Negotiating Edo’s Surrender without a General Assault

Government armies advanced toward Edo after Yoshinobu’s defeat at Toba–Fushimi. Yoshinobu submitted to the court, but the fate of the Tokugawa house, its troops and its castle still required negotiation. Yamaoka Tesshū went to Saigō at Sunpu and discussed surrender conditions before the better-known meetings in Edo.

Katsu Kaishū and Saigō met on April 5 and 6, 1868. Katsu’s diary for the first meeting records that a decision would be deferred until the next day. Their settlement postponed the general assault and opened the way to the surrender of the castle and military resources. Yoshinobu’s treatment was a particular point of contention in the preliminary talks.

Other intermediaries also sought terms. Tenshōin, Iesada’s widow and a senior figure in the castle household, appealed to the advancing government forces for preservation of the Tokugawa house. Her intervention belonged to a wider negotiation, alongside the military discussions.

The castle was handed over on May 3, the eleventh day of the fourth month in the Japanese calendar. Edo avoided the planned general assault. Fighting at Ueno followed in July, and campaigns continued in northeastern Japan and Ezo. The negotiated handover transferred the shogunate’s principal seat while leaving other armed opponents to be defeated or brought to terms.