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 December 1867. Satsuma needed to bring Tokugawa into war to destroy Bakufu power so they had Ronin terrorize Edo. 1868/1/2 Bakufu retainers left Osaka for Kyoto to subdue Satsuma. Bakufu Loyalist forces came to number about 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 at near Koeda bridge, Toba. Satsuma's units fired at the Bakufu troops but the Bakufu side didn't expect battle. The Bakufu's commander believed that Satsuma would yield the way if they saw the 10000 troops.

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