Essays and research notes on the history of Aizu, Japan.https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/aizu-household-code/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/aizu-household-code/Hoshina Masayuki's fifteen-article code of precepts turned personal loyalty to the shogunate into binding domain law for generations of his successors.Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/aizu-sake-breweries-memory/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/aizu-sake-breweries-memory/A handful of breweries founded before the Boshin War still operate in Aizuwakamatsu today, carrying local history forward through an unbroken craft.Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/ashina-clan-kurokawa-castle/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/ashina-clan-kurokawa-castle/How the Ashina, a branch of the Miura clan transplanted from the Kanto, built the fortified town that would one day become Aizuwakamatsu.Fri, 10 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/bandaisan-mountain-cults/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/bandaisan-mountain-cults/Long before it became a symbol of the region, Mount Bandai was a focus of mountain worship that shaped religious life across medieval Aizu.Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/byakkotai-siege-of-tsuruga/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/byakkotai-siege-of-tsuruga/A unit of teenage samurai became one of the most enduring symbols of the Boshin War after a mistaken belief that their castle had fallen.Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/date-masamune-conquest-aizu/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/date-masamune-conquest-aizu/The Battle of Suriagehara ended two centuries of Ashina rule and briefly brought Aizu under the control of one of the most ambitious warlords of the age.Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/exile-to-tonami/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/exile-to-tonami/After surrendering to imperial forces, the Aizu domain was dissolved and thousands of its people were relocated to a harsh new domain in the far north.Sun, 05 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/fall-of-the-ashina/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/fall-of-the-ashina/Internal succession disputes did as much as any outside army to end the Ashina clan's two-hundred-year rule over the Aizu basin.Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/hoshina-masayuki-founding-aizu-domain/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/hoshina-masayuki-founding-aizu-domain/The half-brother of a shogun brought exceptional administrative talent to Aizu, laying the institutional foundations that would define the domain for two centuries.Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/nakano-takeko-joshitai/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/nakano-takeko-joshitai/When the imperial army reached Aizuwakamatsu, a small band of women organized their own fighting unit rather than wait passively behind the walls.Sat, 19 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/preserving-byakkotai-memory/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/preserving-byakkotai-memory/How the story of the Byakkotai was memorialized, exported, and occasionally reshaped over a century of commemoration on Iimoriyama.Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/rebuilding-aizuwakamatsu-meiji/https://nobumitsu-website.pages.dev/blog/rebuilding-aizuwakamatsu-meiji/Stripped of its castle and its domain status, the town once known as Wakamatsu had to construct a new civic identity from the ruins of the old one.Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT