Introduction
Hey guys, welcome to my first real rabbit hole, courtesy of Wikipedia's "random article" option. I'm not going to waste any more time talking about anything other than today's protagonist, Sagara Sōzō, or should I say Kojima Shirō? Well, either way, let's get into it.
Before the war
Sagara Sōzō was born with the name Kojima Shirō but changed it later in life for unknown reasons. Before he became the commander of his own unit in the Boshin War, which he's best known for, he married his spouse in 1864 and had his first and only son a year later, in 1865.[1] I haven't found much information about his wife or son, apart from his wife being associated with the Matsudaira clan.
The Sekihōtai and his downfall
Now for the actually interesting part: what earned him a Wikipedia article two centuries later. Sōzō became the leader of the 1st unit of the Sekihōtai army, which fought in the Boshin War on the side of the imperial court.[2] The goal was to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate for what was viewed as an unsatisfactory handling of the situation following the so-called opening of Japan in 1853.[3] I think it's also worth mentioning that this was a civil war, meaning Sōzō's men were not trained soldiers, and Sōzō himself wasn't a career soldier before the conflict, which raises the question of what motivated them to join a fight that could very well cost them their lives. The answer is fairly simple: the farmers were promised a 50% reduction in land tax.[2]
This promise, however, led to Sōzō's downfall. After the imperial forces emerged victorious at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, Sōzō refused to return to headquarters with his unit. This refusal gave the imperial government a chance to use him and his unit as a scapegoat for their inability to fulfill the promised tax cuts. Sōzō and his unit were declared a fake army. This led to the arrest of Sagara Sōzō and seven additional officers. After his arrest, Sagara Sōzō faced a torturous punishment: he was forced to watch all seven of his officers be beheaded before facing the same fate himself. The heads of the executed men were even put on display the next morning, preventing a proper burial for at least some time, if not forever.[1]
The family's tragedy
Sadly, this was not the end of the family's tragedy. After his wife heard what had happened to her husband, she gave their son into the care of her older sister and then took her own life. Sagara and his wife's remains were buried together. His head was later stolen from the display and secretly buried; whether it was ever reunited with the rest of his remains is unconfirmed.
Legacy
Only in 1928 was Sagara Sōzō's honor restored, and he was enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. He has also been immortalized in pop culture, in the movie Red Lion as well as the manga and anime Rurouni Kenshin.
Until next time
That's all I have for you guys today. I hope you had fun reading this little rabbit hole. This is also the first time I've done something like this, so I hope to get better with time. Thank you, and see you next time!