板垣退助
After the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, the Meiji era began. Though acting in the name of imperial interests, the Meiji Restoration consolidated all power to an oligarchy, composed of the old samurai elite. By the 1870s, political protest against the new Meiji government emerged. Formerly a leader of the Restoration, Itagaki Taisuke urged the public to end the tyranny of the inner elite dominating the government. This Freedom and People's Rights Movement petitioned for a national assembly elected by the people. When the government rejected the petition in 1874, the People's Rights Movement increasingly mobilized the agitated urban public. The voices of revolution and modern consciousness soon reached even remote mountain villages.