Aki domain was one of the feudal Japanese domains whose leaders joined the coalition that overthrew the shogun in 1868. Its participation placed it among the forces behind the Meiji Restoration, the political rupture that the book identifies as the beginning of Japan’s turn toward institutional reform and economic growth.

Place in the Feudal Order

Under the Tokugawa system, Japan was governed by a shogun while the emperor held a largely ceremonial position. Feudal lords ruled and taxed their own domains, and society was organized through strict occupational categories, trade restrictions, and heavy taxes on farmers. The shogun controlled foreign trade from Edo and barred foreigners from the country; the book characterizes the resulting political and economic institutions as extractive and Japan as poor.

The Alliance Against the Shogun

In the autumn of 1867, Ōkubo Toshimichi traveled from Edo to Yamaguchi, where he met Chōshū leaders on October 14. He proposed that they join forces, march on Edo, and overthrow the shogun. The leaders of Tosa and Aki were already committed; Chōshū’s agreement completed the secret Satcho Alliance. Aki domain was thus part of a cross-domain coalition organized around the overthrow of the existing regime, rather than an isolated challenge to it.

The Meiji Restoration and Its Significance

The leaders of Satsuma, Chōshū, Tosa, and Aki overthrew the shogun and created the Meiji Restoration. In the book’s account, this revolution changed Japan’s institutional direction: where extractive institutions had sustained poverty, the restoration opened a path to reform and economic growth. Aki domain’s significance is therefore chiefly political and relational. The evidence identifies it as a participant in the alliance that helped bring about this national transformation, but does not detail its separate policies or actions after the restoration.