Matsudaira Katamori

Matsudaira Katamori (1836-1893) was a late Edo-period daimyō who served as the 9th lord of the Aizu Domain (present-day Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture). As Kyoto Shugoshoku (Protector of Kyoto), he was responsible for maintaining public order in Kyoto during the late Edo period. He is also known for having the Shinsengumi placed under the custody of the Aizu Domain as a force under his command. Later generations remember him as a tragic samurai commander who, through the Kinmon Incident (1864), the Battle of Toba–Fushimi (1868), and the Boshin War, remained loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate to the very end.

Katamori was born as the sixth son of Matsudaira Yoshitatsu, lord of Takasu Domain. He was adopted into the Aizu Matsudaira family in 1846 and became domain lord in 1852. The Fifteen Articles of the Aizu House Code required the Aizu Matsudaira family to show absolute loyalty to the main Tokugawa house, and Katamori faithfully kept to this family precept.

In 1862, at the request of Matsudaira Shungaku, Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu, and others, Katamori took up the post of Kyoto Shugoshoku and worked to restore public order in Kyoto, making use of the Shinsengumi and others under his command. In Kyoto, where radical activity by the pro-imperial, anti-foreign (sonnō jōi) faction was rampant, Katamori supported the Kōbu Gattai policy as one wing of the “Ichi-Kai-Sō regime” (Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu, Aizu's Katamori, and Matsudaira Sadaaki of Kuwana). He achieved major results in maintaining order, including the Shinsengumi's exploits in the Ikedaya Incident of 1864.

However, after the Taisei Hōkan (return of political power to the emperor) of 1867 and the defeat of the shogunate's forces at the Battle of Toba–Fushimi in 1868, Aizu was treated as an enemy of the imperial court (chōteki). In the Aizu War (1868), the domain's samurai and residents united to fight a siege defense. The tragedy of the Byakkotai is one part of the fierce struggle of Aizu's samurai, which is still recounted today as one of the greatest tragedies in late Edo history. After the surrender, Katamori was placed under house arrest. He was later pardoned and served as chief priest (gūji) of Nikkō Tōshō-gū.

In connection with Japanese swords, in 1864 Katamori received a sword by Bizen Hidemitsu from the shogun Tokugawa Iemochi, and a tantō from Emperor Kōmei. The swords carried by Aizu's samurai were a symbol of their pride as the last warriors of the late Edo period, and the fighting in the Boshin War was the final expression of that spirit of the Japanese sword.