ad been barricaded, and were defended by two thousand men, armed with
artillery.

A fierce battle followed, lasting for three days. Greatly as the
defenders of the barriers were outnumbered, their defences and
artillery, with their European discipline, gave them the victory. The
shogun was defeated, and fled with his army to Ozaka, the castle of
which was captured and burned, while he took refuge on an American
vessel in the harbor. Making his way thence to Yedo in one of his own
ships, he shut himself up in his palace, once more with the purpose of
withdrawing from the struggle.

His retainers and many of the daimios and clans urged him to continue
the war, declaring that, with the large army and abundant supplies at
his command, and the powerful fleet under his control, they could
restore him to the position he had lost. But Keiki had had enough of
war, and could not bear the idea of being a rebel against his liege
lord. Declaring that he would never take up arms against the mikado, he
withdrew from the struggle to private life.

In the mean time the victorious forces of the south had reached the
suburbs of Yedo, and were threatening to apply the torch to that
tinder-box of a city unless it were immediately surrendered. Their
commander, being advised of the purpose of the shogun, promised to spare
the city, but assailed and burned the magnificent temple of Uyeno, in
which the rebels still in arms had taken refuge. For a year longer the
war went on, victory everywhere favoring the imperial army. By the 1st
of July, 1869, hostilities were at an end, and the mikado was the sole
lord of the realm.

Thus ended a military domination that had continued for seven hundred
years. In 1167, Kiyomori had made himself military lord of the empire.
In 1869, Mutsuhito, the one hundred and twenty-third mikado in lineal
descent, resumed the imperial power which had so long been lost. Unlike
China, over which so many dynasties have ruled, Japan has been governed
by a single dynasty, according to the native records, for more than
twenty-five hundred years.

The fall of the shogun was followed by the fall of feudalism. The
emperor, for the first time for many centuries, came from behind his
screen and showed himself openly to his people. Yedo was made the
eastern capital of the realm, its name being changed to Tokio. Hither,
in September, 1871, the daimios were once more summoned, and the order
was issued that they should give up the