Aizu Female Warrior: Yae Niijima

Aizuwakamatsu City, in today's Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, was called the Aizu Domain during the Tokugawa Shogunate era. Because it was a collateral relative of the shogun's family, in the process of the shogunate's authority from prosperity to decline, it always stood on the side of the samurai.

Born in the Aizu Domain at the end of the Tokugawa period, Niijima Yae, formerly Yamamoto, was familiar with guns and shooting from a young age due to his family background in artillery. In Aizu, a society that attaches great importance to the distinction between old and young and the separation of men and women, it is undoubtedly a rare experience for Yae, as a woman, to learn the knowledge of guns and have superb shooting skills.

At that time, with Satsuma and Choshu as the head of the Southwestern clan, with the powerful military and financial resources after the reform, they played the banners of "honoring the king" and "falling the curtain", trying to transfer the center of Japan's political power from the shogunate to the emperor. After the last general Tokugawa Keiki announced the "return of the great political affairs", the new Meiji government, which was established with the support of the Chief Sahara, demanded that Keiki resign and hand over the territory as punishment, causing dissatisfaction among the feudal states in the Northeast region headed by the Aizu domain. . In 1868, the conflict between the "Falling Curtain" and "Samu" was about to break out, and it was known as the "Bochen War" in history.

In this battle, unlike other Aizu women, Yae was responsible for providing meals to the samurai warriors in the city, as well as assisting the wounded. In the middle, they jointly resisted the advance of the government army, and successfully sniped Dashanyan, who was the captain of the government artillery at the time, causing him to be wounded and leave the front line, and Aizu's morale was boosted.

However, in this war in which the military strength of the two sides is disparate and the situation is stronger than that of people, Yae's efforts are still difficult to help his vassal state and restore the decline of the defeat. Following the surrender of the Kaesong of the Aizu Domain, and expressing deference to the new government, Yae put down his guns after the Boshin War and went to Kyoto to join his elder brother, Kakuma Yamamoto, and switched to another runway.

In Kyoto, Yae followed Jue Ma, focusing on the promotion of modern Western-style education, trying to inject a new atmosphere into the ancient imperial capital. In the process, she met Niijima-sho, who went to study in the United States in her early years and came to Beijing as a missionary to set up a Western-style mission school. After that, the two got married, and Yae also converted to Christianity.

In 1875, Jue Ma provided the school building site, and with the funds of the church, the two founded the "Doshisha Ying School" together. In addition to the idea of cultivating talents with "one country's conscience", Doshisha came to educate students. Women receive higher education and play socially influential roles. The school was gradually expanded in the future, becoming the current Kyoto Doshisha University and Doshisha Women's University.

After Niijima's death, Yae joined the Red Cross, and in the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, he devoted himself to the treatment of wounded soldiers, and was awarded the Emperor's Medal, the first woman to be awarded this honor as a non-royal family member.

Yae's life, from learning guns and guns to abandoning martial arts and pursuing literature, spared no effort in the promotion of education, feminism and public welfare. Although her maverick life experience encountered a lot of criticism and infamy at the time, Yae did not There is the slightest retreat, but still insist on pursuing what you want to do.

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