The scene is Aizu-Wakamatsu, fall 1868. The imperial armies have surrounded the castle town on all sides and are bombarding it heavily. Defeat seems close at hand, and yet there are Aizu forces beyond the siege who are returning but can't figure out how to break through.
Enter Yamakawa Okura (1845-1898, pictured at left in later years). Yamakawa, the brother of the curry-eating physicist in my last post, was an Aizu clan elder-- so, say, a cabinet member if the lord is the head of state. His large, well-provisioned force was outside the castle town at Tennei Village, also trying to figure out how to get in. He couldn't really fight his way through without taking tremendous losses, and there was no way he was going to retreat. So Yamakawa got together some of the villagers and, shall we say, put on a show:
He assembled the villagers into the dance and music troupe they'd have in springtime anyway, which is when these dances are done, and had them march in front of his army. And then he just walked into Aizu-Wakamatsu. Through the siege, right past the stunned Imperial Army soldiers. They had to have been confused. Per my sources, there was no camouflage involved, there was no sneaking. Yamakawa just did what, under the circumstances, would be the most ridiculous and unexpected course of action. As the old Armenian song goes, "When there is no way out or solution/Madmen find the answer..."
For the record? The force under Yamakawa's command got all the way into the castle unscathed. Unscathed!
Works Cited
- Aizu Higan Shishi, from Aizuwakamatsu City's Youtube page (accessed 2 May 2013)
- Noguchi Shin'ichi. Bakumatsu no Aizuhan. Tokyo: Gendai shokan, 2005.
- Yamakawa Kenjiro. Aizu Boshin Senshi. Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1933.
I just saw a scene from the historical drama YAE NO SAKURA. That scene of marching in the castle was depicted. I did a web search and found your site. Thank you for sharing this story. For some reason the title says "equinox lion."
ReplyDeleteSorry I meant to say the subtitle in the drama said something about the "equinox lion."
ReplyDeleteArmen, since you mentioned an Armenian song, are you Armenian? I've met a few Armenians in my life. More recently I've been visiting an Assyrian-Chaldean church. Someone at the chruch told me he used to socialize with the Armenians when he was a student at U.C. Berkeley. They were better organized than the Assyirans. Thank you again for sharing this blog about the Yamakawa's daring move.
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