The Boshin War: Kyoto to Hakodate

On 27 January 1868 the former shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu sent about 15,000 troops from Osaka towards Kyoto, outnumbering the Satsuma and Chōshū forces three to one. At about 5 p.m. his vanguard reached a Satsuma barrier at the Koeda Bridge on the Toba road, and the guns opened up. Next day the court granted Satsuma and Chōshū the imperial brocade banners, branding the shogun's men enemies of the emperor. Domains changed sides, the Tokugawa army fell back to Osaka, and Yoshinobu slipped away by ship to Edo.

Visitor guidance: The Toba battlefield is now Tobarikyūato Park in southern Kyoto, with a battle monument; the Jōnangū shrine, the imperial headquarters, is next door.

As the imperial army under Saigō Takamori closed on Edo, the shogun's capital, the shogun's army minister Katsu Kaishū met him to negotiate. The two men agreed on an unconditional surrender, and in spring 1868 the castle of the Tokugawa was handed over without a battle — remembered as the "bloodless opening" of Edo. That autumn the city was renamed Tokyo, "Eastern Capital", and the young Emperor Meiji moved into the castle, which is now the Imperial Palace.

Visitor guidance: The Imperial Palace East Gardens, on the site of the old castle keep, are open to the public most days; a small monument marks the Saigō–Katsu meeting place in Shiba, Minato.

Not everyone in Edo accepted the surrender. Some 2,000 former Tokugawa retainers calling themselves the Shōgitai dug in around Kan'ei-ji, the great Tokugawa family temple on the hill of Ueno. On 4 July 1868 imperial troops under Ōmura Masujirō attacked; the Shōgitai held the gate against a frontal charge until Armstrong cannons were brought to bear. About 300 defenders died, and around a thousand houses burned. In 1873 much of the temple land became Ueno Park, one of Japan's first public parks.

Visitor guidance: The tomb of the Shōgitai warriors, raised by survivors' families, stands near the south entrance of Ueno Park.

Aizu, whose lord had served as the shogun's military governor of Kyoto, was the new government's chief target in the north. As imperial troops broke into the domain in October 1868, a squad of the Byakkotai, a unit of teenage samurai, was cut off and retreated to Iimori Hill. Looking across to the castle town, they saw smoke and flames and believed the castle had fallen. Twenty of them committed seppuku; one survived. The castle was in fact still standing — only the town around it was burning.

Visitor guidance: The Byakkotai graves on Iimoriyama look out over Aizu-Wakamatsu; a moving walkway helps with the climb.

From 6 October 1868 the domain's defenders held Tsuruga Castle against a month of siege and bombardment. On 6 November, with the walls shattered and no allies left, Aizu's officials agreed to surrender through a neighbouring domain, and Lord Matsudaira Katamori came out in person to submit. The battered castle buildings were pulled down by the new government in 1874. The white keep you see today is a concrete reconstruction finished in 1965, with a museum inside.

Visitor guidance: The keep's museum covers the siege, and the top floor has views over the city to Iimoriyama.

The last holdouts sailed north with the shogunate navy under Enomoto Takeaki, with French military advisers on board. In October 1868 they seized Goryōkaku, a five-pointed star fort in Hakodate finished only in 1866, and in December founded the Republic of Ezo with Enomoto as president. Imperial forces arrived in spring 1869. On 20 June the former Shinsengumi vice-commander Hijikata Toshizō was shot dead leading a charge, and on 27 June Goryōkaku surrendered. The Boshin War was over.

Visitor guidance: Goryōkaku Tower gives a bird's-eye view of the star; the magistrate's office inside was rebuilt in 2010, and the moat is lined with cherry trees.