was a Japanese military officer of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

and former member of the

Byakkotai The was a group of around 305 young teenage samurai of the Aizu Domain, who fought in the Boshin War (1868–1869) on the side of the Tokugawa shogunate. History The Byakkotai was part of Aizu's four-unit military, formed in April 1868 in the ...

of the

Aizu Domain was a Han (Japan), 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 Aizuwakamatsu Castle, Tsuruga Castle in ...

History

He lied about his age to join the military, and was assigned to the

division - essentially a reserve division of young teenagers only meant to be deployed in emergency. He was the sole survivor of group after the

committed suicide on

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 kilomete ...

during 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 st ...

overlooked the

Aizuwakamatsu Castle , also known as Tsuruga Castle (鶴ヶ城 ''Tsuru-ga-jō'') is a concrete replica of a traditional Japanese castle in northern Japan, at the center of the city of Aizuwakamatsu, in Fukushima Prefecture. Background Aizu Wakamatsu Castle is locate ...

and they thought the flames meant their lord

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 ...

and families were deceased. Thus they 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 people ...

to demonstrate defiance.Yamakawa, ''Aizu Boshin Senshi'', p. 522. The events were not widely known at the time due to the victorious Imperial army not wishing to glorify rebels. After the war Sadakichi relocated to

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 ...

. He served in the government and

. He only related the incident much later as an older man, after the tensions of the Boshin War had cooled. It is through him that the events of the Byakkotai suicide at Iimori are known. After his death, his ashes were spread on Mount Iimori together on the buried graves of his Byakkotai comrades.

References

* * * 1854 births 1931 deaths Samurai People from Aizu Aizu-Matsudaira retainers Sole survivors Seppuku from Meiji period to present {{samurai-stub