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establishment of his authority, was always anxious to demonstrate his power. He found a pretext in Mori’s independent action against foreign vessels at Shimonoseki, 1863, and appealed to the Emperor for sanction to carry out his first campaign in 1864 (1st year of Genji) against Mori, hoping at the same time to suppress the ambitions of the other Daimyo by a war against him. This campaign ended successfully for him, but he suffered a great defeat in his second campaign, undertaken in 1866 (2nd year of Keio), against the advice of his own statesmen, Matsudaria of Yechizen, etc., and the fall of the military supremacy of the Shogunate Tokugawa dates from this time. A great many of the Daimyos utterly refused to obey the Shogun’s commands. He died in the midst of great calamity at Osaka in 1866 (2nd year of Keio). The fifteenth Shogun, Keiki, soon succeeded him, and was appointed the Sei-i Taishogun. At the end of the same year the Emperor Komei died, to the great regret of the whole nation, without being able to reap the fruit of the Restoration, which had been planted during his hard reign in both internal and external relations. The throne was immediately inherited by the present Emperor.

The Shogun was declared at this time by the majority of the Daimyos to be incapable of being vested with the authority of the sovereign power, as his predecessors had so singularly failed in foreign affairs, and had entirely lost both civil and military power. Yamanouchi of Tosa and Asano of Aki advised the Shogun Keiki to resign his office. As such politicians as Goto of Tosa, Komatsu and Okubo of Satsuma, and others, and Katsu of his own Government, persuaded him to the same course, he finally decided upon it. On the 14th of October, 1867 (4th day of the 10th month of the 3rd year of Keio), the Shogun Keiki confirmed his decision, and appealed to the Emperor to grant him the resignation from his office, which was promptly accepted on the following day. This is a memorable day in the history of New Japan, for from this day the present Emperor de facto assumed in himself the exercise of the sovereign power, and the Imperial Government was restored to the state that had already existed before the fifty-sixth Emperor, Seiwa, in 859–876. This is the reason of its being called the ‘Restoration.’

All the Daimyos of Japan, particularly Matsudaira of Yechizen, Nabeshima of Hizen, Yamanouchi of Tosa, Date and Shimazu of Satsuma, were summoned to Kyoto to form a Council of State for the organization of the new Government. Mori of Choshiu was released, and Sanjo and other courtiers were called back to Kyoto. The troops of Satsuma, Aki, and Choshiu, and later those of Tosa, Owari, and