Boshin and Satsuma: The Fall of Feudal Japan

Gabriele Esposito’s book, Japanese Armies 1868–1877: The Boshin War and Satsuma Rebellion (Osprey Publishing, 2020), is an excellent summary of two significant conflicts that forever transformed Japan. A short but informative read, it covers historical events adapted for the famous movie The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe.

Feudal Japan under the Shogunate

For hundreds of years, Japan had been ruled by a mere figurehead—an emperor with a religious function but little genuine authority—with all real power in the hands of the shogun, the hereditary military leader of Japanese society. The shogunate, as the central authority was known, implemented an extreme isolationist policy, keeping Japan religiously and culturally pure from Western “barbarian” influences.

Maintaining a decentralised feudal society, “Japan” as an institution could barely be said to exist. It was separated into 250 domains ruled almost autonomously by local lords as independent feudal states. Families of daimyo warlords parcelled out lands to samurai warriors who could be called upon in times of war or for policing. Feudal Japan was a highly hierarchical society, with peasants as always at the bottom of the pile.

Opening to the West and the Boshin War

However, Japan was forced to open to Western nations in the 1850s due to American intimidation, bringing in new ideas and new goods. Disagreement and dissent arose within Japan over whether to modernise to protect itself and maintain its independence or to isolate itself further. Beginning in 1860, isolationists began making moves within Japan to bring down the shogun and place the emperor in full authority. In 1863, the emperor called for the expulsion of all foreigners from Japan, and many Westerners were murdered. The shogunal forces received aid from the West, seeking to modernise their navy and army. Various feudal clans supported either the shogun or the emperor, leading to the Boshin War.

Jules Brunet and the Northern Campaign

Jules Brunet (played by Tom Cruise in the movie as the American officer Nathan Algren), a Western military adviser and trainer, was ordered to return to France but disobeyed, instead fighting with a small contingent for the shogunal forces even after their eventual defeat. The imperial forces led by Saigō Takamori (who later became famous for defending the samurai against the centralised, modernised Japanese government during the Satsuma Rebellion) were victorious, pushing their opponents into northern Japan. Now with modernised weapons, the shogunal forces continued the fight as it raged back and forth, but the feudal clans and Brunet were forced out of Japan’s main and largest island, Honshu, fleeing to the northern tribal island of Hokkaido, where all those still loyal to the shogun gathered.

In 1868, Brunet helped form a new government and trained the army on Hokkaido. But the imperial forces’ naval supremacy and technological advantages helped capture the island, and Japan became united under the emperor in 1869. Brunet escaped.

Emperor Meiji in traditional Japanese outfit （Konaoshi）in 1872

Meiji Reforms and the End of the Samurai

Japan became a centralised, unified country, opened to the West (initially, the emperor had been opposed to Western intervention), and began dismantling the decentralised local lordships, as well as any remaining elements of hierarchy or inheritance. The military was modernised, and the samurai were left behind. Public education, national tax, industrialisation and more transformed Japanese life, while outlawing the samurai weapon of swords. Class distinction vanished, at least in theory, with hierarchy replaced by equality.

The Satsuma Rebellion, 1877

Traditionalists were once more outraged, especially the samurai clans, leading to the secession of the traditionalist Satsuma territory, led by “The Last Samurai,” Saigō Takamori, and other dissident samurai. They openly rebelled in 1877. Samurai wore traditional outfits and armour, and used swords as a protest against their being illegal and outlawed. Most fought and died this way.

The imperial, modernised Japanese army greatly outnumbered the rebels and maintained significant technological advantages. Despite this, massive battles raged with heavy losses on both sides before the samurai and their allies were forced to retreat and engage in guerrilla tactics while hunted down by imperial forces. Eventually, they lost all their gunpowder units and their numbers dwindled, yet they kept fighting for months on end. Then, the final 3,000 or so chose Mount Enodake as a last defensible position. Surrounded and vastly outnumbered, their defeat was inevitable; many committed seppuku (ritual honourable suicide) rather than surrender to their foes.

However, as he had done multiple times before, Saigō escaped, and with the last 500 samurai, armed with swords and traditional weapons, chose a literal last hill to die on; opposing him was an imperial army of 30,000.

Saigō was among the last 40 or so samurai in the battle who made a final headlong charge at the enemy, was wounded multiple times, and committed seppuku with the help of an aide. All of them died in battle, preferring death to dishonour.