Yoshinobu's reform settlement collapses into war

Yoshinobu's fall is presented as more complicated than the defeat of an unreformed ruler. After earlier conflict with Choshu, he resigned the shogunate in hopes of preserving peace and remaining influential within an assembly of daimyo. That arrangement threatened Satsuma and Choshu because many regional lords might still have supported Yoshinobu's leadership. Their forces seized the imperial palace and secured proclamations that abolished the shogunate and confiscated Yoshinobu's lands. When Yoshinobu moved against Kyoto, he found opposing domain troops wearing imperial colors. The political use of those colors transformed a factional struggle into a war in which even loyal Tokugawa supporters could appear to be fighting the emperor.