Bakumatsu

Bakumatsu, meaning “end of the shogunate,” refers to the final years of the Edo period in Japan, roughly from 1853, when Western powers pressed for opening trade, to 1868, when imperial rule was restored under the Meiji government. The period saw the collapse of the Tokugawa political order and the emergence of modern Japan.

The era was defined by mounting internal and external pressures. The arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 and the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854 opened Japan to limited Western contact and led to a series of unequal treaties. Domestically, factions advocating reverence for the emperor and opposition to the shogunate—the sonnō jōi movement—gained traction, while the shogunate faced assassination plots, purges, and growing conspiracy. In the mid to late 1860s, the Satsuma and Chōshū domains formed a coalition that pressed for imperial restoration, culminating in the Meiji Restoration and the Boshin War of 1868–69, which decisively ended the shogunate’s rule.

Outcomes and legacy: The Bakumatsu set in motion the transition from feudal to modern governance in Japan. It led to the abolition of the han system, centralization under the emperor, and sweeping reforms in the military, administration, education, industry, and infrastructure that laid the groundwork for rapid Meiji-era modernization. The period remains a critical hinge between traditional Edo society and a centralized, industrialized Japan.