Armed Insurrection
The Meiji Restoration of 1868 was a major event in world history. The stated goal was to establish the temporal rule of the emperor after the power had resided with the shoguns for more than two centuries. The instigators were samurai from western rural areas, Satsuma (Kagoshima), Choshu (Yamaguchi), and Tosa (Kochi) and court nobles who opposed the Shogunate. Troops under the command of Saigo Takamori, a leading Satsuma samurai, stormed and secured the imperial palace in Kyoto. And the Restoration Proclamation was read inside.
Eastern Capital
After one and a half years of war with the northern provinces, support for the Tokugawa shoguns ended and their system of government was dismantled. The new government formed a centralized state. For centuries, the emperor was a figurehead. But now the emperor, who claimed his lineage to the Shinto Sun Goddess, was in primary control. He moved from the traditional home of the emperor, Kyoto, to the center of political power Edo, where the shoguns had resided. Edo was hence renamed Tokyo, or the Eastern Capital.