After carefully examining all the paintings portraying women in the
Seinan War (Satsuma Rebellion) I have noticed a few things...
1) with the exception of [1] woman (she wore a buttoned western shirt
and hakama)...all wore kimono
2) no visible body armor, no handguards, armguards nor helmets
3) no shoes...no straw sandals barefeet
4) women were not shown being killed...in one case only restrained and
tied up
5) their big toe on their feet would appear "separate" from the 4
other toes...due to the wearing of sandals since childhood (all the
men had socks/shoes and sandals to obscure this detail)
OT
fanart of Nakano Takeko
http://1happyturtle.com/SHQ/aizuheroinerd.jpg
I had scanning problems and the image is literally a cut and paste of
several scans