[For Seniors] Bakumatsu Quiz: A Question Collection That Expands Knowledge and Sparks Curiosity

Tokugawa Yoshinobu

Tokugawa Yoshinobu was the 15th shogun of the Edo shogunate and the last Seii Taishogun in Japanese history. He is widely known for returning political power to the imperial court in 1867 through the Taisei Hokan. This brought an end to the Edo period, which had lasted about 260 years, and opened the way to the new Meiji era. In his later years, he moved to Shizuoka and is said to have spent peaceful days indulging his many hobbies, such as photography, hunting, and cycling. He is an important figure who symbolizes the closing days of the shogunate and is frequently portrayed in historical dramas.

Iwakura Tomomi

In 1871, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan dispatched a large-scale mission to Europe and the United States to seek the revision of the unequal treaties concluded at the end of the shogunate and to observe the advanced cultures and institutions of the West. Iwakura Tomomi served as the plenipotentiary ambassador extraordinary of this mission. Many key members of the new Meiji government, such as Ōkubo Toshimichi, Kido Takayoshi, and Itō Hirobumi, also took part, and upon their return they had a profound impact on Japan’s modernization.

Restoration of Imperial Rule

The Restoration of Imperial Rule was a proclamation issued in 1867 announcing a transformation of the governmental system. Announced after Tokugawa Yoshinobu returned political authority to the imperial court in the “Taisei Hokan,” it abolished the Edo shogunate entirely and declared the establishment of a new government centered on the emperor. As a result, traditional posts such as Regent (Sesshō) and Chief Advisor (Kampaku) were abolished, and three new offices—Sōsai (President), Gitei (Councilor), and Sanyō (Associate Councilor)—were created. This marked the end of more than 260 years of Tokugawa rule and a major turning point in Japanese history toward the Meiji era.

Yukichi Fukuzawa

Yukichi Fukuzawa was an Enlightenment thinker and educator who was active from the late Edo period into the Meiji era. The phrase at the beginning of his work An Encouragement of Learning—“Heaven does not create one man above another, nor one man below another”—is very famous. He also founded Keio Gijuku, which originated as a Dutch studies school, making major contributions to modern education in Japan. Long familiar to the public as the face on the 10,000-yen note, he is one of the great figures closest to us.

Takamori Saigo

Saigō Takamori was known as an avid dog lover, and he doted especially on a female Satsuma Inu named Tsun. The famous bronze statue of Saigō Takamori in Tokyo’s Ueno Onshi Park also depicts him in a friendly pose walking with a dog. Although he made major contributions as one of the key figures of the Meiji Restoration, he later clashed with the policies of the new government and, leading dissatisfied samurai in his home of Kagoshima, launched the Satsuma Rebellion, Japan’s last civil war.

Sakuradamon Incident

The Sakuradamon Incident occurred on March 3, 1860, outside the Sakuradamon Gate of Edo Castle, when Tairō Ii Naosuke was assassinated by masterless samurai who had left the Mito and Satsuma domains. It is known as a sudden attack carried out amid an unseasonal heavy snowfall. Ii Naosuke had signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan without the emperor’s approval and had harshly suppressed opponents in the Ansei Purge, thereby incurring the fierce enmity of the sonnō jōi (Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians) faction.

Naosuke Ii

As the tairō (chief senior councilor) of the Tokugawa shogunate, Ii Naosuke signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan in 1858 without obtaining the Emperor’s approval, thereby advancing the opening of the country. Furthermore, he strictly punished and suppressed the sonnō jōi activists—loyalists advocating reverence for the Emperor and expulsion of the barbarians—as well as court nobles and daimyō who opposed what could be called his unilateral and hardline policies. This is the historically renowned Ansei Purge.