Toba-Fushimi Revisited: Commemorating the Violence of the Restoration Moment

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay considers commemorative activity centered on the 1868 Battle of Toba-Fushimi, the first major engagement of the Boshin Civil War (1868–1869). This battle, which pitted the Tokugawa shogunate against forces loyal to the Kyoto court, ended in a decisive victory for loyalist forces. Nonetheless, although Toba-Fushimi had helped ensure the success of the Meiji Restoration, the new government made little effort to use the battle as a major component of its foundational mythology. The absence of major state intervention in either the memorialization of the battle or the preservation of the battlefield resulted in a commemorative vacuum that was filled by other actors – ranging from Tokugawa supporters to producers of popular culture. This essay addresses three periods in the history of Toba-Fushimi commemoration: the early Meiji period, when narratives of the battle first coalesced; the late Meiji and early Taishо̄ periods, when changed political circumstances and major anniversaries resulted in a surge of Toba-Fushimi-related memory activism; and the post-World War II era, when a diverse array of actors attempted (largely unsuccessfully) to resuscitate popular interest in the battle.