*Tokugawa Nariaki in a letter to Abe Masahiro, head of the concil of Roji-1846*
The story of Rurouni Kenshin is also the story of the creation of modern Japan. At the time the story of Hitokiri Battousai begins, Japan was in a transition caused by the arrival of Perry and his small fleet of ships in 1853. This event was the trigger for the ensuing civil unrest and eventually the war young Himura Kenshin finds himself involved in.
For three hundred years, the Shogun, who made his power base in Edo(Tokyo)held the reigns of civil power while the emperor and his court, who lived in the imperial capital of Kyoto, were merely figureheads. The emperor was still revered as a sort of spiritual leader and the Bakufu often asked for him to sanction Bukufu policies but he held no real political power. This was about to change in 1853 when Perry arrived in Edo Bay at Uraga.
The Bakufu policy had always been of one isolation, keeping the foreign elements under careful control. Nagasaki was the only port open to foreign trade, primarily with the Dutch, although there were other foreigners that resided and traded there. The Bakufu also tried to prohibit the spread of any western ideals or education. People involved in these 'dutch studies' were treated harshly by the government, which often imprisoned them or had them killed for spreading such ‘dangerous’ ideas. After the arrival of Perry and his fleet, the Bakufu and the Shogun began to realize that in order to maintain peace with countries outside of their own and to be on the same level as their new 'allies' they would have to modernize their army and the rest of the country as well. The policy of isolation was no longer feasible so the Shogun and the Bakufu began, rather reluctantly to 'open' Japan to foreign powers in an effort to effect this modernization.
This reversal of a long standing policy and the fact that the Bakufu had signed a trade agreement with the United States without imperial sanction and against the wishes of Emperor Komei are the events which opened the door for rebellion by a faction who preferred isolation from foreign elements and who may have even feared them. These clans, Choshu and Satsuma most notably, also sought ways to modernize their armies and to train them in the use of modern weapons. Ironically, they too sought help from foreigners, (the English) the very people they wanted to remove from their land but they were forced into this decision by the Bakufu’s actions. These clans only accepted the help of the foreign powers in order for their armies to be equal to the Bakufu’s own and also equal to the armies of the foreigner they hoped to expel from their land.
Things were farther complicated for both sides because of a division, both within the Bakufu and within the Imperalist ranks. The division within the Bakufu came about as a result of the death of the Shogun who had no direct heir. This split the Bakufu into two factions backing two different candidates for shogun. One side wanted Yoshitomi while the other wanted Hitosubashi Yoshinbu for shogun. The division within the Imperialist ranks was do to the fact that some factions within the group were for more violent ways to remove the foreign threat from their country then others were and during some stages of the revolution there were even factions of the Imperialists who wanted to avoid a civil war at all cost.
Kyoto became the center of the growing conflict as one side wrested the city from the other in skirmishes, which were also taking place in various other cities across Japan. The Choshu clan was banished from the city in 1864 when some of the more radical members of that clan attempted to march an army on the city wanting to force their way into the Imperial Palace and take the emperor to Hagi and declare Imperial rule restored. They attacked the palace and burned part of Kyoto to the ground when a fire they set in the Imperial District burned out of control. This incident caused relations between Choshu and Satsuma clans to be broken off because Satsuma had been forced to stand with the Bakufu forces from Aizu against Choshu in order to protect the emperor who they saw as their hope for future government reforms. An alliance between these two powers was not restored until 1866 when Sakamoto Ryoma was able to negotiate an alliance between them. Sakamoto was able to get Saigo Takamori and Kogoro Katsura (Kido Takayoshi) make an agreement, which stated that Satsuma would gain a pardon for Choshu from the emperor and would support Choshu in her rebellion against the Bakufu. Choshu had been attacked by the Bakufu twice: once in the autumn of 1864 and again in the summer of 1866 and they were readying themselves for war against the Bakufu.
In 1867, after a new alliance between Satsuma, Choshu and Tosa had been affected, Choshu and Satsuma soldiers were ordered by the emperor to fight against the Bakufu at the same time the last Shogun, Yoshirobu, surrendered his governing powers to the emperor. For his part the last Shogun had been attempting to institute reforms in the Bakufu to create a somewhat fairer government. The final battle of this conflict was at the small villages of Tobu and Fushimi on January 27-28 1868 where the imperial army defeated Bakufu forces, forcing Yoshirobu to flee back to Edo by boat. The Bakufu forces were met at both Tobu and Fushimi by the army of Satsuma and Choshu who had superior weapons. They were driven back and the ensuing battle burned the two villages to the ground.
Most of the year 1868 was spent in ‘conquering’ the land previously held by the Shogun. Edo was taken in April without a fight and, in 1869, it became the new Imperial Capital being renamed Tokyo. The war spread and finally reached Aizu, which had supported the Bakufu, and was now standing against the new government. Saigo Takamori marched on Aizu with the government army to end the rebellion there. The battle in Aizu lasted a month and after a long siege it fell to the government army.
In 1877, the year before Kenshin appears in Tokyo, there is rebellion in Satsuma rather reluctantly lead by Saigo Takamori after he left the Meiji government being dissatisfied with how it was running. Most of those involved in this rebellion were former samurai who had lost their status when the Meiji government began allowing anyone to enter the military and when the samurai were no long allowed to carry swords openly as a sign of their rank. These dissatisfied samurai took control of some military stores and attempted to march on Tokyo. They were stopped in a six-month campaign and Saigo committed suicide. He was later granted a full pardon and is still honored today as a hero.
The four important historical figures of the Imperialist side are, Saigo Takamori, Okubo Tochimichi, Kogoro Katsura (Kido Takayoshi) and Sakamoto Ryoma. These four were instrumental in bringing about the Meiji era and most of them served in the new government that was created. Of these four men none survived to see the fruits of their labors. Saigo Takamori left the Meiji government after becoming dissatisfied with it in 1873. He later committed suicide when his rebellion in 1877 failed. Kogoro Katsura died in 1877 of illness and both Sakamoto Ryoma and Okubo Tochimichi were assassinated (Sakamoto in December 1867 and Okubo on May 14 1878) A fifth important figure was Yamagata Aritomo, the minister of the army who served in the Japanese government for many years.