Nakano Takeko

Born in 1847 (Kōka 4) at the Aizu domain's Edo residence as the eldest daughter of the Aizu retainer Nakano Heinai. Because of her father's posting, she spent her girlhood in Edo, where she was trained by Takahashi Shūtarō in the naginata (glaive) tradition at the Edo residence, and received full martial-arts education from childhood.

The Aizu domain had a tradition of giving martial-arts education to women retainers as well, and Takeko was known as an outstanding practitioner even among them.

From the Toba-Fushimi combat of January 1868 (Keiō 4), the Boshin War expanded across the country, and in August the New Government army closed on Aizu-Wakamatsu.

On August 23, the New Government army burst into the castle town, and Lord Matsudaira Katamori went into siege at Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle (Tsurugajō).

Takeko wished to join this siege combat but was kept outside the castle by domain instruction, and independently organized women combatants — a women's unit of some twenty, later called the 'Jōshigun' (Women's Corps).

On August 25, at Yanagibashi (Namida-bashi, Bridge of Tears) near Bange (the modern Aizu-Bange Town in Kawanuma District, Fukushima Prefecture), she engaged the New Government army, cut down several New Government soldiers with her naginata, and then was killed by gunfire.

She was twenty-one. Her younger sister Yūko cut off her head to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, and buried it at Hōkai-ji (the modern Aizu-Bange Town).

The Aizu War ended with the surrender of Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle on September 22, but Takeko's death, from the Meiji period onward, would be transmitted within the memory of the Aizu War as a symbol of women combatants.

“Being born in a warrior house, not to fight when it comes to this — that is the shame of a woman.”

Nakano Takeko occupies a special position within the memory of the Aizu War as a symbol of women combatants at the entrance to modern Japan.

The story of a female warrior who fell in battle at the young age of twenty-one has been transmitted within the popular memory of Aizu from the Meiji period on; in the Taishō period, veneration activities centered on Takeko and the Jōshigun began.

Takeko's grave still exists at Hōkai-ji in Aizu-Bange Town, and the 'Site of Nakano Takeko's Martyrdom' monument within the temple grounds was built in the Shōwa period.

The Aizu War was long unspoken of by the New Government victors' side, but within the memory of the defeated Aizu side, Takeko and the Jōshigun continued to be seen as heroes.

In recent years, with the rise of overseas interest in female samurai and women combatants, the name Nakano Takeko has come to be taken up in English-language documentaries and novels as well, and has become one icon in Japanese women's history.