The Meiji Restoration: The End of the Shogunate and the Building of a Modern Japanese State

Commodore Matthew Perry and his men are welcomed to Yokohama. (Courtesy Yokohama Archives of History)

Ii Naosuke is assassinated outside Sakuradamon. (Courtesy Ibaraki Prefectural Library)

Battles between shogunal and Chōshū forces in the second Chōshū Expedition. (Courtesy Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum)

The last shōgun of the Edo shogunate, Tokugawa Yoshinobu. (Courtesy Fukui City History Museum)

The Charter Oath published in 1868 by the Meiji government. (Courtesy National Diet Library)

The Battle of Hakodate. (Courtesy Hakodate City Museum)

Kido Takayoshi (left) and Ōkubo Toshimichi, the architects of the prefectural system. (Courtesy National Diet Library)

The March 1877 Battle of Tabaruzaka was the last major conflict of the Satsuma Rebellion. (Courtesy National Diet Library)

The promulgation of the Meiji Constitution. (Courtesy Tokyo Metropolitan Library)