Fall of Osaka Castle

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During the Boshin War in early 1868, Osaka Castle—once the Tokugawa shogunate’s power base in Western Japan—fell to Imperial forces after the Battle of Toba–Fushimi. Following the shogunate’s defeat, Tokugawa Yoshinobu tried to regroup at Osaka Castle and planned to lead the defense. That evening, however, he slipped away with two lords to return to Edo on the warship Kaiyō maru. Since Kaiyō maru had not arrived yet, he spent the night on an American warship, USS Iroquois, anchored in Osaka Bay. Two hours later the Kaiyō maru arrived and picked him up. When the remaining Tokugawa forces learned the Shogun had abandoned them, they left Osaka Castle, which was then captured by Imperial forces without resistance. The castle was seized and burned on February 2, 1868, and later used as military barracks. Yoshinobu later said he was discouraged by Imperial support for Satsuma and Chōshū, and once the Imperial banner appeared, he lost the will to fight.