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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
3 events
October 27–31, 1876 (Meiji 9)
In October 1876, roughly 400 shizoku (former samurai) of the old Akizuki domain (present-day Akizuki, Asakura City, Fukuoka) rose up in protest of the sword abolition edict and the abolition of hereditary stipends, in response to the Shinpūren Rebellion in Kumamoto. Led by Miyazaki Shanosuke and Imamura Hyakuhachirō, the rebels tried and failed to coordinate with the Toyotsu shizoku, and were suppressed within days by government troops from the Kokura garrison. Alongside the Shinpūren, Hagi, and Saga rebellions, it is counted among the shizoku uprisings that erupted around Meiji 9.
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October–December 1876 (Meiji 9)
In October of Meiji 9 (1876), a shizoku rebellion broke out in Hagi in Nagato Province (present-day Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) against the Meiji government. It was led by Maebara Issei, one of the leading figures of the Restoration, and its members were shizoku of the former Chōshū Domain. Against a background of shizoku discontent over the Sword Abolition Edict (Haitōrei) of March that year and the abolition of samurai stipends (chitsuroku shobun), among other measures, the rebels rose in response to the Shinpūren (Keishintō) Rebellion in Kumamoto and the Akizuki Rebellion in the former Akizuki Domain. They organized an approximately 200-strong Junkoku-gun ('Army of Martyrs for the Nation'), but within a little over a week they were suppressed by government forces, and Maebara and the other leaders were executed. The incident was a precursor to the Satsuma Rebellion (Seinan War) of the following year.
February 1874 (Meiji 7)
In February 1874 (Meiji 7), former state councilor Etō Shinpei and Shima Yoshitake led shizoku (former samurai) of the old Saga domain in a rebellion against the Meiji government. Etō's Seikan-tō (Invade-Korea Party), which had left the government after the seikanron political crisis, joined with Shima's Yūkoku-tō (Patriotic Party), which sought a feudal restoration, and they seized Saga Castle. Yet in the face of the government's swift response—leveraging the telegraph and steamships—the revolt was crushed within weeks, and Etō and Shima were beheaded and their heads displayed. It was the forerunner of the large-scale shizoku revolts of the early Meiji era.