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Jules Brunet (2 January 1838 - 12 August 1911) was a French Army officer who played a significant and famous role during the Japanese Boshin War, also known as the Japanese Revolution. Brunet had been sent to Japan with the French military mission of 1867, and when the Shogun was defeated, he had an important role in the founding of the unrecognised Republic of Ezo.<br/><br/> After the fall of the Ezo Republic in 1869 and the defeat of the Tokugawa shogunate, Brunet fled from Japan and returned home to France, where he was promoted to General and later became Chief of Staff to the French Minister of War in 1898. Brunet was also a talented painter who left numerous depictions of his travels in Japan and Mexico.
Jules Brunet (2 January 1838 - 12 August 1911) was a French Army officer who played a significant and famous role during the Japanese Boshin War, also known as the Japanese Revolution. Brunet had been sent to Japan with the French military mission of 1867, and when the Shogun was defeated, he had an important role in the founding of the unrecognised Republic of Ezo.<br/><br/> After the fall of the Ezo Republic in 1869 and the defeat of the Tokugawa shogunate, Brunet fled from Japan and returned home to France, where he was promoted to General and later became Chief of Staff to the French Minister of War in 1898. Brunet was also a talented painter who left numerous depictions of his travels in Japan and Mexico.
Matsudaira Katamori was a samurai who lived in the last days of the Edo period and the early to mid Meiji period. He was the 9th daimyo of the Aizu Han and the Military Commissioner of Kyoto during the Bakumatsu period. During the Boshin War, Katamori and the Aizu Han fought against the Meiji Government armies, but were severely defeated. Katamori's life was spared, and he later became the Chief of the Tōshōgū Shrine. He, along with his three brothers Sadaaki, Yoshikatsu, and Mochiharu, had highly influential roles during the Meiji Restoration and were called the four Takasu brothers (Takasu yon-kyōdai).
The Boshin War (戊辰戦争 Boshin Sensō) was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court.<br/><br/> The war found its origins in dissatisfaction among many nobles and young samurai with the shogunate's handling of foreigners following the opening of Japan during the prior decade. An alliance of western samurai (particularly the domains of Chōshū, Satsuma and Tosa) and court officials secured control of the imperial court and influenced the young Emperor Meiji. Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the sitting shogun, realizing the futility of his situation, abdicated political power to the emperor. Yoshinobu had hoped that by doing this, the Tokugawa house could be preserved and participate in the future government.<br/><br/> However, military movements by imperial forces, partisan violence in Edo, and an imperial decree promoted by Satsuma and Choshu abolishing the house of Tokugawa led Yoshinobu to launch a military campaign to seize the emperor's court at Kyoto. The military tide rapidly turned in favor of the smaller but relatively modernized imperial faction, and after a series of battles culminating in the surrender of Edo, Yoshinobu personally surrendered. Those loyal to the Tokugawa retreated to northern Honshū and later to Hokkaidō, where they founded the Ezo republic. Defeat at the Battle of Hakodate broke this last holdout and left the imperial rule supreme throughout the whole of Japan, completing the military phase of the Meiji Restoration.