Battle of Toba-Fushimi

• Bakufu loyalists Vs. Emperor loyalists
  • Date: 1868/1/3-6
  • Location: Toba, Fushimi

Former Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu moved to Osaka castle from Nijo castle after Ôsei Fukko in December 1867. Satsuma needed to lure the Tokugawa into war in order to destroy the power of the Bakufu, so they had Ronin terrorize Edo. On 1868/1/2 Bakufu retainers left Osaka for Kyoto to subdue the forces of Satsuma. Bakufu Loyalist forces numbered around 10,000. They were opposed by pro-Imperial forces of about 3500 which were advancing upon Fushimi from the north. Most of these troops were from Satsuma, but contingents from Tosa and Choshu were also present.

The battle started near Koeda bridge in Toba. Satsuma's units fired at the Bakufu troops. The Bakufu's commander believed that Satsuma would yield the way if they saw the 10,000 troops. Therefore, despite the enemy fire, the Bakufu were not expecting a battle and did not engage the Satsuma forces.

Bakufu Loyalist troops

• Toba Area
  • Commander: Takigawa Tomotaka
  • Infantry Unit1: 1000 (Tokugawa Dewanokami)
  • Infantry Unit5: 800 (Akiyama Shimousanokami)
  • Denshutai: ? (Ogasawara Iwaminokami)
  • Mimawarigumi: 400 (Sasaki Tadasaburo)
  • Kuwana han force: ?(Hattori Hanzo)
  • Ogaki han force: 500 (Obara Tadamichi)
  • Hamada han force: 30 (?)

• Fushimi Area
  • Commander: Takenaka Shigetaka
  • Infantry Unit4: 1000 (Yokota Izunokami)
  • Infantry Unit7: 800 (Osawa Kenichiro)
  • Infantry Unit11: 900 (Sakuma Shigehisa)
  • Infantry Unit12: ? (Kubota Shigeaki)
  • Denshutai: ?
  • Yugekitai: 50 (Imahori Echizennokami)
  • Aizu han forces: ? 7 units
  • Shinsengumi: 150 (Hijikata Toshizo)
  • Takamatsu han: 300 (Miyake Kageyoshi?)
  • Toba han: 98 (Inagaki Kurobe)

Imperial troops

• Satsuma han forces: 2600?
• Choshu han forces: 659
• Tosa han forces: ?

References

• Hillsborough, Romulus Shinsengumi:The Shogun’s Last Samurai Corps North Clarenden:Tuttle Publishing, 2005