Samurai Revolution

Samurai Revolution is a sweeping historical narrative of Japan’s political, cultural, and social revolution that spanned the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Told from the perspective of Katsu Kaishū, “the shogun's last samurai,” this revised and expanded edition chronicles Japan's transformation from a fragmented country of hundreds of feudal domains under shogunal control into a modern industrialized nation under the unifying rule of the Emperor.

From Perry's arrival in 1853 to the suppression of the last samurai rebellion in 1877, Samurai Revolution traces the fall of the shogunate and the end of feudal Japan.

Based largely on Japanese primary sources including Katsu Kaishū’s journals, memoirs, letters, and historical writings made accessible to English readers for the first time, Samurai Revolution is at once a comprehensive history of the era and the only full-length English-language treatment of Kaishū’s life, thought, and indispensable role in the Meiji Restoration. The book also brings to life other leading figures of the revolution—including Sakamoto Ryōma, Saigō Takamori, and Tokugawa Yoshinobu—and the ideals, conflicts, and ambitions that shaped modern Japan.

Writing for both general readers and students of Japanese and military history, Romulus Hillsborough combines primary-source research with masterful storytelling to present the epic drama of one of the most transformative periods in world history.