He was the sole survivor of group after the Byakkotai committed suicide on Iimori Hill during the Battle of Aizu.

[1] Iimori Hill overlooked the Aizuwakamatsu Castle and they thought the flames meant their lord Matsudaira Katamori and families were deceased.

[2][1] The events were not widely known at the time due to the victorious Imperial army not wishing to glorify rebels.

He only related the incident much later as an older man, after the tensions of the Boshin War had cooled.

After his death, his ashes were spread on Mount Iimori together on the buried graves of his Byakkotai comrades.