The following article was prepared with the kind assistance of Brian Workman of the USA.

Military alliance of the Oou Clans

The Oou clans formed a military alliance headed by the Sendai clan. Moreover, the Echigo (present Niigata Prefecture) clans joined them bringing the total number of clans to 34.

The object of their alliance was to raise an army around the cause of loyalty to the Emperor. Their intention was to clear the imperial court of corrupt elements and to restore order by suppressing rebellions throughout the nation. However, when the western army (the main body of the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance) invaded in large forces under the imperial standard, the member clans quickly surrendered to the western army one after the other leaving only the Aizu clan.

Western army invades the capital town of Wakamatsu Castle

The storm attack of the western army against the Wakamatsu Castle left the Aizu army inside in a very desperate state. They had just managed to entrench themselves in the castle having had no time to carry provisions and ammunition in from the outside.

The western army took advantage of the momentum gained from successive defeat of the 34 Oou clans to invade Aizu. The villages and towns of Aizu were occupied and filled with the soldiers of the western army.

The invading army surrounding the Wakamatsu Castle numbered 20,000 soldiers with over one hundred cannons against only 3,000 Aizu soldiers. Heavy fighting began raging throughout the castle town starting on August 23, 1868. The Aizu defended themselves desperately even advancing to inflict defeats on the enemy. The battle at Suwaguchi was particularly violent. The soldiers of the Choshu, Hikone and Bizen clans fired cannonball volleys from the mound at the entrance of Yutsuji Temple. The Aizu soldiers built a mound at Suwaguchi to fight to the end. Also, other strong Aizu forces sallied forth from the castle to fight. Although they repeatedly engaged in desperate struggles to maintain their position, an attack from the flank by Choshu soldiers of the western army defeated the besieged Aizu army.

Western army bombards the inside of the castle

Inside the castle, the Aizu army had cannons positioned at the rear gate and the final outworks of the castle to fight against the western army. However, they were short of projectiles and were thus locked in a desperate fight. Starting at eight o’clock in the morning on September 14, the surrounding western army fired salvos from over one hundred cannons from artillery positions on Mt. Oda which overlooked the inside of the castle and from a position at the Tenneiji Temple in the [nearby] mountain equipped with more than ten cannons. Their volleys lasted for seven days and seven nights during which time the sky became darkened with gunpowder smoke; the sun and moon lost their light. Hails of bullets pounded the ground. The fierce attack of the western army that changed the appearance of the mountains and rivers left the castle without provisions as of September 25. The Aizu soldiers killed their horses eating their meat and even ate boiled leather. The only source of food they had was mud snails that had been raised in the castle ponds for many years but this was barely enough to keep them on a subsistence level.

During this attack, the western army shot several hundred cannonballs a day inside the castle. The Aizu army had been entrenched in the castle for some twenty days. The bodies of the dead were cast in the empty wells and covered with garments since there was no ground available inside the castle to bury them. By this time all of the wells had been filled with corpses symbolizing their defeat. Still the Aizu soldiers refused to yield. They left the castle to prepare for the enemy’s assault and unhesitatingly attacked the enemy’s position while fighting furiously.

Kampei Sagawa’s heroic fight

General Kampei Sagawa fought at Echigoguchi and General Okura Yamakawa fought at Shirakawaguchi. After defeating Aizu troops at Shirakawaguchi, the western army seized the Nihonmatsu Castle. Then on August 21 they broke through the besieged Aizu army at the strategic position of Ishimushiro. The next day the Inawashiro Castle surrendered. The western army continued forward and destroyed the Aizu stronghold at Jurokkyo Bridge [the only road to the castle town]. It then invaded the capital town of Wakamatsu Castle like surging waves. Both Sagawa and Yamakawa were closed in by the enemy from the front and rear and were stranded in a deadlock. The resourceful General Yamakawa made his way into the castle by staging a merry parade with dance and music. He chose the song “shishimai”, the lion dance, which is peculiar to the Aizu district thus fooling the enemy by disguising his artillery while at the same time letting his ally inside the castle know he was on their side (see AN#75).

Kampei Sagawa was a stouthearted and fearless general. He gathered together his soldiers and encouraged them with the following words: “Death is death whether we stay here waiting for it or advance and fight to the end. I wish to advance and fall in battle but not to retreat and escape from death. If you wish to exert yourselves and be loyal to your sovereign, follow me!” The soldiers gathered up the courage to attack the western army to cut their way through the enemy’s ranks to reach the castle. However, the Wakamatsu Castle was heavily surrounded by the enemy. They ran out of provisions and there was no hope of any assistance. Facing such a serious situation where the small castle was fighting against a huge army, Sagawa consulted with the other generals in the castle and came up with the same idea to launch a pincer attack from the south against the western army. Not only the other generals but also Lord Katamori gave their consent to this plan. Sagawa was awarded a Masamune sword by his master. They left the castle in high spirits to attack the enemy from the rear. At Takada a severe battle ensued and the Aizu struck terror into the western army. The soldiers surviving the battle were gathered together and attacked Ohashi Village defeating the Takato soldiers. They then attacked Kibuse Village and defeated the Iiyama soldiers. Finally, they attacked Koya Village and defeated the Kaga soldiers.

The Aizu troops thus achieved brilliant victories in several locations and the tide of war looked favorable to them. While the soldiers outside the castle were in high spirits, however, inside the castle the decision to surrender had already been made. A letter of surrender from Lord Katamori had been sent to Shiokawa where the western army was encamped. After the Aizu War, these two generals were known as the “resourceful General Yamakawa” and the “lion-hearted General Sagawa”.

Volunteer corps including Kain Amano

At the beginning of the Aizu War, large numbers of soldiers visiting from various districts gathered in Wakamatsu. They were in high spirits until they heard the news that the western army had penetrated the border of Aizu territory. The majority of these soldiers disbursed in all directions without even fighting or announcing their departure. However, a little more than 400 soldiers stayed with the Aizu army including Kain Amano to defend the insular castle and fight till the end. When the Aizu decided to surrender, they bid farewell and left in tears.

Aizu women assist Edo fire brigade

There was a group of Edo [later Tokyo] firemen inside the castle. They had followed Lord Katamori out of Edo out of admiration despite his efforts to stop them. They had remained in the castle since then. When the enemy fired barrages of hundreds of cannonballs which continued throughout the day and night of September 14, these firemen worked to their utmost to prevent fire by directing the women and children inside the castle. The women at first prepared pails of water to extinguish the flames when they heard the enemy volleys. But as they became accustomed to doing this, the women started swooping like birds onto the enemy shells before they exploded as soon as they saw them fall. They wrapped the unexploded shells in wet clothing and cast them back at the enemy.

The fact that even the women fought so courageously reveals the long-established martial spirit of Aizu warriors.

Yonezawa clan advise the Aizu to surrender

Taisuke Itagaki, a member of the general staff of the western army, sent a letter containing a proposal of surrender to the Yonezawa clan that dictated terms of sovereignty and subjugation. The communication also stated that their intention was to fight at the front if the Yonezawa did not come to an agreement. Thus the Yonezawa clan surrendered on September 4^th.

The clan then sent Shinzo Matsumoto and a certain Kawada to the Aizu clan to advise them to surrender. The Aizu soldiers, however, responded: “The western army has killed harmless ordinary citizens, raped women and hung them naked upside down around the castle, raided the peoples’ houses stealing property and then burned them. They are not the army of the government but an army of scoundrels. We are the true royalist army. We will fight to remove these villains who fight against the emperor until the nation is at peace.” Since the Aizu troops refused to surrender, the Yonezawa clan reluctantly advanced their army to the Aizu border.

For the second time, the Yonezawa clan tried to persuade the Aizu to surrender, this time by saying: “Yoshiaki Shinno [member of the imperial family], the commander-in-chief of the western army, is now staying at the Aizu Toji Temple. You are not to revolt against the imperial army but to surrender immediately.”

Lord Katamori then announced his decision: “We will continue to fight to the utmost of our ability against the western army. However, I have no intention to defy the imperial standard of Yoshiaki Shinno. I will beg for pardon.” On September 19, Lord Katamori convinced his retainers to comply by saying: “Through your loyalty to me, you have fought bloody battles, fathers and sons have been sacrificed, bones have piled up on the ground, and a river of blood has been spilled. I cannot bear to see these things happen any longer. Moreover, Yoshiaki Shinno is now lodging at the Toji Temple. I am not going to revolt against the imperial standard. If you are going to fight to the last drop of blood as Aizu warriors, I alone will surrender.”

The fall of the Aizu clan

On September 18, Naoemon Teshirogi and Teijiro Akizuki were sent as messengers by Lord Katamori to the Yonezawa camp to request them to act as an intermediary for the surrender of the Aizu. A general of the Yonezawa clan, Chikara Saito, went to see a general staff officer Taisuke Itagaki of the Tosa Army in company with Teshrogi and others to report the Aizu’s surrender. He reported the disastrous conditions inside the castle and requested him to immediately stop firing. However, Itagaki answered that they would continue their attack until the Aizu furled their flags. Finally, at dawn on the 21^st, the firing stopped. The next day Lord Katamori offered incense and flowers to the empty wells inside the castle and the tombs in the graveyard at the intermediate outworks of the castle. He then showed his appreciation of his retainer’s efforts and bid them farewell. Lord Katamori headed for the Myoenji Temple in Takizawa Village to the north of the castle by palanquin with 20 of his retainers as ordered by the western army. Of the some 4,900 people remaining inside the castle, those who were injured and sick were moved to Aoki Village to the south of the castle. About one thousand women, elderly and children were moved to Shiokawa. The surviving Aizu soldiers went to Inawashiro under the escort of Yonezawa soldiers. The Hikone and Omura clans replaced the Yonezawa to guard the Aizu soldiers. Thus, 30 days after August 23, the beginning of the siege of the Aizu Castle, the army capitulated. On September 23 of the first year of Meiji (1868), the western army grandly marched into Tsurugajo Castle (Aizu Wakamatsu Castle).

Gombei Kayano dies for his country

On October 19 Lord Katamori was ordered to leave for Tokyo [formerly Edo]. He was accompanied by retainers Gombei Kayano, Heima Kajiwara and Okura Yamakawa. The Hizen clan was ordered to escort them there.

The next year on January 24, 1869, the masterminds of the revolt of Lord Katamori Matsudaira’s retainers were investigated. They were chief retainers Tosa Tanaka, Kuranosuke Jimbo, and Gombei Kayano.

Masayasu Hoshina submitted a report on the above three to the imperial court. Both Tanaka and Jimbo committed suicide at the time of the fall of the Aizu Castle. On May 18, Kayano also committed suicide at Hoshina’s home in order to uphold his honor as a warrior.

Chief retainer Gombei Kayano willingly assumed responsibility for being the ringleader and died for his master Lord Katamori. The Kayano family had previously served former Aizu governor Yoshiaki Kato and was selected by the founder of the Aizu clan Lord Masayuki Hoshina. The Kayano family entered service at the same rank as the Kato family. As they were well treated, all of the descendants of the family reverently discharged their duties. Thus, Gombei Kayano demonstrated his family’s loyalty to his master unhesitatingly.

The above article is reprinted with the kind permission of Tokimune Takeda Sensei, Headmaster of Daito-ryu Aiki Budo, and the son of Sokaku Takeda.

This article is used with the permission of Aikido Journal and originally appeared in Aiki News #77 (April 1988).