Samurai Going Out Like a Cowboy!

I work at a variety of private language schools in addition to my full time job as an assistant language teacher with three high schools. One of the Japanese teachers from a private language school is a major history geek like myself. He told me the story of a samurai named Tsugunosuke Kawai from Nagaoka, in Niigata Prefecture. Tsugunosuke was a samurai general who fought against the forces fighting to restore the authority of the Emperor after two and fifty years of rule by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family.

He had purchased two Gatling guns from some foreign arms dealers. He used them in a battle near Nagaoka when the imperial forces fought to capture the city. He was shooting one of the Gatling guns as he was leading his forces. He was shot in the leg by an imperial sniper. He later died of his wounds. I would love to see a movie about this.