The Byakkōtai ("White Tiger Company") was a group of young, predominantly teenage, samurai who committed seppuku (a form of ritual suicide) on a hillside overlooking the castle after seeing its defenses breached, during the Battle of Aizu, in the 1868-1869 Boshin war. However the Byakkōtai were sadly mistaken in their assessment of defeat, as the castle defenses had not actually been breached.