What Is Aizuwakamatsu? The Samurai City, Tsuruga Castle and the Boshin War
This guide is for visitors who want the history behind Aizuwakamatsu before they visit. It follows the English pages of the city's tourism site "Samurai City Aizuwakamatsu", much of whose English text was written by the Japan Tourism Agency, and the Tohoku tourism site. We read them on 2026-10-04. The history here includes civil war and the deaths of civilians and children, which we describe briefly and as the sources do.
The Aizu samurai
The site describes the Aizu samurai as upholding the way of the warrior, bushido, to the highest degree, and quotes their motto as "Die in righteousness; do not live in unrighteousness." It says rules written for the domain's forces in the late eighteenth century called for respecting the rights of civilians, including not harming women, children and the elderly. The samurai were also educated in tea gatherings, poetry and calligraphy as well as martial arts. One Aizu school, the Nisshinkan, has its own page on the site.
Tsuruga Castle
The earliest castle on the site was built by Ashina Naomori and called Kurokawa Castle. After Gamo Ujisato took control in 1590 he rebuilt it with a seven-story keep and renamed it Tsuruga Castle; the name is said to come from the white walls and red roof tiles, like a crane's feathers and crown. It was badly damaged in the Battle of Aizu in 1868, demolished in 1874 with only the stone walls left, and rebuilt in 1965. The roof tiles were changed from gray to red in 2011, and the site says it is the only castle in Japan with a red roof. The first four floors of the keep are a museum, and the top floor has a view over the city. The tea house Rinkaku in the castle park was built for the son of the tea master Sen no Rikyu.
Opening hours for the keep are 8:30 to 17:00, with last admission at 16:30, and the page lists adult admission for the keep at 410 yen as of March 1, 2017. The castle page lists the keep and tea house together at 510 yen for adults, while the tea house page lists the same combination at 500 yen; check the current price on the day.
The Boshin War and the siege of 1868
The site explains that Aizu, under lord Matsudaira Katamori, had close ties to the shogunate and served as military governor of Kyoto from 1862 to 1868. When the new imperial government moved against the shogunate, Aizu refused to give up and fought on with allies from the Tohoku region. On October 6, 1868 the imperial army surrounded Tsuruga Castle, with about 5,000 citizens sheltering inside, and Katamori agreed to surrender about a month later. Aizu then became part of Fukushima Prefecture.
Mt. Iimori and the Byakkotai
The Byakkotai, the White Tiger Brigade, was a unit made up mainly of boys aged 15 to 17. Nineteen members who were cut off from the rest of their troops died on Mt. Iimori, and their graves are there; one member survived to tell the story. Visitors can climb the steps or use an escalator for a small fee. At the foot of the mountain is Sazaedo, a temple completed in 1796 with a double-helix spiral walkway and a one-way route, so that you never pass anyone coming the other way. The Byakkotai museum is nearby.
Samurai residence and garden
The Aizu Bukeyashiki is an open-air museum built around a reconstructed residence of Saigo Tanomo, the chief advisor to the Aizu lord, with 38 rooms. It offers workshops such as archery, folk craft painting and glass etching. The site says it is a 30-minute walk from Tsuruga Castle or 15 minutes from Oyakuen Garden. Oyakuen is a medicinal herb garden centred on a pond, with a tea house from the late eighteenth century where visitors can drink green tea.
What we could not verify, and therefore left out
- Current admission fees. Several pages are dated March 1, 2017.
- Whether all the museums mentioned are open on the day you visit.
- The escalator fee on Mt. Iimori, which is described only as small.
Related guides
- How do you get to Aizuwakamatsu and get around by loop bus?
- What should you eat and buy in Aizuwakamatsu? Local dishes, akabeko, lacquerware and onsen
Sources
All URLs retrieved 2026-10-04.
- About Samurai City Aizu-Wakamatsu — (the samurai spirit)
- Tsuruga Castle (Samurai City Aizuwakamatsu) — (castle history)
- Tsuruga-jo Castle (Samurai City Aizuwakamatsu) — (hours and fees)
- Rinkaku Japanese Tea House (Samurai City Aizuwakamatsu) — (combined fees)
- The Boshin War and the Battle of Aizu (Samurai City Aizuwakamatsu) — (the war)
- Mt. Iimori and the Boys of the Byakkotai (Samurai City Aizuwakamatsu) — (Byakkotai)
- Sazaedo Temple (Samurai City Aizuwakamatsu) — (the temple)
- Aizu Bukeyashiki (Samurai City Aizuwakamatsu) — (the residence)
- Oyakuen Garden (Samurai City Aizuwakamatsu) — (the garden)
- Tsurugajo Castle (Travel to Tohoku) — (the red roof)