The was a group of around 305 young teenage

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of History of Japan#Medieval Japan (1185–1573/1600), medieval and Edo period, early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retai ...

of the

Aizu Domain was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1601 to 1871.Ravina, Mark. (1998) ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan,'' p. 222 The Aizu Domain was based at Tsuruga Castle in Mutsu Province, the core of th ...

, who fought in the Boshin War (1868–1869) on the side of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

History

The Byakkotai was part of Aizu's four-unit military, formed in April 1868 in the domain's drive to finalize its military modernization, in the wake of the

Battle of Toba–Fushimi The occurred between pro-Imperial and Tokugawa shogunate forces during the Boshin War in Japan. The battle started on 27 January 1868 (or fourth year of Keiō, first month, 3rd day, according to the lunar calendar), when the forces of the s ...

. The other three units were the Genbutai (

Black Tortoise The Black Tortoise () is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. Despite its English name, it is usually depicted as a tortoise entwined together with a snake. The name used in East Asian languages does not mention either anima ...

Unit), the Seiryūtai ( Azure Dragon Unit), and the Suzakutai (

Vermilion Bird The Vermilion Bird ( zh, c=朱雀, p=Zhūquè) is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. According to Wu Xing, the Taoist five elemental system, it represents the Fire element, the direction south, and the season summer corre ...

Unit). Each of the four was named after the protecting gods of compass directions. Byakkotai was meant to be a reserve unit, as it was composed of the young, 16- to 17-year-old sons of Aizu samurai. It was subdivided further, along the lines of rank within the domain's samurai population: two squads were from the upper (''shichū'') rank, two from the middle rank (''yoriai''), and two from the lowest (''ashigaru''). Twenty of the members of the 2nd ''shichū'' squad, cut off from the rest of their unit in the wake of the Battle of Tonoguchihara, retreated to

Iimori Hill is a mountain near the city of Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It is notable as the site where members of the Byakkotai (White Tiger Corps) committed ritual suicide in 1868, during the Boshin War. It is located about 1.5 kilome ...

, which overlooked the

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

. From there, they saw what they thought was the castle on fire, and committed

seppuku , sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese peop ...

(with one failed attempt) in desperation, believing their

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ...

and families dead.Yamakawa, ''Aizu Boshin Senshi'', p. 522. However these 20 Byakkotai members were mistaken in their assessment of defeat, as the castle defenses had not actually been breached; the castle town surrounding the inner citadel was aflame. As the majority of the town was between Iimori Hill and the castle, the boys saw the rising smoke and assumed that the castle itself had fallen. The 19 Byakkotai members who committed suicide were the following: *Adachi Tōzaburō *Ishiyama Toranosuke * Shinoda Gisaburō (acting commander) *Nagase Yūji *Mase Genshichirō *Aruga Orinosuke *Itō Teijirō *Suzuki Genkichi *Nishikawa Shōtarō *Yanase Katsusaburō *Ikegami Shintarō *Itō Toshihiko *Tsuda Sutezō *Nomura Komashirō *Yanase Takeji *Ishida Wasuke *Ibuka Shigetarō *Tsugawa Kiyomi *Hayashi Yasoji The sole survivor,

Iinuma Sadakichi was a Japanese military officer of the Imperial Japanese Army and former member of the Byakkotai of the Aizu Domain. History He lied about his age to join the military, and was assigned to the Byakkotai division - essentially a reserve divis ...

, attempted suicide but was unsuccessful. He was saved by a local peasant. After the war, he moved to the nearby city of

Sendai is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the ''daimyō'' Date M ...

, and lived there until his death. He also served as an officer in the army (retiring with the rank of captain) and as an official of the local post office in Sendai. After the war, their bodies remained exposed to the elements until permission was finally granted by the imperial government to bury them. A memorial was later erected at Iimori Hill, and all 20 of the Byakkotai members named above are buried there. A stone bearing a

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

Matsudaira Katamori Matsudaira Katamori after the Meiji restoration was a samurai who lived in Bakumatsu period and the early to mid Meiji period Japan. He was the 9th ''daimyō'' of the Aizu Domain and the Kyoto Shugoshoku (Military Commissioner of Kyoto). He i ...

also stands at the site: 幾人の　涙は石にそそぐとも　その名は世々に　朽じとぞ思ふ ''Ikutari no namida wa ishi ni sosogu tomo sono na wa yoyo ni kuchiji to zo omou'' "No matter how many people wash the stones with their tears, these names will never vanish from the world." The rest of the Byakkotai continued to fight over the course of the

Battle of Aizu The Battle of Aizu (Japanese: 会津戦争, "War of Aizu") was fought in northern Japan from October to November in autumn 1868, and was part of the Boshin War. History Aizu was known for its martial skill, and maintained at any given time a s ...

, with many of the members contributing to the defense of the

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

. Many Byakkotai members survived the war. Two of them who went on to prominent roles during the

Meiji Era The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

were the physicist and historian Dr

Yamakawa Kenjirō was a Japanese samurai, politician, physicist, academic administrator, and author of several histories of the Boshin War. He served as president of Tokyo Imperial University, Kyushu Imperial University, and Kyoto Imperial University. He also s ...

and the Imperial Japanese Navy admiral

Dewa Shigetō Baron was a Japanese admiral in the early days of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Biography Dewa was born as the son of a ''samurai'' of the Aizu domain (present day Fukushima prefecture). As a youth, he enlisted in the '' Byakkotai,'' a reserve u ...

European fascism and the Byakkotai

The Italian fascist dictator

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...

heard of the story of the Byakkotai members who committed suicide, and was deeply impressed by their loyalty to their lord. In 1928, he donated a column from Pompeii to be erected by the graves at Iimori Hill; this column remains there to the present day.

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

also erected a monument showing their approval of the Byakkotai. After the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, the U.S. Army removed the Nazi symbol from the German monument and replaced it with an

iron cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia e ...

Depictions in media

The Byakkotai have been the topic of many plays, books, films, and TV series. One notable TV depiction was produced in 1986; another, more recently, was the 2007 TV drama, which starred Yamashita Tomohisa,

Tanaka Koki is a Japanese boy band formed under Johnny & Associates (Johnny's) in 2001. The group's name was originally an acronym based on the first letter of each member's family name: Kazuya Kamenashi, Jin Akanishi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, ...

and Fujigaya Taisuke. Yamashita portrayed another Byakkotai survivor, Sakai Mineji.Mineji was in the same unit as the Byakkotai boys who committed suicide. See Yamakawa, ''Hoshū Aizu Byakkotai Jūkyūshi-den'', p. 111. A statue of the real Mineji can be seen at Iimori Hill. See http://oniheru.fc2web.com/douzou/sakai_mineji.htm The Byakkotai are featured as a unit exclusive to the Aizu clan in '' Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai''.

Gallery

File:Byakko-tai shrine at Iimori-yama from afar.JPG, Memorial on Limori hill. File:Byakko-tai shrine at Iimori-yama 2.JPG, Tablets with the names of Byakkotai members who committed suicide. File:Aidu Byakkotai Monument by Mussolini.jpg, Column given by Mussolini. File:Young warriors in 2006 Aizu parade.JPG, Children portraying Byakkotai soldiers at the annual Aizu clan parade (2006). File:Aizu-Wakamatsu from Iimori-yama.JPG, View from Limori Hill (2006). File:Byakkotai eiyū kagami.jpg, Byakkotai who committed Seppuku at Iimori Hill, woodblock print

Notes

References

*Nakamura Akihiko (2001). ''Byakkotai''. Tokyo: Bunshun-shinsho. *Noguchi Shin'ichi (2005). ''Aizu-han''. Tokyo: Gendai Shokan. * *

External links

Homepage of the Byakkotai Museum in Aizu
{{Authority control People of the Boshin War Culture in Fukushima Prefecture Japanese warriors Meiji Restoration Seppuku from Meiji period to present Suicides by sharp instrument in Japan