Yamaguchi was the regional city where Ōkubo Toshimichi met leaders of the Chōshū domain on October 14, 1867, and won their agreement to join forces against the shogun. The meeting helped turn cooperation among rival domains into a secret alliance, placing Yamaguchi at a decisive point in the political movement to overthrow Japan’s feudal government.

The October 1867 Meeting

In the autumn of 1867, Ōkubo, a leading courtier from the Satsuma domain, traveled from Edo, now Tokyo, to Yamaguchi. His proposal to the Chōshū leaders was direct: unite their forces, march on Edo, and overthrow the shogun, Japan’s ruler. The date of their meeting, October 14, anchors Yamaguchi to the final phase of the Tokugawa order.

Ōkubo did not arrive without prior support. Leaders of the Tosa and Aki domains were already on board; Chōshū’s agreement completed the coalition described in the account. The meeting’s significance therefore lay not simply in a conversation between political leaders, but in converting a broader plan into an alliance of domains prepared to act together.

From Agreement to Alliance

Once the Chōshū leaders agreed, the participants formed the secret Satcho Alliance. Yamaguchi was thus the setting for a consequential step in organizing opposition to the shogun: a proposed joint march on Edo became a pact among powerful domains.

The alliance took shape against the background of a political system in which the Tokugawa shoguns had ruled since 1600, while Japan’s emperor had been relegated to a ceremonial role. Feudal lords governed and taxed their own domains. The agreement made in Yamaguchi challenged the authority that held this arrangement together, though the evidence does not describe the alliance’s subsequent military campaign or the city’s later role.

Place in Japan’s Institutional Transformation

The account presents the meeting as part of a larger struggle over Japan’s political and economic institutions. Under the shogunate, occupational categories were strict, trade was restricted, farmers faced high taxes, and the shogun controlled foreign trade and barred foreigners from the country. These extractive arrangements formed the setting for the alliance’s effort to overthrow the existing ruler.

Yamaguchi’s importance in this account is specific rather than ceremonial: it was where Chōshū’s leaders accepted Ōkubo’s proposal and the Satcho Alliance was formed. The meeting illustrates how institutional change could begin through coordination among groups powerful enough to contest the incumbent order. It belongs to a wider argument that political outcomes arise from conflicts and contingent turning points, not from an inevitable historical path.