, Okita Rintar? (1826-1883), his oldest sister Okita Mitsu became an adopted daughter of Kondo Shusuke in name. Kondo Shusuke was the third master of the Tennen Rishin Ryu and Okita started training at the Shieikan with him around the age of nine. By that time, Kondo Shusuke had already adopted Shimazaki Katsuta (the later Kondo Isami), but Hijikata Toshizo had not yet enrolled at the Tennen Rishin-ryu school. Okita proved to be a prodigy; he mastered all the techniques and attained the Menkyo Kaiden scroll (license of total transmission) in the ryu at the age of eighteen or so.