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95-572: During the Boshin War , the Sekihōtai was formed on February 1, 1868 at Kongōrin-ji temple in Matsuoji, Ōmi Province with the support of Saigō Takamori and Iwakura Tomomi . Imperial court officials Ayanokoji Toshizane and Shigenoi Kinhisa were appointed as leaders of the army. The Sekihōtai had three units. Sagara Sōzō was the captain of the first unit. The Sekihōtai's second unit had as its captain

190-457: A core elite force. The shōgun also relied on troops supplied by allied domains, which were not necessarily as advanced in terms of military equipment and methods, composing an army that had both modern and outdated elements. Numerous types of more or less modern smoothbore muskets and rifles were imported, from countries as varied as France , Germany , the Netherlands , Britain , and

285-468: A few Gatling guns. After an inconclusive start, an Imperial banner was presented to the defending troops on the second day, and a relative of the Emperor, Ninnajinomiya Yoshiaki , was named nominal commander in chief , making the forces officially an imperial army ( 官軍 , kangun ) . Moreover, convinced by courtiers, several local daimyōs , up to this point faithful to the shōgun , started to defect to

380-452: A head on January 3, 1868, when these elements seized the imperial palace in Kyoto, and the following day had the fifteen-year-old Emperor Meiji declare his own restoration to full power. Although the majority of the imperial consultative assembly representing all the domains was happy with the formal declaration of direct rule by the imperial court and tended to support a continued collaboration with

475-766: A more extensive attempt at modernisation with it being introduced in 1862 by graduates of 2 Samurai academies. The attempt called for the raising of a standing army from the Shogun's personal lands (Tenryo) and the Daimyo under their feudal obligations to provide troops to the Shogun. The army known as the Sampeitai or alternatively the Shinei jobigun was supposed to number 13,625 men with 8,300 infantry (2,000 with rifles) 1,068 cavalry (900 with rifles) 4,890 artillerymen with 48 8 lb field guns and 52 16 lb siege guns and 1,406 officers. The force

570-544: A much longer range than the imported smoothbore muskets, although, being also muzzle-loading, they were similarly limited to two shots per minute. Improved breech-loading mechanisms, such as the Snider , developing a rate of about ten shots a minute, are known to have been used by Chōshū troops against the shogunate's Shōgitai regiment at the Battle of Ueno in July 1868. In the second half of

665-514: A nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. Moreover, the shogunate government, the Tokugawa family in particular, remained a prominent force in the evolving political order and retained many executive powers. Satow speculated that Yoshinobu had agreed to an assembly of daimyōs on the hope that such a body would restore him, a prospect hard-liners from Satsuma and Chōshū found intolerable. Events came to

760-401: A secret alliance with Satsuma. In the summer of 1866, the shogunate was defeated by Chōshū, leading to a considerable loss of authority. In late 1866, however, first shōgun Tokugawa Iemochi and then Emperor Kōmei died, succeeded by Tokugawa Yoshinobu and Emperor Meiji respectively. These events, in the words of historian Marius Jansen , "made a truce inevitable". On November 9, 1867,

855-496: A secret order was created by Satsuma and Chōshū in the name of Emperor Meiji commanding the "slaughtering of the traitorous subject Yoshinobu". Just prior to this, however—and following a proposal from the daimyō of the Tosa Domain —Yoshinobu resigned his post and authority to the emperor, agreeing to "be the instrument for carrying out" imperial orders. This ended the Tokugawa shogunate. While Yoshinobu's resignation had created

950-602: A shotgun at the Hanshin Bureau of the Asahi Shimbun in Nishinomiya , Hyōgo Prefecture on January 24, 1987. The group also made several threats against the lives of two prime ministers, Yasuhiro Nakasone and Noboru Takeshita , citing as their cause the changes made to textbooks about World War II . The actions of the Sekihōtai have been listed as evidence of increased violence among Japanese political extremists. The case

1045-426: A style that matched their status, living standards varied significantly from family to family. Kuge families, long having been seen as a spent force since the samurai class became the de facto ruling class in the 11th century, tended to be significantly worse off than daimyo families. The Nara kazoku (奈良華族), consisting of 26 monk families from Kofukuji , who descended from kuge families (22 of which belonged to

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1140-477: A total of 36 infantry battalions amounting to 14,400 men which formed the core of the Pro-Imperial Army when war broke out. In April 1868 Emperor Meiji himself called for the dispatch of 60 men per 10,000 koku (150 kg of rice, the amount needed for a man for one year) produced in his domain, of the 60 man drafts one-sixth were to be sent to Kyoto to form an Imperial army and the remaining 50 to garrison

1235-519: A total of 50,000 troops. Apart from those core domains, most of the northern domains were part of the alliance. In May 1868, the daimyō of Nagaoka inflicted high losses on the Imperial troops in the Battle of Hokuetsu , but his castle ultimately fell on May 19. Imperial troops continued to progress north, defeating the Shinsengumi at the Battle of Bonari Pass , which opened the way for their attack on

1330-404: A total of 509 peers. By 1928, through promotions and new creations, there were a total of 954 peers: 18 non-imperial princes, 40 marquesses, 108 counts, 379 viscounts and 409 barons. The kazoku reached a peak of 1016 families in 1944. The 1947 Constitution of Japan abolished the kazoku and ended the use of all titles of nobility or rank outside the immediate Imperial Family. Since

1425-642: Is associated with that particular year in the sexagenary cycle. The war started in the fourth year of the Keiō era , which also became the first year of the Meiji era in October of that year, and ended in the second year of the Meiji era. For the two centuries prior to 1854, Japan had a strict policy of isolationism , restricting all interactions with foreign powers, with the notable exceptions of Korea via Tsushima , Qing China via

1520-414: The kuge and former daimyō were a social class distinct from the other designated social classes of shizoku ( 士族 , former samurai) and heimin ( 平民 , commoners) . They lost their territorial privileges. Itō Hirobumi , one of the principal authors of the Meiji constitution , intended the new kazoku peerage to serve as a political and social bulwark for the "restored" emperor and

1615-519: The kuge , such as Iwakura Tomomi and Nakayama Tadayasu , played a crucial role in the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate , and the early Meiji government nominated kuge to head all seven of the newly established administrative departments. The Meiji oligarchs , as part of their Westernizing reforms, merged the kuge with the former daimyō ( 大名 , feudal lords) into an expanded aristocratic class on 25 July 1869, to recognize that

1710-559: The Diet of Japan upon their succession or upon majority (in the case of peers who were minors). Counts, viscounts and barons elected up to 150 representatives from their ranks to sit in the House of Peers. Under the Peerage Act of 7 July 1884 , pushed through by Home Minister and future first Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi after visiting Europe , the Meiji government expanded the hereditary peerage with

1805-725: The House of Peers , diplomats (e.g., Prince Iemasa Tokugawa , Marquess Naohiro Nabeshima ), and scholars (e.g., Marquess Yoshichika Tokugawa , Prince Tomohide Iwakura ). Those who followed rather unusual career paths included Marquess Hijikata Yoshi , who became a communist and fled to Soviet Russia , and Meiho Ogasawara , an heir to a viscountcy who pursued his passion for films and was disinherited in 1935. Kazoku usually married within their class. The Imperial Household Law of 1889 prohibited Imperial Princes from marrying commoners, hence their options were limited to Princesses and daughters of kazoku families. Kazoku daughters who married into

1900-566: The Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War , was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperial Court . The war stemmed from dissatisfaction among many nobles and young samurai with the shogunate's handling of foreigners following the opening of Japan during

1995-670: The Meiji Emperor 's maternal grandfather and also from an urin -ranked family, was ennobled as a marquess. The head of the Shō family , the former royal family of the Ryūkyū Kingdom ( Okinawa ), was given the title of marquess. When the Korean Empire was annexed in 1910, the House of Yi was mediatized as an incorporated and therefore subordinate kingship ( 王 ) . Excluding the Tokugawas ,

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2090-608: The Ryukyu Islands , and the Dutch through the trading post of Dejima . In 1854, the United States Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry 's expedition opened Japan to global commerce through the implied threat of force, thus initiating rapid development of foreign trade and Westernization . In large part due to the humiliating terms of the unequal treaties , as agreements like those negotiated by Perry are called,

2185-716: The Sakai incident on March 8, 1868. Fifteen days later, Sir Harry Parkes , the British ambassador, was attacked by a group of samurai in a street of Kyoto. Beginning in February, with the help of the French ambassador Léon Roches , a plan was formulated to stop the Imperial Court's advance at Odawara , the last strategic entry point to Edo, but Yoshinobu decided against the plan. Shocked, Léon Roches resigned from his position. In early March, under

2280-414: The Tokugawa shogunate soon faced internal dissent, which coalesced into a radical movement, the sonnō jōi (meaning "revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians"). Emperor Kōmei agreed with such sentiments and, breaking with centuries of Imperial tradition, began to take an active role in matters of state: as opportunities arose, he vehemently protested against the treaties and attempted to interfere in

2375-476: The United Kingdom and France , were deeply involved in the country's politics, the installation of Imperial power added more turbulence to the conflict. Over time, the war was romanticized as a "bloodless revolution", as the number of casualties was small relative to the size of Japan's population. However, conflicts soon emerged between the western samurai and the modernists in the Imperial faction, which led to

2470-543: The United States , and coexisted with traditional types such as the tanegashima matchlock . Most shogunate troops used smoothbore muskets, about 200,000 of which had been imported or domestically produced over the years since around 1600. The first modern firearms were initially imported about 1840 from the Netherlands by the pro-Western reformist Takashima Shūhan . The daimyō of Nagaoka Domain , however, an ally of

2565-538: The five regent houses ( go-sekke ) of the Fujiwara dynasty ( Konoe , Takatsukasa , Kujō , Ichijō and Nijō ) all became princes, the equivalent of a European duke , upon the establishment of the kazoku in 1884. The heads of eight other families ( Daigo , Hirohata , Kikutei , Koga , Saionji , Tokudaiji , Ōinomikado and Kasannoin ) all with the rank of [[[:ja:清華家|seiga]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 7) ( help ) ,

2660-675: The shōgun ' s Army Minister, negotiated the surrender. Some groups continued to resist after this surrender but were defeated in the Battle of Ueno on July 4, 1868. Meanwhile, the leader of the shōgun ' s navy, Enomoto Takeaki , refused to surrender all his ships. He remitted just four ships, among them the Fujiyama , but he then escaped north with the remnants of the shōgun ' s navy (eight steam warships: Kaiten , Banryū , Chiyodagata , Chōgei , Kaiyō Maru , Kanrin Maru , Mikaho and Shinsoku ), and 2,000 personnel, in

2755-487: The shōgun , possessed two Gatling guns and several thousand modern rifles. The shogunate is known to have placed an order for 30,000 modern Dreyse needle guns in 1866. Napoleon III provided Yoshinobu with 2,000 state-of-the-art Chassepot rifles, which he used to equip his personal guard. Antiquated tanegashima matchlocks are also known to have been used by the shogunate, however. Imperial troops mainly used Minié rifles, which were much more accurate, lethal, and had

2850-510: The three great nobles of the Meiji Restoration, were ennobled as marquesses in 1884, followed by the heirs of samurai general-politician Saigō Takamori in 1902. As in the British peerage , only the actual holder of a title and his consort were considered members of the kazoku . The holders of the top two ranks, prince and marquess, automatically became members of the House of Peers in

2945-602: The Americans, French, and Russians , but was not able to garner any international recognition or support. Enomoto offered to confer the territory to the Tokugawa shōgun under Imperial rule, but his proposal was declined by the Imperial Governing Council. Kazoku The Kazoku ( 華族 , "Magnificent/Exalted lineage") was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan , which existed between 1869 and 1947. It

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3040-493: The Daimyo's domain. On January 27, 1868, shogunate forces attacked the forces of Chōshū and Satsuma, clashing near Toba and Fushimi , at the southern entrance to Kyoto in the Battle of Toba–Fushimi . Some parts of the 15,000-strong shogunate forces had been trained by French military advisers. Among their numbers during this battle were the noted Shinsengumi . The forces of Chōshū and Satsuma were outnumbered 3:1 but fully modernized with Armstrong howitzers, Minié rifles and

3135-553: The Emperor's court was, but were repelled by shogunate forces under the future shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu . The shogunate further ordered a punitive expedition against Chōshū, the First Chōshū expedition , and obtained Chōshū's submission without actual fighting. At this point the initial resistance among the leadership in Chōshū and the Imperial Court subsided, but over the next year the Tokugawa proved unable to reassert full control over

3230-525: The French. Despite the bombardment of Kagoshima, the Satsuma Domain had become closer to the British and was pursuing the modernization of its army and navy with their support. The Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover sold quantities of warships and guns to the southern domains. American and British military experts, usually former officers, may have been directly involved in this military effort. The British ambassador, Harry Smith Parkes , supported

3325-454: The Fujiwara clan), were all made barons under the kazoku system. They were regarded as the poorest and received extra stipends to support their living. A 1915 survey found that a kazoku family had around 13 servants on average, while the grandest families had hundreds. Almost all kazoku heirs raised in Japan attended Gakushuin for their primary and secondary education. For higher education,

3420-581: The Japanese imperial institution. At the time, the kuge (142 families) and former daimyō (285 families) consisted of a group of total 427 families . All members of the kazoku without an official government appointment in the provinces were initially obliged to reside in Tokyo . By the end of 1869, a pension system was adopted, which gradually displaced the kazoku from their posts as provincial governors and as government leaders. The stipends promised by

3515-466: The Sampeitai adding at least 1,500 men to the army. The Shogunate, aiming to modernise its forces, hired 17 French officers in 1867. These 17 officers trained 900 men who formed the elite Denshutai . The French officers brought with them 3,000 Chassepot rifles and 12 artillery pieces. Three separate military schools were constructed for the infantry, artillery and cavalry with limited engineer instruction, they also introduced carbine and lance cavalry to

3610-710: The Satsuma navy in Awa Bay near Osaka. This was Japan's second engagement between two modern navies. The battle, although small in scale, ended with a victory for the shogunate. On the diplomatic front, the ministers of foreign nations, gathered in the open harbour of Hyōgo (present day Kobe ) in early February, issued a declaration according to which the shogunate was still considered the only rightful government in Japan, giving hope to Tokugawa Yoshinobu that foreign nations (especially France) might consider an intervention in his favour. A few days later however an Imperial delegation visited

3705-401: The Sekihōtai were used as a scapegoat, with the government calling them a "false army". The Sekihōtai's actions gradually became a burden to the new government which repealed the 50% reduction in land rent on the 27th. On the same day, Ayanokoji Toshizane was ordered by his father Ohara Shigetomi to return to Kyoto. The 2nd and 3rd units returned to Kyoto without the 1st unit. The 1st unit—which

3800-564: The Tokudaiji and the Saionji houses were advanced to the rank of prince from the rank of marquess in 1911 and 1920, respectively. In recognition of his father's role in the Meiji Restoration , Iwakura Tomosada , the heir of noble Iwakura Tomomi and whose family had been in the fourth tier of kuge nobility, with the rank of urin , was ennobled as a prince in 1884. Nakayama Tadayasu ,

3895-508: The Tokugawa (under the concept of "just government" ( 公議政体 , kōgiseitai ) ), Saigō Takamori threatened the assembly into abolishing the title " shōgun " and ordering the confiscation of Yoshinobu's lands. Although he initially agreed to these demands, on January 17, 1868, Yoshinobu declared that he would not be bound by the Restoration proclamation and called for its repeal. On January 24, he decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, which

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3990-547: The US refused to release the ship, but once neutrality was lifted, the imperial faction obtained the vessel and employed it in engagements in Hakodate under the name Kōtetsu ("Ironclad"). Following a coup d'état within Chōshū which returned to power the extremist factions opposed to the shogunate, the shogunate announced its intention to lead a Second Chōshū expedition to punish the renegade domain. This, in turn, prompted Chōshū to form

4085-555: The Western powers. Due to the persistence of Saigō Takamori , a prominent leader of the Imperial faction, the Tokugawa loyalists were shown clemency , and many former shogunate leaders and samurai were later given positions of responsibility under the new government. When the Boshin War began, Japan was already modernizing, following the same course of advancement as that of the industrialized Western nations. Since Western nations, especially

4180-502: The anti-shogunate forces in a drive to establish a legitimate, unified Imperial rule in Japan , and to counter French influence with the shogunate. During that period, southern Japanese leaders such as Saigō Takamori of Satsuma, or Itō Hirobumi and Inoue Kaoru of Chōshū cultivated personal connections with British diplomats, notably Ernest Mason Satow . Satsuma domain received British assistance for their naval modernisation, and they became

4275-740: The award of kazoku status to persons regarded as having performed distinguished public services to the nation. The government also divided the kazoku into five ranks explicitly based on the British peerage , but with titles deriving from the ancient Chinese nobility . Usually, though not always, titles and hereditary financial stipends passed according to primogeniture . Unlike in European peerage systems, but following traditional Japanese custom, illegitimate sons could succeed to titles and estates. To prevent their lineages from dying out, heads of kazoku houses could (and frequently did) adopt sons from collateral branches of their own houses, whether in

4370-466: The betrayal by Yodo and Tsu, shogunate forces retreated, resulting in an Imperial victory, although it is often considered the shogunate forces should have won the encounter. Osaka Castle was soon invested on March 1 (February 8 in the Tenpō calendar ), putting an end to the battle. The day after the battle of Toba–Fushimi commenced, the naval Battle of Awa took place between the shogunate and elements of

4465-491: The bloodier Satsuma Rebellion nine years later. Boshin ( 戊辰 ) is the designation for the fifth year of a sexagenary cycle in traditional East Asian calendars. Although the war lasted for over a year, Boshin refers to the year that the war started in. The characters 戊辰 can also be read as tsuchinoe-tatsu in Japanese , literally "Elder Brother of Earth-Dragon". In Chinese , it translates as " Yang Earth Dragon", which

4560-657: The castle of Aizuwakamatsu in the Battle of Aizu in October 1868, thus making the position in Sendai untenable. Enomoto's fleet reached Sendai harbour on August 26. Although the Northern Coalition was numerous, it was poorly equipped, and relied on traditional fighting methods. Modern armament was scarce, and last-minute efforts were made to build cannons made of wood and reinforced with roping, firing stone projectiles. Such cannons, installed on defensive structures, could only fire four or five projectiles before bursting. On

4655-444: The clan which had remained loyal to the Emperor during the conflict, was raised to the rank of marquess, having been ennobled as a count in 1884. Many of those who had significant roles in the Meiji Restoration, or their heirs, were ennobled. Ito Hirobumi and Yamagata Aritomo were ennobled as counts in 1884, promoted to marquesses in 1895 and finally became princes in 1907. The heirs of Okubo Toshimichi and Kido Takayoshi , two of

4750-510: The conflict, in the northeast theater, Tosa troops are known to have used American-made Spencer repeating rifles . American-made handguns were also popular, such as the 1863 Smith & Wesson Army No 2 , which was imported to Japan by Glover and used by Satsuma forces. For artillery, wooden cannons , only able to fire 3 or 4 shots before bursting, coexisted with state-of-the-art Armstrong guns using explosive shells . Armstrong guns were efficiently used by Satsuma and Saga troops throughout

4845-475: The core of the traditional upper class in the country's society, distinct from the nouveau riche . Kazoku ( 華族 ) should not be confused with "kazoku ( 家族 )" , which is pronounced the same in Japanese, but with a different character reading that means "immediate family" (as in the film Kazoku above). Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the ancient court nobility of Kyoto , the kuge ( 公家 ) , regained some of its lost status. Several members of

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4940-527: The country as most daimyōs began to ignore orders and questions from the Tokugawa seat of power in Edo . The Shogun had sought French assistance for training and weaponry since 1865. Léon Roches, French consul to Japan, supported the Shogunal military reform efforts to promote French influence, hoping to make Japan into a dependent client state. This caused the British to send their own military mission to compete with

5035-479: The emperor. Yoshinobu had hoped that by doing this the House of Tokugawa could be preserved and participate in the future government. However, military movements by imperial forces, partisan violence in Edo , and an imperial decree promoted by Satsuma and Chōshū abolishing the House of Tokugawa led Yoshinobu to launch a military campaign to seize the emperor's court in Kyoto . The military tide rapidly turned in favour of

5130-688: The end of the war, many descendants of the kazoku families continue to occupy prominent roles in Japanese society and industry. The Kazoku Kaikan ( 華族会館 ) , or Peers' Club, was the association of the high nobility. It had its headquarters in the Rokumeikan building. After 1947 it was renamed the Kasumi Kaikan ( 霞会館 ) and is located in the Kasumigaseki Building in Kasumigaseki . Although kazoku families were supposed to live in

5225-486: The end of the war. The Satsuma domain in 1840 contained 25,000 samurai and being more open to the world at large underwent a more rapid process of modernisation than the Shogunate. In 1854 a foundry was already founded for firearms production, soon joined by an artillery foundry and three ammunition plants. The Anglo-Satsuma war of 1863 gave the Satsuma officials a further incentive for more extensive military reforms due to

5320-458: The force. It was intended for the 900 men of the Denshutai to be dispersed amongst the myriad of Shogunate armies to train and re-organise them though this did not occur due to the outbreak of hostilities. The Shogun additionally possessed 302 Shinsengumi police forces who were intensely loyal to the Shogunate. The Shogunate navy also contained 3,000 sailors who acted as infantry on Hokkaido towards

5415-639: The former captain of the Shinsengumi 's ninth unit, Suzuki Mikisaburō , and was composed of his elder brother Itō Kashitarō 's followers who had deserted the Shinsengumi. The third unit's captain was Yukawa Rensaburō of the Minakuchi Clan and it was composed mainly of Minakuchi Clan warriors. The Sekihōtai traveled the countryside spreading news about the upcoming change of regime. The Meiji government had made promises such as tax cuts that could not be kept, so

5510-405: The government were eventually replaced by government bonds . In 1884 the kazoku were reorganized and the old feudal titles were replaced with: There were several categories within the kazoku . The initial rank distribution for kazoku houses of kuge descent depended on the highest possible office to which its ancestors had been entitled in the imperial court. Thus, the heirs of

5605-554: The guerilla corps ( yugekitai ) under Hitomi Katsutarō , as well as several more French advisers (Fortant, Garde, Marlin, Bouffier). On October 26, Edo was renamed Tokyo , and the Meiji period officially started. Aizu was besieged starting that month, leading to the mass suicide of the Byakkotai (White Tiger Corps) young warriors. After a protracted month-long battle, Aizu finally admitted defeat on November 6. Following defeat on Honshū , Enomoto Takeaki fled to Hokkaidō with

5700-517: The head of the main family line of the Date clan , which had formerly ruled the extensive Sendai Domain , was only ennobled as a count and was thus denied a hereditary seat in the House of Peers ; this was likely due to the domain's prominent role as the leader of a coalition against the Imperial forces during the Boshin War . In 1891, the head of the Date-Uwajima family ( Uwajima Domain ), a cadet branch of

5795-670: The heads of the Mōri ( Chōshū Domain ) and Shimazu ( Satsuma Domain ) clans were both ennobled as princes in 1884 for their role in the Meiji Restoration; the Yamauchi ( Tosa Domain ) clan was given the rank of marquess. The heads of the main Asano ( Hiroshima Domain ), Ikeda ( Okayama and Tottori Domains ), Kuroda ( Fukuoka Domain ), Satake ( Kubota Domain ), Nabeshima ( Saga Domain ), Hachisuka ( Tokushima Domain ), Hosokawa ( Kumamoto Domain ) and Maeda ( Kaga Domain ) clans became marquesses in 1884. Notably,

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5890-534: The heads of the secondary branches became counts and the heads of more distant branches became viscounts. The head of the Matsudaira ( Fukui Domain ) branch was raised to the rank of marquess from the rank of count in 1888. In 1902, the former shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu was created a prince, and the head of the Mito shinpan house was raised to the same rank, prince, in 1929. Of the other former daimyō clans,

5985-521: The hope of staging a counter-attack together with the northern daimyōs . He was accompanied by a handful of French military advisers, notably Jules Brunet , who had formally resigned from the French Army to accompany the rebels. After Yoshinobu's surrender, he was placed under house arrest , and stripped of all titles, land and power. He was later released, when he demonstrated no further interest and ambition in national affairs. He retired to Shizuoka ,

6080-461: The influence of the British minister Harry Parkes , foreign nations signed a strict neutrality agreement, according to which they could not intervene or provide military supplies to either side until the resolution of the conflict. Saigō Takamori led the victorious imperial forces north and east through Japan, winning the Battle of Kōshū-Katsunuma . He eventually surrounded Edo in May 1868, leading to its unconditional defeat after Katsu Kaishū ,

6175-434: The initial kazoku rank distribution for the former daimyō lords depended on rice revenue: those with 150,000 koku or more became marquesses, those with 50,000 koku or more become counts, and those with holdings rated below 50,000 koku became viscounts. The head of the Tokugawa clan , Tokugawa Iesato , became a prince, the heads of primary Tokugawa branch houses ( shinpan daimyō ) became marquesses,

6270-548: The male or female lines of descent, and from other kazoku houses whether related or not. Unlike European custom, the adopted heir of a peer could succeed to a title ahead of a more senior heir in terms of primogeniture. A 1904 amendment to the 1889 Imperial Household Law allowed minor princes ( ō ) of the imperial family to renounce their imperial status and become peers (in their own right) or heirs to childless peers. Initially there were 11 non-imperial princes, 24 marquesses, 76 counts, 324 viscounts and 74 barons, for

6365-409: The military prestige of Napoleon III at that time, acquired through his successes in the Crimean War and the Second Italian War of Independence . The shogunate took major steps towards the construction of a modern and powerful military: a navy with a core of eight steam warships had been built over several years and was already the strongest in Asia . In 1865, Japan's first modern naval arsenal

6460-433: The ministers declaring that the shogunate was abolished, that harbours would be open in accordance with International treaties, and that foreigners would be protected. The ministers finally decided to recognize the new government. The rise of anti-foreign sentiment nonetheless led to several attacks on foreigners in the following months. Eleven French sailors from the corvette Dupleix were killed by samurai of Tosa in

6555-541: The most preferred institutions included the University of Tokyo (called Tokyo Imperial University 1897-1947) (e.g., Prince Iemasa Tokugawa , Count Yoriyasu Arima ) and the naval and army academies (e.g., Viscount Naganari Ogasawara , Marquess Toshinari Maeda ). Some opted to be educated overseas, such as at Eton College (e.g., Prince Iesato Tokugawa ) and Cambridge University (e.g., Marquess Masauji Hachisuka , Baron Koayata Iwasaki ). After completing their education, they pursued varied careers such as statesmen at

6650-412: The name Sekihōtai refers to a 1980s political group of a similarly extreme, though less military bent. The full name of the group was Nippon Minzoku Dokuritsu Giyugun Betsudo Sekihōtai, which translates roughly as Blood Revenge Division of the People's Partisan Corps Working for the Independence of the Japanese Race. This group was responsible for the death of reporter, Tomohiro Kojiri , when a member fired

6745-501: The other hand, the daimyō of Nagaoka managed to procure two of the three Gatling guns in Japan and 2,000 modern French rifles from the German weapons dealer Henry Schnell . The coalition crumbled, and on October 12, 1868, the fleet left Sendai for Hokkaidō , after having acquired two more ships ( Oe and Hōō , previously borrowed by Sendai from the shogunate), and about 1,000 more troops: remaining shogunate troops under Ōtori Keisuke , Shinsengumi troops under Hijikata Toshizō ,

6840-529: The place to which his ancestor Tokugawa Ieyasu had also retired. Most of Japan accepted the emperor's rule, but a core of domains in the North, supporting the Aizu clan, continued the resistance. In May, several northern daimyōs formed an Alliance to fight Imperial troops, the coalition of northern domains composed primarily of forces from the domains of Sendai , Yonezawa , Aizu , Shōnai and Nagaoka Domain , with

6935-501: The poor military performance of its forces. The Daimyo therefore hired several French officers and began enrolling peasants into the military. The Choshu domain in 1840 contained 11,000 samurai and was also more amenable to reform, and more ambitious than Satsuma in reform and the recruitment of peasantry with the formation of the 300 strong Kihetai, a mixed formation of samurai, townsmen, and peasants, with ronin officers with tough discipline and western uniforms. A second and third company

7030-459: The prior decade. Increasing Western influence in the economy led to a decline similar to that of other Asian countries at the time. An alliance of western samurai, particularly the domains of Chōshū , Satsuma , and Tosa , and court officials secured control of the Imperial Court and influenced the young Emperor Meiji . Tokugawa Yoshinobu , the sitting shōgun , realizing the futility of his situation, abdicated and handed over political power to

7125-547: The remnants of the navy and his handful of French advisers. Together they organized a government, with the objective of establishing an independent island nation dedicated to the development of Hokkaidō. They formally established the Republic of Ezo on the American model, Japan's only ever republic, and Enomoto was elected as president, with a large majority. The republic tried to reach out to foreign legations present in Hakodate, such as

7220-531: The second largest purchaser of western ships after the Shogunate itself, of which nearly all were British-built. As Satsuma samurai became dominant in the Imperial navy after the war, the navy frequently sought assistance from the British. In preparation for future conflict, the shogunate also modernized its forces. In line with Parkes's strategy, the British, previously the shogunate's primary foreign partner, proved reluctant to provide assistance. The Tokugawa thus came to rely mainly on French expertise, comforted by

7315-736: The second rank in the kuge , became marquesses at the same time. Those family heads in the third tier of the kuge and with the rank of [[[:ja:大臣家|daijin]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 7) ( help ) became counts. Heads of families in the lowest three tiers (those in the ranks of [[[:ja:羽林家|urin]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 7) ( help ) , [[[:ja:名家|mei]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 7) ( help ) and [[[:ja:半家|han]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 7) ( help ) ) typically became viscounts, but could also be ennobled as counts. Other appointments to

7410-453: The shelling of foreign shipping in the port of Shimonoseki . During 1864, these actions were successfully countered by armed retaliations by foreign powers, such as the British bombardment of Kagoshima and the multinational Shimonoseki campaign . At the same time, the forces of Chōshū Domain , together with rōnin , raised the Hamaguri rebellion trying to seize the city of Kyoto , where

7505-623: The shogunal succession. His efforts culminated in March 1863 with his " order to expel barbarians ". Although the shogunate had no intention of enforcing it, the order nevertheless inspired attacks against the shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan: the most famous incident was that of the English trader Charles Lennox Richardson , for whose death the Tokugawa government had to pay an indemnity of one hundred thousand British pounds . Other attacks included

7600-445: The shogunate often wore French and British uniforms. Traditional troops however retained their samurai clothes. Some of the Imperial troops wore peculiar headgear, involving the use of long, colored, "bear" hair. The "red bear" ( 赤熊 , shaguma ) wigs indicated officers from Tosa, the "white bear" ( 白熊 , haguma ) wigs officers from Chōshū, and the "black bear" (黒熊, koguma ) wigs officers from Satsuma. The Sampeitai formed

7695-402: The shogunate, under Saigo's direction, had been hiding and creating trouble. The residence was burned down, and many opponents killed or later executed. The forces of Chōshū and Satsuma were fully modernized with Armstrong Guns , Minié rifles and one Gatling gun . The shogunate forces had been slightly lagging in terms of equipment, although the French military mission had recently trained

7790-399: The side of the Imperial Court. These included the daimyōs of Yodo and Tsu in February, tilting the military balance in favour of the Imperial side. After the defections, Yoshinobu, apparently distressed by the imperial approval given to the actions of Satsuma and Chōshū, fled Osaka aboard the Japanese battleship  Kaiyō Maru , withdrawing to Edo. Demoralized by his flight and by

7885-417: The smaller but relatively modernized Imperial faction, and, after a series of battles culminating in the surrender of Edo , Yoshinobu personally surrendered. Those loyal to the Tokugawa shōgun retreated to northern Honshū and later to Hokkaidō , where they founded the Republic of Ezo . The defeat at the Battle of Hakodate broke this last holdout and left the Emperor as the de facto supreme ruler throughout

7980-408: The two highest ranks in the kazoku —prince and marquess—from among the kuge were also made to reward certain kuge families for their roles in the Meiji Restoration , for taking a prominent role in national affairs or for their close degree of relationship to the Imperial family. Thus the head of the seiga -ranked Sanjo  [ ja ] house became a prince in 1884. The heads of

8075-512: The war. The Shogunate as well as the Imperial side also used native Japanese cannons, with Japan making cannons domestically as far back as 1575. In the area of warships also, some of the most recent ironclads such as the Kōtetsu coexisted with older types of steamboats and even traditional sailboats. The shogunate initially had the edge in warships, and it had the vision to buy the Kōtetsu . The ship

8170-403: The whole of Japan, completing the military phase of the Meiji Restoration . Around 69,000 men were mobilized during the conflict, and of these about 8,200 were killed. In the end, the victorious Imperial faction abandoned its objective of expelling foreigners from Japan and instead adopted a policy of continued modernization with an eye to the eventual renegotiation of the unequal treaties with

8265-400: Was blocked from delivery by foreign powers on grounds of neutrality once the conflict had started, and was ultimately delivered to the Imperial faction shortly after the Battle of Toba–Fushimi . Uniforms were Western-style for modernized troops (usually dark, with variations in the shape of the helmet: tall conical for Satsuma, flat conical for Chōshū, rounded for the shogunate). Officers of

8360-703: Was built in Yokosuka by the French engineer Léonce Verny . In January 1867, a French military mission arrived to reorganize the shogunate army and create the Denshūtai elite force, and an order was placed with the US to buy the French-built ironclad warship CSS Stonewall , which had been built for the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War . Due to the Western powers' declared neutrality,

8455-531: Was formed by merging the feudal lords ( daimyō ) and court nobles ( kuge ) into one system modelled after the British peerage . Distinguished military officers, politicians, and scholars were occasionally ennobled until the country's defeat in the Second World War in 1945 (新華族, shin kazoku , lit. "the newly ennobled"). The system was abolished with the 1947 constitution , which prohibited any form of aristocracy under it, but kazoku descendants still form

8550-435: Was met by the shogun. Ironically, the largest provider of men under the new system was the Satsuma domain providing 4,800 infantry, 100 cavalry and 8 guns with 100 men. In 1863 the Shogun allowed the recruitment of commoners but by 1867 this force had only reached 5,900 infantry. In order to augment this force the Shogun raised 5 battalions of Yugekitai. The Shogun also disbanded the city and legation guard units and added them to

8645-613: Was named Metropolitan Designated Case 116 . The statute of limitations on the crimes expired in March 2003, but supralegal investigations have been made since. In February 2009, a group claiming to be Sekihōtai sent threatening messages to a NHK news anchor. Boshin War Imperial victory [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Meiji [REDACTED] Prince Komatsu The Boshin War ( 戊辰 戦争 , Boshin Sensō ) , sometimes known as

8740-457: Was occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces. This decision was prompted by his learning of a series of arsons in Edo, starting with the burning of the outer works of Edo Castle , the main Tokugawa residence. This was blamed on Satsuma rōnin , who on that day attacked a government office. The next day shogunate forces responded by attacking the Edo residence of the daimyō of Satsuma, where many opponents of

8835-450: Was raised increasing its strength to 900 men. The usage of gunboat diplomacy brought in many volunteers and another 980 men were formed in several shotai or auxiliary militia, with 60 units in total by 1865. These shotai were added to the Choshu military and given modern weaponry by 1868. By 1868 there were 150 shotai and they were regularised and when added to the regular domain army contained

8930-533: Was to contain half seishi (richer samurai) and half Kashi (poorer Samurai). The recruitment was to be men between 17 and 45 with service terms of 5 years with battalions of 600 companies of 120 and platoons of 40. The daimyo were allowed to substitute manpower with money to purchase firearms and rice to feed the soldiers something the Shoguate desperately needed both of. However, the plan immediately ran into issues as resistance to providing men and money to purchase firearms

9025-595: Was under Sagara Sōzō—changed its name to Tobaku Senpo Kyodotai Sekihotai ( 倒幕先鋒嚮導隊赤報隊 ) and continued its attack along the Tosan Highway. Sagara and members of the first unit were arrested on March 24, 1868 outside Shimosuwa and were sentenced to death by decapitation on March 26, 1868. However, Suzuki and the second unit continued to serve the Ishin Shishi (Imperialists). As for the members of third unit, many were executed due to their plundering behavior. Recently,

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