The samurai city of doomed loyalty — a rebuilt castle, sake breweries, and the most cinematic hill in Fukushima
Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture is one of Japan's great feudal cities, built on sake brewing and samurai loyalty to the Aizu clan during the Boshin War (1868) — when the domain refused to surrender to Meiji imperial forces and suffered a devastating siege. The story of the Byakkotai (White Tiger Corps), 20 teenage samurai who fought and then committed ritual suicide on Iimori Hill believing the castle had fallen, remains a pilgrimage site of Japanese warrior culture. Tsurugajo Castle, reconstructed in 1965, sits at the city's heart surrounded by a moat and park. The city's sake-brewing…
The Aizu domain was established in 1643 under Matsudaira Masayuki, a relative of the Tokugawa shogunate, and administered with strict neo-Confucian discipline. Its loyalty to the Tokugawa during the Meiji Restoration's civil war — the Boshin War — made it a target for the imperial forces. The Byakkotai tragedy of 1868 made Aizuwakamatsu a symbol of samurai honour that has persisted into modern Japanese consciousness. The city rebuilt from almost complete destruction after the war.