Sonnō jōi
Following the 1868 Meiji Restoration, many members of the former "samurai" class were disgruntled with the direction the nation had taken. The abolition of their former privileged social status under the feudal order had also eliminated their income, and the establishment of universal military conscription had eliminated much of their reason for existence. The very rapid modernization (Westernization) of the country was resulting in massive changes to Japanese culture, language, dress and society, and appeared to many samurai to be a betrayal of the "jōi" (“Expel the Barbarian”) portion of the "Sonnō jōi" justification used to overthrow the former Tokugawa shogunate.