was a Japanese

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

of the late

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

who served the

Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of the ...

Aizu is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The princ ...

. He was the leader of a detachment of

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 d ...

troops who got separated from their main unit, and arrived at the top of

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 Seppuku, ritual suicide in 1868, during the Boshin War. It is located about 1.5 ...

. From Iimori Hill they thought they saw

Tsuruga Castle , also known as Aizuwakamatsu Castle (会津若松城 ''Aizu-Wakamatsu-jō'') is a Japanese castle in northern Japan, at the center of the city of Aizuwakamatsu, in Fukushima Prefecture. Background Tsuruga Castle is located in the center of the ...

on fire, and committed suicide in despair.

References

* * * samurai 1852 births 1868 deaths Seppuku from Meiji era to present People from Aizu People of the Boshin War Aizu-Matsudaira retainers 1860s suicides {{samurai-stub