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I'm trying to read this manga (風光る) for practice and I came across this short
sentence

> 今、沖田や藤堂に立合わせています。 (see image below)

In the English fan translation it is translated incorrectly to

> Now they're getting presented to Okita and Toudou.

I think they confused 立ち合う with 立ち会う. Even if it was 立ち会う (to be present, to
be witness to), it wouldn't make any sense (to me at least) to translate it
like this. So that translation isn't very useful.

Anyway, the part with the に particle is what I'm confused about. The speaker
(Hijikata) is either letting or making someone face off in a match (which we
see after two pages), but I don't know if that someone is the new recruits or
Toudou and Okita (and others). Is the に particle marking the person that
someone is facing off against or is it marking the person who is actively
facing off against someone else (the doer) here? I guess it's not really
crucial to get the gist of the sentence, but I would still like to make sure
what the exact meaning is.

I think it's probably the former, so something like:

> Now I'm letting (the new recruits) face off against Toudou and Okita (and
> others).

The other option is:

> Now I'm letting Toudou and Okita (and others) face off against (the new
> recruits).

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wbjDU.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wbjDU.jpg)
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question
particle-に causation
Question about exact meaning of causative sentence
In this case, "someone" is the four recruits. "Now I'm letting the new
recruits face off against Toudou and Okita" is the correct interpretation.

立ち合う is an _intransitive_ verb that does not take を when in plain active
voice. 彼に立ち合う (or 彼と立ち合う) means "to face off against him" or "to play a game
with him", but we do not say 彼を立ち合う whatsoever.

This means, when you build a causative sentence from this verb, the "causee"
will be marked with を, just like you say 息子を学校に行かせる and such. In other words,
沖田や藤堂 cannot be the "causee". The sentence in question is actually "今
**彼ら4人を** 沖田や藤堂に立ち合わせています", but 彼ら4人を was omitted because it was mentioned
right before this sentence.

沖田や藤堂 **を** 立ち合わせています would have meant "I'm letting Toudou and Okita face off
against the new recruits".

See: [Causative Form - Difference between 子供に本を読ませる and
子供を本を読ませる](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/33510/5010)
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answer