▲ Yamamoto Yae, played by Japanese actress Haruka Ayase in the 2013 Okawa drama "Yae No Sakura".
▲ The historical Yae Yamamoto and her second husband, Shinjima Xiang
1, Aizu, O-clan
In the long feudal history of mankind, women often played the role of "insulted and damaged" because of their economic status. Ironically, however, when a regime is facing a desperate situation of collapse or the rise of new political forces, women are often pushed to the top in order to boost morale and demonstrate justice.
The list goes on and on. In our neighboring country, Japan, such figures are not in the minority. In addition to the time when the two major samurai groups of Yuan and Ping competed for dominance, legendary female generals such as Ba Yuqian and Han Er Yuqian emerged, and as for the "female masters" in novels and interpretations like Hua Mulan and Mu Guiying, there were many such as the carp across the river. Yamamoto Yae is regarded as the Japanese version of "Joan of Arc".
The TV series version of "Yae No Sakura" opens with a confrontation between the American Civil War. Although it is inevitable that people will have the illusion of "going to the wrong set". But it shows the "ulterior motives" of the main creative team. After all, among the mainstream countries in the world, the mainstream media in the United States can be described as unique in terms of leveling the scars of the civil war.
After all, the "brotherly wall" civil war in the United States has caused far more casualties than the total number of foreign troops in previous generations. Therefore, the mainstream media in the United States has to be clever and give it a variety of lofty missions and idealistic halos. And the same story of the transformation of a middle-class girl into a civil war, "Yae No Sakura" naturally borrows many of the expressions in "Gone with the Wind".
▲ In fact, the era background and story structure of "Yae No Sakura" are more similar to "Gone with the Wind"
Of course, the United States at the time of the Civil War and Japan, which was at the end of the Edo shogunate, were very different in terms of both political structure and social customs. As a result, the camera quickly pans back to Japan, frozen in 1852, before the outbreak of the "Bochen War":
The reason why I chose this time to start the whole story is not 1845, when Yamamoto Yae was born. Mainly because Matsudaira Ronaki, the eighth lord of the Aizu Domain, was seriously ill this year, matsudaira Ryōho, an adopted son who had been stationed in Edo for a long time as a hostage, was allowed to return to the domain to succeed him. As the main clue to examine the political trend of the entire shogunate from the perspective of the whole of Japan, Matsudaira's role basically covers the entire "Aizu Compilation" in the first half of "Yae No Sakura".
▲Taiga Osamu, Yaenojo, Yuho Matsudaira, the Lord of the Naka-Aizu Domain
Aizu Domain is located in the northeast of Honshu Island, although surrounded by mountains. However, its main city, Wakamatsu, is surrounded by fertile basins of Lake Inawashiro, plus the key to the entry of Mutsu, Deyu, and even Echigo clans into the Kanto Plain. Therefore, since ancient times, it has been a place where soldiers must fight. Its original lord was Hoshi masayuki, the son of the second shogun Tokugawa Hidetada. Why did the descendants of the Tokugawa clan appear under the takeda retainer Hoko clan? The story also begins with the battle of the general's "harem", the Great Ori:
Tokugawa Hidetada's main room, Asai River, is "a great power", his mother is Oda City (Oda Nobunaga's sister), known as the "first beauty of the Warring States", and his father is Asai Nagamasa, who once dominated Omi. Two older sisters, one made Toyotomi Hideyoshi a "kozo" (i.e., Asai Chacha, the biological mother of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the heir of the Toyotomi clan), and the other played a mediating role in the Tokugawa clan's Osaka showdown with the Toyotomi clan (i.e., Asai Chu, the wife of Kyogoku Takashi of the "Firefly Daimyo").
What is even more exaggerated is that Asai Jiang had already had two marriages before marrying Tokugawa Hidetada. He was married to Oda Nobunaga's nephew Kazunari Saji and Toyotomi Hidekatsu, nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. However, it was such a woman with complicated experiences, but after entering the harem of the shogun, she was jealous and interfered heavily with the private life of her husband Tokugawa Hidetada. This can be seen in the fact that Although Tokugawa Hidetada was a samurai leader, he did not dare to set up a side room for a long time. Therefore, when he learned that Tokugawa Hidetada had an affair with his maid, Shino Shizu, and had given birth to a son, Asai's anger could naturally be imagined. Tokugawa Hidetada had no choice but to send Theo Shizuka's mother and son to the door of his retainer Hoshiko Masamitsu.
Shoko Masamitsu has no heirs, although he has other adopted sons. However, since the general had sent the illegitimate son over, he had no choice but to take this child as his heir and name him Baoke Masayuki. In the decades that followed, Asai died of illness in 1626. However, Tokugawa Hidetada seemed to be afraid of the rest of the power, and it was not until 1629 that he formally summoned Hoko Masayuki. But 18 years of separation of flesh and bones have long diluted the father-son relationship between the two. In the end of Tokugawa Hidetada's life, Hoko Masayuki was not reused. However, tokugawa Hidetada and Asai's son Tokugawa Iemitsu succeeded to the shogunate and took good care of his half-brother. He was transferred from Hoko Masamitsu's fief, Shinano Kuni Takagen Domain, to Aizu.
▲ Asai Ie, played by Aunt Shima Towashita, a Japanese woman in the drama "Aoi Sanshiro", is played by the Japanese humpty woman Professional Aunt Shima Iwashita
Before the Death of the Tokugawa Family in 1651, he summoned Hoko Masayuki to his sickbed and entrusted his heir, Tokugawa Ieyasu, to his care. Hoko Masayuki not only fully supported the rule of his nephew Tokugawa Ieyasu during his lifetime, but also left a total of fifteen "Aizu Family Trainings" before his death, in which the opening emperor declared that "Aizu Domain exists to protect the shogun's family, and if the lord of the domain betrays him, the family members cannot follow."
Of course, under the rule of the samurai-founded Edo shogunate, in addition to loyalty, there was also a strong force. Therefore, under the circumstances of the three hundred years of Seonghei, the Aizu Domain still maintained the spirit of shangwu for a long time. In the TV series "Yae No Sakura", it is also deliberately restored that after Matsudaira Ronho was in Aizu, yu Onohara hosted the grand event of "Chasing Birds hunting" for the first time:
According to the "Naganuma Stream Military Science" that the Aizu Domain had followed throughout the aizu Domain, the samurai of the whole domain were divided into twelve groups, except for the Chinese army commanded by the lord of the domain. Within each group there is a mixture of horseback warriors, walking warriors, iron cannon foot light, etc. Four groups are divided into three formations. The commander of each "array" is the general of the formation, and the elder of the family is the one who holds it. Based on the chinese army's main line of about 1,000 people, about 1,600 people per line, and about 400 people in the heavy team, the Aizu Domain's biennial "bird hunting" requires a total of 6,200 troops. No less than a large-scale military exercise.
The night before the "bird hunt", the army needed to spend the night in Onohara. When the light of day blows the conch, dozens of pheasants or ducks will be released, and then the army will be captured as an exercise to win the enemy on the battlefield. The first person to catch the bird is like the first person on the battlefield to take the enemy's first rank. You can then go to the lord of the clan to receive the reward. It is said that when Matsudaira Ronho first commanded the whole army as the lord of the domain, his close courtiers sighed and said, "It is really like the resurrection of the Duke of Totsu (Hoko Masayuki)." But at this moment, they did not know that in the distant Edo, the invading American fleet had informed the Japanese samurai with a large steam battleship: "My lord, times have changed."
▲ The U.S. Navy steam paddle steamer battleship, which was called a "black ship" by the Edo shogunate
2. Battle for Kyoto
As the Edo shogunate announced the "founding of the country" under the force of the U.S. Navy, the Western powers immediately flocked to the country. The various factions in Japan are also eager to move. As a descendant of the Tokugawa family, Matsudaira Ronho's political stance was naturally on the side of the shogunate. Moreover, at this time, he had already been appointed to the new position of "Kyoto Guardian" of the Edo shogunate, and it was even more indispensable to maintain law and order in Kyoto. However, this move was vigorously opposed by saigo Raimu and others in the Aizu domain.
In Saigo's view, the Aizu Domain, located in the Kanto Region, sent troops to Kyoto, not only on an expedition, but also on the target of the Fallen Shogunate, and in the future it may be trapped in a situation where the Aizu Domain will never recover. Although Matsudaira Ryūho removed Hoko Masayuki's "Aizu Domain Will Always Be Loyal to the Tokugawa Shogunate" as a shield, he still had to minimize the impact of his troops in Kyoto on the aizu Domain's finances. As a result, the relatively inexpensive Ronin became the first choice of the Aizu Domain to guard Kyoto.
▲ Matsudaira Ryōho ignored the opposition of Saigo's mother and other important ministers and insisted on sending troops to Kyoto
For the ronin who had regrouped in the village of Nongsheng on the outskirts of Kyoto, Matsudaira Ryoho first conducted a re-selection and screening. The name "New Selection Group" also came from this. After a brutal infighting, the members of the "New Selection Group" basically united under the command of the peasant swordsman Isamu Kondo, with the word "sincerity" as the flag. This method of using Ronin against Ronin is not clever, but it shows its weakness after experiencing a series of infighting. It is not ironic that the samurai class that used to dominate the Japanese archipelago could only shrink behind the ronin.
Functionally speaking, the "new selection group" is just a group of urban management, but in today's Japan, it is packaged as an idol boy band
Unfortunately, the violent law enforcement of the "new selection group" did not suppress the deterioration of the situation. Instead, it has led to larger armed conflicts. Seeing that the Edo shogunate was powerless to suppress the opposition. Emperor Meiji, who ascended the throne in 1867, simply joined forces with the powerful southwestern domains of Satsuma and Choshu to demand that the Edo shogunate return power. Unwilling to withdraw from the stage of history, Tokugawa Keiki, the last shogun of the Edo shogunate, immediately gathered Aizu and other relatives to march to Kyoto, but was defeated by the Satsuma-Choshu alliance on the Toba and Fushimi lines. During this battle, Yamamoto Yae's older brother Yamamoto Kyoma disappeared, and his younger brother Saburo Yamamoto was killed.
3. Wakamatsu's Death
After the last shogun, Tokugawa Keiki, fled back to Edo, the shogunate split into the "Gongshun faction" and the "main war faction". Tokugawa Keiki finally accepted the "deferential faction" and dismissed the French military instructor Chedovan, who supported the "main war faction" in obtaining French assistance for a decisive battle. He appointed Katsukai, the founder of Japan's modern navy and advocating "absolute deference," as president of the army and presided over negotiations with the Meiji government. On March 14, 1868, Edo declared "bloodless opening of the city."
Although the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown, the civil war was not over. Matsudaira Ryōho, the lord of Aizu Domain, who was classified as an "enemy of the DPRK", reorganized his arms, reformed the military system, and prepared for a decisive battle with the Meiji government forces, and Aizu became the center of anti-Meiji government forces for a while. After the opening of Edo Castle, the former shogunate infantry, Keisuke Ōtori, led 2,000 samurai loyal to the Edo shogunate to flee to Aizu Domain.
Objectively speaking, Matsudaira Ryūho followed Tokugawa Keiki's announcement of surrender at this time, and the punishment he himself suffered was nothing more than confinement. However, most of his courtiers and Aizu clan members, especially the members of the "new writing group" who retired to Aizu, most of them owed a lot of blood debts to the "fallen" people in Kyoto, and they may not be able to retire completely. In addition, most of the surrounding Okuba clans have not experienced the "Battle of Toba and Fushimi". There is no intuitive understanding of the military superiority of the "fallen curtain" faction. It is still superstitious about the complex terrain of the northeast region and the folk customs of Xiao Yong. Naturally, the voice of reason who declares surrender without a war cannot be listened to. Moreover, even if there is a war, it will only be the Aizu Domain, which is located in the throat of the northeast, to bear the brunt of it. Therefore, under internal and external pressure, Matsudaira Ryoho can only choose to fight to the death.
On August 23, Meiji government troops arrived at Wakamatsu Castle, the capital of Aizu Domain, and began to brew a fortification. At that time, there were two strategies in the army, one was to adopt the method of "eliminating weak cadres" and conquer Yonezawa and Sendai first; the other was to attack Aizu first, considering that Yonezawa and Sendai could not attack for a long time, the war was bound to be delayed until winter, which was very unfavorable to the Meiji government army, which was dominated by southern soldiers such as Satsuma and Choshu. Therefore, the Meiji government army decided to adopt the strategy of "Attacking Aizu Castle, Senmi Attacking the Heart".
At the beginning of September, although the Meiji government army besieging Aizu Domain had reached 30,000 people. However, the Aizu Domain also had a combat strength of 7,000 to 10,000 men. Among them, in addition to the 3,000 aizu clan soldiers, there were nearly 3,000 infantry, transmission teams, and chargers of the old shogunate army transferred from Edo, and more than 1,000 allies of the Okuba domain. In addition to the "Shinjuku Group" and other ronin organizations that are not afraid of death, the Aizu Domain also organized the male groups in the main city of Wakamatsu Castle into militia organizations named after the four gods in Chinese stories, namely the so-called "Suzaku Team" (18-35 years old), "Green Dragon Team" (36-49 years old), "Xuanwu Team" (over 50 years old), and "White Tiger Team" (16-17 years old).
The samurai female relatives in the city were also formed into a "girl army", with the brave ones such as Yamamoto Yae charging into battle, and the soft ones taking care of the wounded and carrying ammunition. For a time, the entire Aizu Domain was in a state of war and hatred. Coupled with the complex terrain of the area, it would be even more difficult for the Meiji government forces if the Aizu domain could successfully drag out the war until winter.
▲ Aizu Domain's imaginary girl army broke the enemy map
However, although Aizu was strong, it was still difficult to avoid losing sight of the Meiji government forces in the face of a two-line attack. Among them, the eastern front is more dispersed because there are multiple passes to defend. In addition, all parties in the coalition army are not subordinate to each other, resulting in difficulties in command and dispatch. Under such circumstances, the Meiji government army, like a divine help, bypassed the Nakayama Pass of the Kaizu Domain, which was heavily fortified, and broke through the Aizu Domain's defense line from the Mother Narita, which only deployed 700 to 800 troops (mainly the old shogunate's training team), and went straight to Wakamatsu Castle.
▲ In "Yae No Sakura", Yamamoto Yae, who holds a new rifle rifle, kills the enemy Yae
Although the Aizu clans, including Yae Yamamoto and his father, Yamamoto Kwonhachi, resisted desperately on the walls of Wakamatsu Castle, the old Japanese castle eventually struggled to resist the British Armstrong howitzers equipped by the Meiji government army. The various divisions of the Aizu Domain, which were fighting on the outer front, saw waging Wakamatsu Castle from a distance and mistakenly thought that the rear had fallen. They all lost their will to fight. Among them, 19 members of the "White Tiger Team", composed of the children of 16 and 17-year-old Aizu clans, committed suicide by caesarean section at Mount Iimori. Even so, starting on September 14, the Meiji government army launched a general attack. It was not until 22 February that Matsudaira Ryūho announced the surrender of Kaesong. Its tenacity can still be seen. And this desperate resistance is not completely ineffective for Matsudaira Ryoho. In the end, not only did he himself save the first rank, but his sister-in-law Matsudaira Rondae was allowed to retain his Chinese status.
▲ A new type of howitzer equipped by the Meiji government army in "Yae No Sakura"
However, after the victory of the Meiji government, the Choshu Clan sentenced the dead of the war of the Tsu Domain to "thieves" and were not allowed to be buried, and the corpses were not allowed to be buried because they were left in the wind and sun for a long time, or were pecked by birds and animals. In the entire War of Theotsu, the humiliation of the remains of the dead after the Aizu War was the most brutal, and some people were even imprisoned for several days for burying the dead. After half a year, the burial of the dead was allowed in view of the epidemic. The surviving Aizu samurai were also relocated to the Doonan Domain (present-day Aomori Prefecture), known as the "Ichizan Hyakubun North of the White River" (meaning a worthless backward land). What awaits them is undoubtedly a life of extreme poverty.
Yamamoto Yae was exempted from punishment because he was a female streamer. But he also had to face the miserable life of family destruction. Because just before and after the fall of Wakamatsu Castle, his first husband, Kawasaki Shonosuke, filed for divorce from Yamamoto Yae. Kawasaki Shonosuke was the son of a clan physician from The Yamazuishi Domain (present-day Hyogo Prefecture). Kawasaki Naonosuke, who had been obsessed with "orchidology" in his early years, had established the Orchid Institute because he knew about the Hishinkan of Aizu Domain, and he went to visit Yamamoto Kyoma, who was the chair of the orchid school. Since then, he has lived in the Yamamoto family, which is called "the first to get the moon near the water". In 1865, with the help of his family, Yamamoto Yae married Kawasaki Shonosuke.
But a sudden war eventually forced the two to fly. Interestingly, there are two very different accounts of the cause of his marriage breakdown in later generations. Some say that Yamamoto Yae did not want Kawasaki Shonosuke from his domain to be involved in the aizu war, and offered to break the marriage contract. Another faction claims that Kawasaki Shonosuke did not want Yamamoto Yae to be punished by the Meiji government as the wife of a samurai. But in any case, this kind of "big trouble is coming" situation is not uncommon in the tide of the Meiji Restoration.
While Yamamoto Yae was struggling with the hardships of life, a letter from Kyoto completely changed her life. It turned out that the eldest son, Yamamoto Kyoma, who had long been regarded as dead by the Yamamoto family, was still alive. As early as the "Change of the Forbidden Gate", Yamamoto Kyoma, who was the captain of the Aizu Domain Artillery Team, suddenly fell ill with an eye disease and began to live a life of not distinguishing between black and white. After the Battles of Toba and Fushimi, Kyoma Yamamoto, who was stranded in Kyoto, became a prisoner of war of the Satsuma Domain. But it was after this dark life that Yamamoto suddenly came and went and became a guest of honor at the top of the Satsuma Domain.
The official Japanese explanation is that as a prisoner, he wrote many "opinions" on the topics of politics, economy, education, health, food, clothing, housing, and trade. Eventually, with his ability to "be blind and not blind", he was highly praised by Saigo Takamori, and was soon released and hired as a political adviser to Kyoto. Japan's first elementary schools, scientific research institutes, and the Great Exposition of Persuasion were all conceived by Yamamoto Kyoma.
However, it can be inferred from common sense that Yamamoto Kyoma was captured at the height of the "Bochen War", and even if his many insights were quite insightful, they may not be able to impress Saigo Takamori and others who were busy with the military. Perhaps the reason why Yamamoto Kyoma was able to truly rise to the occasion was to help the Meiji government forces break the aizu domain's defenses, after all, for satsuma and Choshu shoguns from the southwest, the aizu domain's military geography and combat readiness weaknesses all needed a "guide" to guide them. At the recommendation of Yamamoto Kyoma, Yae Yamamoto, who came to Kyoto, served as a trainee instructor at the Kyoto Female Red Factory. And thus began the second experience of her life.
During the meiji Restoration, Yamamoto Yae and her second husband, Shinjima, jointly opened the Doshisha School in the Kyoto area, which attracted the attention of the Japanese archipelago at that time. Of course, what really made Yamamoto Yae officially affirmed by the Japanese government was that after his death in Niejima, he still resolutely threw himself into the torrent of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War after his death, and was active as a nurse in the army hospitals in Hiroshima, Osaka and other places. The two awards of the "Meiji Emperor" Munehito were enough to establish his position in the mainstream media in Japan at that time. So much so that in 1928, Yae Yamamoto, who was already in his old age, was invited to participate in the enthronement ceremony of "Emperor Showa" Hirohito.
▲ After her first husband died of illness and starvation, Yamamoto Yae resolutely married the restorationist Shinjima Xiang
▲ Yae Yamamoto in his later years
Backwardness is eliminated by progress, and rising bury decline is the norm. However, the image of Matsudaira Ronho and Yae Yamamoto, who were supposed to belong to the representatives of the old forces, who were moving against the tide of history, was gradually elevated in post-war Japan. He even interpreted the resistance of his subjects with the stone-like resistance of the egg into the "Aizu Soul". We may only look to the answer in Japan's recent history, especially its course in World War II. The famous writer Sima Liaotaro once said: "When I think of Aizu, I feel that the Japanese nation is not too hopeless." However, the author believes that it is precisely because of precedents such as Aizu that successive Generations of Japanese rulers feel that no matter how stubborn they are, someone will always stand up and take medicine for them.
(End)