Showdown with 87-year-old Katsunari – Trying Out a Matchlock –

Katsunari Continued to Astonish with his Bravery in Old Age

Katsunari left behind a lot of heroic tales on the battlefield, but there are even materials that speak to more bravery in his later years. Namely, there is evidence of an occasion on May 7, 1650, when Mizuno Katsunari fired a gun at age 87. There is a 12 cm-wide wooden block with a black dot drawn in the middle that has been pierced by a gunshot. There is an account of the practice shot written on the back of the board in India ink. According to that account, 87-year-old Katsunari shot through the board from a distance of 36.4 meters and wowed everyone. Katsunari passed away on March 15, 1651, and this record of valor dates to a year before that.