Later Life
After his time in the army, Yamakawa went into education, becoming school president of the Tokyo Women's Normal School, replacing fellow Aizu native Takamine Hideo. He was also made a member of the House of Peers. In his later years he devoted himself to writing, and put together the text Kyoto Shugoshoku Shimatsu, which was one of the first texts that gave a view of the Aizu domain's actions that was not part of the Meiji oligarchs' triumphalist narrative.
Yamakawa was elevated to the peerage with the title of danshaku under the kazoku system. He died in Tokyo in 1898, and was buried there.
Read more about this topic: Yamakawa Hiroshi
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They saw reflected in the coming time.
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Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book,
Till life became a Legend of the Dead.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
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