ABSTRACT
The political change that took place in Kyoto on 18th August, when pro-Emperor, anti-foreign faction kuge and samurai from the Choshu domain were expelled from Kyoto, the Echizen and Higo domains did not mobilise troops but rather those domain lords who acted as guards or police for Kyoto, namely the domains of Aizu and Yodo, also Tottori, Okayama, Yonezawa, Tokushima and Tosa. Over the six months covering the Satsuma-Tosa alliance of June 1867, the taisei hokan of October and the Osei fukko of December, the reform faction and conservative faction constituted the two extremes of a single movement. Saigo's main idea after accomplishing his aim of fomenting a revolution of lower-ranking samurai was probably to bring about a horizontal alliance with lower-ranking samurai from various domains. On the other hand, he had twice been frustrated by the arbitrariness of Shimazu Hisaakira, deputy lord of the domain.
