The article and photos by Fumiko Koike 

I was sometimes asked by my guests 'How did the Samurai period end?' and 'What is Meiji Restoration'? In this article, I would like to answer those questions.

Contents:

(1) Abolition of feudalism and Meiji Restoration in the mid-19th century

(2) Japan was asked to open up the country after 215 years of isolation

(3) Who fought against who?

(4) Satsuma Clan and the United Kingdom of Britain

(5) Satsuma Rebellion: Japan's last civil war in 1877 was caused by left-behind former samurais

In today's Japan, there is no Samurai class. The samurai class was abolished when the Edo period, the last samurai period ended in the mid 19th century and Japan started its modernization.

This transformation to become a modernized country is often defined as 'Meiji restoration'.  'Meiji' is the name of the era which was started in 1868 by then 122nd emperor Mutsuhito and the era ended in 1912.

From 1639 to 1854(215 years), Japan had an isolation policy and trading was limited only with Dutch, Korean and Chinese people. However, foreign ships started to come to Japan in the mid-19th century.

In 1853, Japan signed Treaty of Amity and commerce with the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia and Holland.  In order to catch up the levels of these countries, Japan had to learn new technologies and establish the new modern government with a new system rather than adhering to the status quo. 

As a result, the Samurai class became unnecessary.

Tokugawa shogunate, which was led by a de facto ruler Shogun Yoshinobu Tokugawa, and the anti-shogunate wing fought against each other.

The anti-shogunate wing mainly comprised of four feudal clans: Satsuma (today's Kagoshima prefecture), Choshu (today's Yamaguchi prefecture), Tosa (today's Kochi prefecture) and Hizen (today's Saga prefecture). 

Each force wanted the endorsement of emperor Komei.

At first, Tokugawa shogunate had the emperor's favor but later the anti-shogunate wing succeeded in claiming them to be the 'Imperial force', which was a great advantage for them.

The anti-shogunate wing won and they started to establish the new modern government in 1868.

Satsuma clan (today's Kagoshima prefecture) was able to obtain assistance from the United Kingdom, despite the fact that they had Satsuma-Anglo war in 1863.

Satsuma clan came to realize how powerful the military power of the U.K. was when they had the war with them, then the clan decided to maintain good relationships with the U.K. and learned a lot from them.  In fact, British trader Thomas Blake Glover helped greatly to send nineteen Satsuma students to Britain to study in 1865.

With the help of the U.K., these students as well as Satsuma clan officials played very important roles to start modernization of Japan.  Satsuma clan imported and learned new technologies from the U.K. and these technologies gradually spread to other parts of Japan.

After the abolition of Samurai class, some former samurais became officials of the new Meiji government, and others started a new job.

However, some samurais mainly from the former Satsuma clan who could not find a new job in the modernization had a strong feeling of resentment, and finally caused Japan's last civil war called 'Satsuma Rebellion' in 1877.

Ironically, the leader of this samurai force was Takamori Saigo, who once was one of the leaders of the anti-shogunate wing and who actually pushed the modernization of Japan.

Saigo felt very sorry for these former samurais and tried to help them adjust the new modern society.

Unfortunately, Saigo's efforts went down the drain and these samurais decided to raise the rebellion against the new Meiji government. Furthermore, they asked Saigo to become the representative of the left-behind samurais in the war.

The new Meiji government won with its modern armory and this was the absolute end of the Samurai Class.

The article and photos by Fumiko Koike  

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