The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those favorable to the restoration of the Emperor Meiji. The war finds its origin in the emperor's declared abolition of the two hundred year-old Shogunate and the imposition of direct rule by the imperial court. Military movements by imperial forces and partisan violence in Edo, led Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the sitting shogun, to launch a military campaign to seize the emperor's court at Kyoto. The military tide rapidly turned in favor of the smaller but relatively modernized imperial faction, and after a series of battles culminating in the surrender of Edo, Yoshinobu personally surrendered. The Tokugawa remnant retreated to northern Honshu and later Hokkaido, where they declared a republic. Defeat at the Battle of Hakodate broke this last holdout and left the imperial rule supreme throughout the whole of Japan, completing the military phase of the Meiji Restoration.

Around 120,000 men were mobilized during the conflict, and of these about 3,500 were killed. In the end, the victorious imperial faction abandoned its objective to expel foreigners from Japan and instead adopted a policy of continued modernization with an eye to eventual renegotiation of the Unequal Treaties with the Western powers. Due to the persistence of Saigo Takamori, a prominent leader of the imperial faction, the Tokugawa loyalists were shown clemency, and many former shogunal leaders were later given positions of responsibility under the new government.

The Boshin War testifies to the advanced state of modernization already achieved by Japan barely fourteen years after its opening to the West, the already high involvement of Western nations (especially Great Britain and France) in the country's politics, and the rather turbulent installation of Imperial power. Over time, the war has been romanticized by Japanese and others who view the Meiji Restoration as a "bloodless revolution," despite the number of casualties. Various dramatizations of the war have been made in Japan, and elements of the conflict were incorporated into the 2003 American film The Last Samurai.

For the two centuries prior to 1854, Japan had almost completely forbidden exchange with foreign nations, with the notable exceptions of Korea via Tsushima, Qing China via the Ryukyus, and the Dutch through the trading post of Dejima. In 1854, Commodore Perry opened Japan to global commerce with the implied threat of force, thus initiating a period of rapid development in foreign trade and Westernization. In large part due to the humiliating terms of the Unequal Treaties, as agreements like those conveyed by Perry are called, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement, the sonnō jōi (literally "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians").

The Emperor Komei 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 fulminated against the treaties and attempted to interfere in the shogunal succession. His efforts culminated in 1863 with his "Order to expel barbarians." Although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it 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 the shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki.

During 1864, these actions were successfully countered by armed retaliations by foreign powers, such as the British Bombardment of Kagoshima and the multinational Bombardment of Shimonoseki. At the same time, the forces of Choshu, together with xenophobic ronin, raised the Hamaguri rebellion trying to seize the city of Kyoto, where the Emperor's court was held, but the future shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu led a punitive expedition and defeated them. At this point initial resistance among the leadership in Choshu and the imperial court subsided, but over the next year the Tokugawa proved unable to reassert full control over the country as most daimyo began to ignore orders and questions from Edo.

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. Anglo-American military experts, usually former officers, may have been directly involved in this military effort. The British ambassador Harry Smith Parkes supported the anti-Shogunate forces in a drive to establish a legitimate, unified Imperial rule in Japan. During that period, southern Japanese leaders such as Saigo Takamori of Satsuma, or Itō Hirobumi and Inoue Kaoru of Chōshū cultivated personal connections with English diplomats, notably Ernest Mason Satow.


The Shogunate also was preparing for further conflict by modernizing its forces. In line with Parkes' designs, the British, theretofore the Shogunate's primary partner, proved reluctant to provide assistance. The Tokugawa thus came to rely mainly on French expertise, comforted by the military prestige of Napoleon III at that time, acquired through his successes in the Crimean War and the War of Italy. 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 was built in Yokosuka by the French engineer Léonce Verny. In January 1867, a French military mission arrived to reorganize the shogunal army and create an elite force, and an order was placed with the United States to buy a French-made ironclad warship, the CSS ''Stonewall''. Due to the Western powers' declared neutrality, the Americans 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 (literally "Ironclad").

Following an internal coup within and renewed revolt by Choshu, and the Shogunate's announced intention to lead an expedition to quell that revolt, Choshu formed a secret alliance with Satsuma. In late 1866, however, first Shogun Iemochi and then Emperor Komei died, respectively succeeded by Yoshinobu and Emperor Meiji. These events "made a truce inevitable." On November 9, 1867, a secret order was issued to Satsuma and Choshu by Emperor Meiji authority commanding the "slaughtering of the traitorous subject Yoshinobu." Just prior to this however, and following a proposal from the daimyo of Tosa, Yoshinobu resigned his post and authorities to the emperor, agreeing to call a general assembly of daimyo to create a new government. The Tokugawa Shogunate had ended.

While Yoshinobu's surrender had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. Moreover, the shogunal government, the Tokugawa family in particular, would remain a prominent force in the evolving political order and would retain many executive powers, a prospect hard-liners from Satsuma and Choshu found intolerable. Events came to 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 was happy with the formal declaration of Imperial rule and favourable to a continued collaboration with the Tokugawa (under the concept of ), Saigo Takamori threatened the assembly into proclaiming the abolition of the title of "shogun" and 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 proclamation of the Restoration and called on the court to rescind it." On January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Choshu forces. This decision was prompted by his learning of a series of arsons in Edo, starting with the burning of the outworks of Edo Castle, the main Tokugawa residence. This was blamed on Satsuma ronin, who on that day attacked a government office. The next day shogunate forces responded by attacking the Edo residence of the daimyo of Satsuma, where many opponents of the shogunate, under Takamori's direction, had been hiding and creating trouble. The palace was burned down, and all opponents killed or later executed.

On January 27, 1868, the shogunate forces attacked the forces of Chōshū and Satsuma, clashing near Toba and Fushimi, at the entrance of Kyoto. Some parts of the 15,000-strong shogunate forces had been trained by French military advisers, but the majority remained medieval samurai forces. Meanwhile, the forces of Chōshū and Satsuma were outnumbered 3:1 but fully modernized. After an inconclusive start, on the second day, the emperor gave his official pennant to the defending troops, and named as general in chief one of his relatives, Komatsumiya Akihito, making the forces officially an . Moreover, convinced by courtiers, several local daimyo, thitherto faithful to the Shogun, started to defect to the side of the imperial court. These included daimyo of Yodo on the February 5, and the daimyo of Tsu on February 6, tilting the military balance in favour of the Imperial side.

On February 7, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, apparently distressed by the imperial approval given to the actions of Satsuma and Choshu, fled Osaka aboard the ''Kanrin Maru'', withdrawing to Edo. Demoralized by his flight and by the betrayal by Yodo and Tsu, the Shogunate forces retreated, making the Toba-Fushimi encounter an Imperial victory, although it is often considered the Shogunate forces should have won the encounter. The Osaka castle was soon invested on February 8 (on March 1, Western calendar), putting an end to the battle of Toba-Fushimi.


At the same time, on January 28, 1868, took place the Naval Battle of Awa between the Shogunate and elements of the Satsuma Navy, which became Japan's first engagement between two modern navies. The battle, although small in scale, ended in favour of the Shogunate.

On the diplomatic front, the ministers of foreign nations, gathered in the open harbor of Hyogo (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 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 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 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.

Saigo Takamori led the victorious imperial forces north and east through Japan, winning the Battle of Koshu-Katsunuma. He eventually surrounded Edo in May 1868, leading to its unconditional surrender by Katsu Kaishu, the shogun's army minister. Some groups continued to resist after this surrender but were defeated in the Battle of Ueno. Meanwhile, the leader of the shogun's navy, Enomoto Takeaki, refused to surrender his ships and escaped north with the remnants of the navy (eight steam warships: ''Kaiten'', ''Banryū'', ''Chiyodagata'', ''Chōgei'', ''Kaiyō Maru'', ''Kanrin Maru'', ''Mikaho'' and ''Shinsoku''), and 2,000 members of the navy, in the hope of staging a counter-attack together with the northern daimyo. He was accompanied by a handful of French military advisers, notably Jules Brunet, who had formally resigned from the French Army in order to accompany the rebels.

After Yoshinobu's surrender, most of Japan accepted the emperor's rule, but a core of shogunate supporters in the North, led by the Aizu clan, continued the resistance. In May several northern daimyo formed an Alliance to fight Imperial troops, the Northern Coalition (奥羽越列藩同盟) composed of the domains of Sendai, Yonezawa, Aizu, Shonai and Nagaoka, with a total of 50,000 troops. Enomoto's fleet reached Sendai harbour on August 26.

Although the Northern Coalition was numerous, its 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 the other hand, the daimyo of Nagaoka managed to procure two of the three Gatling guns in Japan and 2,000 modern French rifles.

In May 1868, the daimyo 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 the castle of Aizu-Wakamatsu in the Battle of Aizu in October 1868, thus making the position in Sendai untenable.


The coalition crumbled, and on October 12, 1868, the fleet left Sendai for Hokkaido, after having acquired two more ships (the Oe and the ''Hōō'', previously borrowed by Sendai from the Shogunate), and about 1,000 more troops: remaining Shogunate troops under Otori Keisuke, Shinsengumi troops under Hijikata Toshizo, Yugekitai under Katsutaro Hitomi, as well as several more French advisors (Fortant, Garde, Marlin, Bouffier).

On October 26, Edo was renamed Tokyo, and the Meiji Era officially started. After a protracted month-long battle, Aizu finally admitted defeat on November 6, leading to the mass suicide of the Byakkotai (White Tiger Corps) young warriors.

Following defeat on Honshu, Enomoto Takeaki fled to Hokkaido with 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 Hokkaido. They formally established the Republic of Ezo on the American model on December 25, Japan's only republic ever, and Enomoto was elected as President, with a large majority. The republic tried to reach out to foreign legations present in Hakodate, such as 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 Shogun under Imperial rule, but his proposal was declined by the Imperial Governing Council.

During the winter, they fortified their defenses around the southern peninsula of Hakodate, with the new fortress of Goryokaku at the center. The troops were organized under a Franco-Japanese command, the commander-in-chief Otori Keisuke being seconded by the French captain Jules Brunet, and divided between four brigades. Each of these was commanded by a French non-commissioned officer (Fortant, Marlin, Cazeneuve, Bouffier), and were themselves divided into eight half-brigades, each under Japanese command.

The Imperial navy reached the harbour of Miyako on March 20th, but anticipating the arrival of the imperial ships, the Ezo rebels organized a daring plan to seize the ''Kotetsu''. Three warships were dispatched for a surprise attack, in what is known as the Naval Battle of Miyako. The battle ended in failure for the Tokugawa side, owing to bad weather, engine trouble and the decisive use of a Gatling gun by Imperial troops against samurai boarding parties.

Imperial forces soon consolidated their hold on mainland Japan, and, in April 1869, dispatched a fleet and an infantry force of 7,000 to Ezo, starting the Battle of Hakodate. The Imperial forces progressed swiftly and won the naval engagement at Hakodate Bay, Japan's first large-scale naval battle between modern navies, as the fortress of Goryokaku was surrounded with 800 remaining men. Enomoto had resolved to fight to the end, and had sent his valuables to his adversary for safekeeping. but Otori convinced him to surrender, telling him that deciding to live through defeat is the truly courageous way: "If it's dying you want you can do it anytime." Enomoto surrendered on May 18, 1869, and accepted the Meiji Emperor's rule. The Ezo Republic ceased to exist on 27 June 1869.

Following victory, the new government proceeded with unifying the country under a single, legitimate and powerful Imperial rule. The military and political power of the various fiefs was progressively eliminated, fiefs being transformed into prefectures, and many samurai converted to administrators. The southern domains of Satsuma, Choshu and Tosa, having played a decisive role in the victory, occupied most of the key posts in government for several decades following the conflict, a situation sometimes called the "Meiji oligarchy" and formalized with the institution of the Genrō.

Leading partisans of the former Shogun were imprisoned, but narrowly escaped execution. This clemency derives from the insistence of Saigo Takamori and Iwakura Tomomi, although much weight was placed on the advice of Parks, the British envoy. He had urged Saigo, in the words of Ernest Satow, "that severity towards Keiki Yoshinobu or his supporters, especially in the way of personal punishment, would injure the reputation of the new government in the opinion of European Powers." After two or three years of imprisonment, most of them were called to serve the new government, and several pursued brilliant careers. In the case of Enomoto Takeaki, former leader of the pro-shogunate forces, who would later serve as envoy to Russia and China and as education minister.

The Imperial side did not pursue its objective to expel foreign interests from Japan, but instead shifted to a more progressive policy aiming at the continued modernization of the country and the renegotiation of unequal treaties with foreign powers, later under the motto. The shift in stance towards the foreigners came during the early days of the civil war: on April 8, 1868, new signboards were erected in Kyoto (and later throughout the country) that specifically repudiated violence against foreigners. During the course of the conflict, Meiji personally received European envoys, first in Kyoto, then later in Osaka and Tokyo. Also unprecedented was Meiji's reception of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, in Tokyo, "'as his equal in point of blood.'" Although the early Meiji era witnessed a warming between the imperial court and foreign powers, relations with France soured due to the initial support by France for the Shogun, although a second military mission was invited to Japan in 1874, and a third one in 1884. A high level of interaction resumed around 1886, when France helped build the Imperial Japanese Navy's first large-scale modern fleet, under the direction of naval engineer Louis-Émile Bertin. The modernization of the country had in fact already started extensively during the last years of the Shogunate, and the Meiji government ultimately adopted the same orientation, although it was better able to mobilize the whole country towards modernization in a more efficient way.


Upon his coronation, Meiji issued his Charter Oath, calling for deliberative assemblies, promising increased opportunities for the common people, abolishing the "evil customs of the past," and seeking knowledge throughout the world "to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule." Prominent reforms of the Meiji government included the 1871 abolition of the domain system, by which the feudal domains and their hereditary rulers were replaced by prefectures with governors appointed by the emperor. Others included the introduction of compulsory schooling the abolition of Confucian class distinctions. The reforms culminated in the 1889 issuance of the Meiji Constitution. However, despite the support given to the imperial court by samurai, many of the early Meiji reforms were seen as detrimental to their interests: the creation of a conscript army made of commoners, as well as the loss of hereditary prestige and stipends antagonized many former samurai. Tensions ran particularly high in the south, leading to the 1874 Saga Rebellion, and a rebellion in Chōshū in 1876. Former samurai in Satsuma, led by Saigo Takamori, who had left government over foreign policy differences, started the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. Fighting for the maintainance of the samurai class and a more virtuous government, their slogan was . It ended with a heroic but total defeat at the Battle of Shiroyama.

In modern summaries, the Meiji restoration is often described as a "bloodless revolution" leading to the sudden modernization of Japan. The actual facts of the Boshin War clearly show that the conflict was actually quite violent: about 120,000 troops were mobilized altogether with roughly 3,500 known casualties. Later Japanese depictions of the war tended to be highly romanticized, showing the Shogun side fighting along traditional methods, against an already modernized Imperial side. And although traditional weapons and techniques were used, both sides employed some of the most modern armaments and fighting techniques of the period: including the ironclad, Gatling guns, and fighting techniques learned from Western advisers.


Such Japanese depictions include numerous dramatizations, spanning many genres. Notably, Jirō Asada wrote a four-volume novel of the acount, Mibu Gishi-den. A film adaptation of Asada's work, directed by Yojiro Takita, is known as When the Last Sword Is Drawn. A ten-hour television jidaigeki based on the same novel starred Ken Watanabe. Elsewhere, the 2003 Hollywood movie The Last Samurai combines into a single narrative historical situations belonging both to the Boshin War and the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion. The elements of the movie pertaining to the early modernization of Japan's military forces as well as the direct involvement of foreign (mostly French) forces relate to the Boshin War and the few years leading to it. On the contrary, the suicidal stand of traditionalist samurai forces led by Saigo Takamori against the modernized Imperial army relate to the much later Satsuma Rebellion.