Sagawa Kanbei — The Aizu Elder They Called Oni Kanbei

Aizu had a fierce commander known as Oni Kanbei — Kanbei the Demon. Sagawa Kanbei, a chief retainer of Aizu.

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Who Was Sagawa Kanbei?

Kanbei was a chief retainer of Aizu domain and a soldier.

His life is told through two wars. One is the Battle of Aizu. The other is the Satsuma Rebellion, nine years later. He fought the imperial army at Aizu, and in the end died in the Satsuma Rebellion as a soldier on that same government's side — throwing in his lot with the army he had once fought.

He was born in 1831 into an Aizu samurai family.

Why Sagawa Kanbei Was Called the Demon

What fixed Kanbei's name was how he fought in the Battle of Aizu.

In 1868 the imperial army invaded Aizu, and Aizu held out in Tsuruga Castle. It was Kanbei who fought the imperial forces hardest at the front.

His way of fighting was ferocious. He did not fall back; he attacked and attacked. For that, he came to be called Oni Kanbei. Even among the troops of Aizu he was known as an especially fierce commander.

Ferocity could not avert the tragedy of Aizu. After about a month's siege, Aizu surrendered. The tragedy of the Byakkotai, the deaths of women like Nakano Takeko, the mass suicide of Saigo Tanomo's family — amid disasters, Aizu fell.

Sagawa Kanbei and the Stain on Aizu

After the surrender the Aizu samurai were harshly treated.

The domain was dissolved and many of its former retainers removed to Tonami in the far north. Life on that poor land was bitter, and some starved. And above all, what tormented the people of Aizu was the stain of being called enemies of the court.

Aizu had believed that, through Matsudaira Katamori as Protector of Kyoto, it was serving the emperor. Instead it had been branded his enemy. The wish to clear that stain was common to the former retainers of Aizu.

Kanbei was one of them.

How Sagawa Kanbei Joined the Police

In the Meiji era Kanbei entered the new government's police, an officer of the Metropolitan Police.

A man who had fought the imperial army to the death at Aizu now served that government. It looks strange, but there was an Aizu man's calculation in it. To distinguish oneself and be recognized might restore, even a little, the honour of an Aizu branded enemy of the court. Many former Aizu samurai joined the police in the same spirit.

How Sagawa Kanbei Died in the Satsuma Rebellion

In 1877 the Satsuma Rebellion broke out: the Satsuma samurai rose under Saigo Takamori against the government.

The government sent police units to Kyushu — a police contingent with many former Aizu samurai in it (the sword-drawing battotai known from Tabaruzaka was a small force specially formed from within it). Kanbei led a police detachment on the Bungo front.

Satsuma had been at the centre of the force that once attacked Aizu. Now that same Satsuma was in revolt against the government. For Kanbei this was also a reckoning with an old adversary.

In the third month of 1877 Kanbei was shot and killed on a Kyushu battlefield, aged forty-five (forty-seven by the traditional count).

To fight the imperial army at Aizu, and then, as that government's soldier, to die fighting the Satsuma that had attacked Aizu — Kanbei's life compresses the turn from Bakumatsu to Meiji into the fate of a single soldier.

How Sagawa Kanbei Is Regarded

Kanbei is still held in affection in Aizu.

Bearing the stain of enemy of the court, he lived on as a soldier and died fighting for honour. That figure has been handed down as a pride of the Aizu people. In Kumamoto Prefecture, where he fell, a monument mourns him.

A fierce commander known as Oni Kanbei, who fell at last carrying the honour of Aizu — that consistency makes him a striking figure.

Sagawa Kanbei Timeline

For the war see Aizu domain; for its lord, Matsudaira Katamori; for the rebellion, Kirino Toshiaki.