was a Japanese samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 of the Aizu domain, and lived well into the 20th century. He was the sole survivor of the famous group of young Byakkotai

Byakkotai

The was a group of around 305 young, teenage, samurai of the Aizu domain, who fought in the Boshin War .-History:Byakkotai was part of Aizu's four-unit military, set up in the domain's drive to finalize its military modernization, in the wake of the Battle of Toba-Fushimi. The other three units...

 soldiers who committed suicide on Iimori Hill during the Battle of Aizu

Battle of Aizu

The Battle of Aizu was fought in northern Japan in autumn 1868, and was part of the Boshin War.Aizu was known for its martial skill, and maintained at any given time, a standing army of over 5000. It was often deployed to security operations on the northern fringes of the country, as far north as...

. After the war he relocated to Sendai and served in the government and Imperial Japanese Army

Imperial Japanese Army

-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

. It is through him that the events of the Byakkotai suicide at Iimori are known.

After his death, some of his remains were interred on Mount Iimori together with his Byakkotai comrades.