Namida-bashi: On August 25, 1868, Takeko Led the Jōshigun and Fell to Gunfire

In the morning of August 25, 1868 (the eighth of the seventh month of Keiō 4), at Yanagibashi in Kawanuma District, Mutsu Province (the modern Aizu-Bange Town in Kawanuma District, Fukushima Prefecture, later renamed 'Namida-bashi').

It was the second day since the siege of Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle began, and part of the New Government army was marching westward from the castle town.

A women's armed group of about twenty led by Nakano Takeko — a unit later called the 'Jōshigun' — tried to block this bridge on the highway.

Takeko was twenty-one; her mother Kōko (forty-eight) and younger sister Yūko (sixteen) were also included among those nearby.

The Jōshigun was not a regular unit of the Aizu domain, but a women-only combat group spontaneously organized by Takeko and other Aizu women martial-arts practitioners.

About twenty to thirty, all took the naginata as their main weapon, and wore combat dress with a white cloth forehead band and hakama.

The domain had at first ordered women to remain inside the castle, but Takeko, by her own judgment, chose the road of taking part in combat outside the castle.

It was positioning as independent guerrilla combat, not under organized operational orders.

In the morning of August 25, against the New Government army (a mixed corps of the Chōshū and Satsuma domains) that tried to cross Yanagibashi, the Jōshigun rushed in with the naginata held forward.

In close-range combat, Takeko cut down several New Government soldiers. But the New Government army was armed with modern firearms (Minié rifle, Spencer rifle), and long-range gunfire overwhelmed the Jōshigun.

In half an hour of combat, Takeko took a bullet in the chest and fell. At the same time, several others of the Jōshigun fell in combat.

Her younger sister Yūko and mother Kōko rushed to the fallen Takeko. Takeko was still conscious, and is said to have asked Yūko to cut off her head to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Yūko cut off her sister's head with a naginata, wrapped it in cloth, and left the battlefield.

Mother and daughter carried the head about ten kilometers to Hōkai-ji (Aizu-Bange Town) and requested burial.

The final words and act exchanged between the sisters reflect the value system of the warrior class of the time concerning the treatment of heads — that having one's head taken by the enemy was a disgrace to the family name.