Battle of Hakodate The was fought in Japan from December 4 , 1868 to June 27 , 1869 , between the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate army , consolidated into the armed forces of the rebel Ezo Republic , and the armies of the newly formed Imperial government ( composed mainly of forces of the Chōshū and the Satsuma domains ) . It was the last stage of the Boshin War , and occurred around Hakodate in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō . In Japanese , it is also known as the According to the Japanese calendar , the Battle of Hakodate was fought from Meiji - 1 year ( " gannen " ) , 10 - month , 21 - day until Meiji - 2 year , 5 - month 18 - day . Background . The Boshin War erupted in 1868 between troops favorable to the restoration of political authority to the Emperor and the government of the Tokugawa shogunate . The Meiji government defeated the forces of the Shogun at the Battle of Toba - Fushimi and subsequently occupied the Shogun ' s capital at Edo . Enomoto Takeaki , vice - commander of the Shogunate Navy , refused to remit his fleet to the new government and departed Shinagawa on 1868 - 08 - 20 , with four steam warships ( " Kaiyō " , " Kaiten " , " Banryū " , " Chiyodagata " ) and four steam transports ( " Kanrin Maru " , " Mikaho " , " Shinsoku " , " Chōgei " ) as well as 2 , 000 sailors , 36 members of the " Yugekitai " ( guerilla corps ) headed by Iba Hachiro , several officials of the former " Bakufu " government including the vice - commander in chief of the Shogunate Army Matsudaira Taro , Nakajima Saburozuke , and members of the French Military Mission to Japan , headed by Jules Brunet . On August 21 , the fleet encountered a typhoon off Choshi , in which " Mikaho " was lost and " Kanrin Maru " , heavily damaged , forced to rally the coast , where she was captured at Shimizu . The rest of the fleet reached Sendai harbor on August 26 , one of the centers of the Northern Coalition ( 奥羽越列藩同盟 ) against the new government , composed of the fiefs of Sendai , Yonozawa , Aizu , Shōnai and Nagaoka . Imperial troops continued to progress north , taking the castle of Wakamatsu , and making the position in Sendai untenable . On October 12 , 1868 , the fleet left Sendai , after having acquired two more ships ( " Oe " and the " Hou - Ou " , previously borrowed by Sendai domain from the Shogunate ) , and about 1 , 000 more troops : former - " Bakufu " troops under Otori Keisuke , " Shinsengumi " troops under Hijikata Toshizo , " Yugekitai " under Katsutaro Hitomi , as well as several more French advisors ( Fortant , Marlin , Bouffier , Garde ) , who had reached Sendai overland . Occupation of southern Hokkaidō . The rebels , numbering around 3 , 000 and traveling by ship with Enomoto Takeaki reached Hokkaidō in October 1868 . They landed on Takanoki Bay , behind Hakodate on October 20 . Hijikata Toshizo and Otori Keisuke each led a column in the direction of Hakodate . They eliminated local resistance by forces of Matsumae domain , which had declared its loyalty to the new Meiji government , and occupied the fortress of Goryokaku on October 26 , which became the command center for the rebel army . Various expeditions were organized to take full control of the southern peninsula of Hokkaidō . On November 5 , Hijikata , commanding 800 troops and supported by the warships " Kaiten " and " Banryo " occupied the castle of Matsumae . On November 14 , Hijikata and Matsudaira converged on the city of Esashi , with the added support of the flagship " Kaiyo Maru " , and the transport ship " Shinsoku " . Unfortunately , " Kaiyō Maru " was shipwrecked and lost in a tempest near Esashi , and " Shinsoku " also was lost as it came to its rescue , dealing a terrible blow to the rebel forces . After eliminating all local resistance , on December 25 , the rebels founded the Ezo Republic , with a government organization modeled after that of the United States , with Enomoto Takeaki , as President ( 総裁 ) . While the governments of France and the United Kingdom conditionally recognized the new republic , the Meiji government in Tokyo did not . A defense network was established around Hakodate in anticipation of the attack by the troops of the new Imperial government . The Ezo Republic troops were structured under a hybrid Franco - Japanese leadership , with Commander in chief Otori Keisuke seconded by Jules Brunet , and each of the four brigades commanded by a French officer ( Fortant , Marlin , Cazeneuve , Bouffier ) , seconded by eight half - brigade Japanese commanders . Two ex - French Navy officers , Eugène Collache and Henri Nicol further joined the rebels , and Collache was put in charge of building fortified defenses along the volcanic mountains around Hakodate , while Nicol was in charge of re - organizing the Navy . In the meantime , an Imperial fleet had been rapidly constituted around the ironclad warship " Kōtetsu " , which had been purchased by the Meiji government from the United States . Other Imperial ships were " Kasuga " , " Hiryū " , " Teibo " , " Yoshun " , " Moshun " , which had been supplied by the fiefs of Saga , Chōshū and Satsuma to the newly formed government in 1868 . The fleet left Tokyo on March 9 , 1869 , and headed north . Battle of Miyako Bay . The Imperial navy reached the harbor of Miyako on March 20 . Anticipating the arrival of the Imperial fleet , the rebels organized a daring plan to seize the powerful new warship " Kōtetsu " . Three warships were dispatched for a surprise attack , in what is known as the Naval Battle of Miyako : the " Kaiten " , on which were riding the elite " Shinsengumi " as well as the ex - French Navy officer Henri Nicol , the warship " Banryu " , with the ex - French officer Clateau , and the warship " Takao " , with ex - French Navy officer Eugène Collache on board . To create surprise , the " Kaiten " entered Miyako harbor with an American flag . They raised the Ezo Republic flag seconds before boarding the " Kōtetsu " . The crew of " Kōtetsu " managed to repel the attack with a Gatling gun , with huge losses to the attackers . The two Ezo warships escaped back to Hokkaidō , but the " Takao " was pursued and self - wrecked . Landing of Imperial forces . The Imperial troops , numbering 7 , 000 , finally landed on Hokkaidō on April 9 , 1869 . They progressively took over various defensive positions , until the final stand occurred around the fortress of " Goryokaku " and " Benten Daiba " around the city of Hakodate . Japan ' s first major naval engagement between two modern navies , the Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay , occurred towards the end of the conflict , during the month of May 1869 . Before the final surrender , in May 1869 , the Ezo Republic French military advisors escaped to a French Navy warship stationed in Hakodate Bay , the " Coëtlogon " , from where they returned to Yokohama and thence to France . After having lost close to half their numbers and most of their ships , the military of Ezo Republic surrendered to the Meiji government on May 17 , 1869 . Aftermath . The battle marked the end of the old feudal regime in Japan , and the end of armed resistance to the Meiji restoration . After a few years in prison , several of the leaders of the rebellion were rehabilitated , and continued with brilliant political careers in the new unified Japan : Enomoto Takeaki in particular took various ministry functions during the Meiji era . The new Imperial government , finally secure , established numerous new institutions soon after the end of the conflict . The Imperial Japanese Navy in particular was formally established in July 1869 , and incorporated many of the combatants and ships which had participated in the Battle of Hakodate . The future admiral Togo Heihachiro , hero of the 1905 Battle of Tsushima , participated to the battle as a gunner on board the paddle steam warship " Kasuga " . Later depictions of the battle . Although the Battle of Hakodate involved some of the most modern armament of the era ( steam warships , and even an ironclad warship , barely invented 10 years earlier with the world ' s first seagoing ironclad , the French " La Gloire " ) , Gatling gun s , Armstrong gun s , modern uniforms and fighting methods , most of the later Japanese depictions of the battle during the few years after the Meiji Restoration offer an anachronistic representation of traditional samurai fighting with their swords , possibly in an attempt to romanticize the conflict , or to downplay the amount of modernization already achieved during the Bakumatsu period ( 1853 - 1868 ) . Significance . Modernization . Although the modernization of Japan is generally explained as starting with the Meiji period ( 1868 ) , it actually started significantly earlier from around 1853 during the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate ( the Bakumatsu period ) . The 1869 Battle of Hakodate shows two sophisticated adversaries in an essentially modern conflict , where steam power and guns play the key role , although some elements of traditional combat clearly remained . A great deal of Western scientific and technological knowledge had already been entering Japan since around 1720 through " rangaku " , the study of Western sciences , and since 1853 , the Tokugawa shogunate had been extremely active at modernizing the country and opening it to foreign influence . In a sense , the Restoration movement , based on the " Sonno Joi " ideology was a reaction to this modernization and internationalization , although , in the end , the Meiji Emperor chose to follow a similar policy under the " Fukoku Kyohei " ( Rich country , Strong army ) principle . Some of his former supporters from Satsuma , such as Saigō Takamori would revolt against this situation , leading to the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877 . French involvement . A group of French military advisors , members of the 1st French Military Mission to Japan and headed by Jules Brunet , fought side - by - side with troops of the former Tokugawa " bakufu " , whom they had trained during 1867 – 1868 . The Battle of Hakodate also reveals a period of Japanese history when France was strongly involved with Japanese affairs . Similarly , British and American interests and actions in Japan were quite significant , but less visible than with the French . This French involvement is part of the broader , and often disastrous , foreign activity of the French Empire under Napoleon III , and followed the Campaign of Mexico . The members of the French Mission who followed their Japanese allies to the North all resigned or deserted from the French Army before accompanying them . Although they were speedily rehabilitated upon their return to France , and some , such as Jules Brunet followed brilliant careers , their involvement was not premeditated or politically guided , but rather a matter of personal choice and conviction . Although defeated in this conflict , and again defeated in the Franco - Prussian War , France continued to play an important role in Japan ' s modernization : a Second Military Mission was invited in 1872 , and the first true modern fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy was built under the supervision of the French engineer Emile Bertin in the 1880s .