The Tragedy of the Teenage Samurais

 April 21, 2025 Monday 
Aizu-Wakamatsu

We had an interesting conversation at breakfast with Micah (our Tohoku escort), Matt (Translator) and Tiger (Baggage Handler). We were surprised to learn that Matt had been to Chicago's Southside because he loved blues music and wanted to see and hear it first hand. 

We lived for 35 years in the northside of Chicago and had heard about the dangerous areas of the southside. Art on the other hand worked in the Loop and used to go for lunches with friends in the southside.

This was some of our breakfast selections. Salted squid guts? Really? Nope. I didn't try that.

And then we were on our way again. There was a rest stop in Ishima. Since the tour is generally for a senior population, they make rest stops every half hour to an hour. And since we're using their facilities, you do happily purchase something to thank the shop owners. We did buy those two packages of pickled baby eggplants. And yes, they were very good.

There were more beautiful cherry blossoms when we arrived at the castle town of Aizu-Wakamatsu. 

We took a steep escalator to visit Mt. Iimori  where 20 teenage samurai had performed seppuku (ritualistic suicide by disembowelment) thinking their clan had lost the Boshin War because they saw from the hill what they thought was their Aizu castle burning. Actually, it was smoke from a house near the castle that was burning. Nevertheless, the Aizu would fall several weeks later.

You often hear of seppuku referred to as harakiri in the west. Harakiri is a rather crass term that translates to stomach cutting.

Samurai City website:

The Byakkotai (White Tiger Brigade) was a military unit primarily made up of boys aged 15–17. The boys were the sons of Aizu samurai families involved in the Boshin War (1868–1869), which was fought between the Tokugawa shogunate and those opposed to its continued rule. 

Mt. Iimori is the final resting place of 19 members of the unit who took their own lives after being cut off from the rest of their troops. 

One of the group survived to give his account of the tragic incident. Today, the Byakkotai are an enduring symbol of the spirit of the Aizu samurai. 

Erika told us this would be the last domestic war in Japan.

The bottom photo shows the gravesite of the 19 young boys who ended their lives with seppuku during the Boshin War. There were actually 20, but 1 boy was found still alive and rescued by a farmer. He lived to tell about the tragedy.

Once down from the mountain, we went to a restaurant for lunch where a server dressed in samurai gear did a dance for us about the tragic events.

When I returned home to Hawaii, I asked mom if she knew the story of the Byakkotai.

"Of course!" she said, rather insulted. "It's tragic! All such young boys!"

That rescued Byakkotai boy lived out his life in Sendai (which was my mother's hometown) where he was an official in the local post office.

Our hotel that night was a very large Japanese style room. We really enjoyed it.

That afternoon, we had a lovely balcony on which to enjoy the mountains and reflect on the sad history we'd learned about.

And yes, Art did go to the onsen for a lovely soak that evening. I stayed in to write my notes for the day in my travel journal.