Hekketsu-hi, War memorial at Mount Hakodate base, Japan

Hekketsu-hi is a stone memorial about 7.6 meters tall at the foot of Mount Hakodate, built in 1875 for roughly 800 soldiers of the former shogunate army killed in the Hakodate War. Its stone was quarried in Izu, shaped in Tokyo and shipped by sea; the inscription is attributed to Ōtori Keisuke. The reverse reads that the stone was set on the hill in Meiji 2 (1869) to express their resolve.

The bodies of the defeated shogunate soldiers lay unburied until the Hakodate fixer Yanagawa Kumagichi had them recovered and buried at three temples. In 1871 he bought land on Mount Hakodate and reburied them there. After the government permitted memorials to the defeated in 1874, survivors such as Enomoto Takeaki and Ōtori Keisuke worked with Yanagawa to raise this monument in May 1875.

The name comes from a passage in the Zhuangzi about Chang Hong, whose blood, kept for three years, turned into jade — a legend about loyalty unto death. A memorial ceremony has been held every year since 1875, and since 1941 on 25 June, the date the Chiyogadai headquarters fell and Nakajima Saburōsuke and his son died.

Reach the memorial from the Yachigashira tram stop on the Hakodate City Tram, about a 15-minute walk, or via the Yachigashira bus stop. The stone stands at the foot of Mount Hakodate; the approach is on foot, so allow time for the climb.

A local resident named Yanagawa Kumagichi secretly collected the bones of fallen soldiers and buried them without government permission. His courageous action eventually led to the creation of this memorial.