Tosa Domain
He was a low-ranking "samurai" from the Tosa Domain on Shikoku and became an active opponent of the Tokugawa Shogunate after the end of Japan's "sakoku" isolationist policy. Ryōma under the alias worked against the Bakufu, the government of the Tokugawa shogunate, and was often hunted by their supporters and the "Shinsengumi". Ryōma advocated for democracy, Japanese nationalism, return of power to the Imperial Court, abolition of feudalism, and moderate modernization and industrialization of Japan. Ryōma successfully negotiated the Satchō Alliance between the powerful rival Chōshū and Satsuma domains and united them against the Bakufu. Ryōma was assassinated in December 1867 with his companion Nakaoka Shintarō, shortly before the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration.