November 9, 1867

Taisei Hōkan

Tokugawa Yoshinobu submits the Taisei Hōkan proposal

Yoshinobu handed back administrative authority without giving up the title of shōgun. That second document came ten days later.

9 November 1867, in Kyoto

The fifteenth shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, submitted a proposal to the Imperial Court in Kyoto on 9 November 1867 returning the shogunate's administrative authority to the emperor. In the Japanese lunisolar calendar the date was Keiō 3, tenth month, fourteenth day.

Tosa leaders had proposed the move: Yamauchi Toyoshige presented the memorial that immediately preceded it, and Gotō Shōjirō helped advance Tosa's plan for a deliberative government. The court took until the following day to accept.

Two documents, ten days apart

Yoshinobu did not resign the office of shōgun on 9 November. He submitted that separate resignation on 19 November.

Nor did the proposal dismantle the shogunate's machinery. Yoshinobu and the existing administration kept handling business while a successor political order was debated.

A surrender that was also a gamble

Yoshinobu adopted the Tosa plan while armed anti-Tokugawa forces were looking for a justification to overthrow him. Returning authority took that justification away.

He expected the Tokugawa house to remain the strongest participant in a new court-centered council. Satsuma, Chōshū and allied court nobles instead began planning a palace coup to keep him from dominating the successor regime.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources 2 audit passes

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What the sources leave uncertain

Japan still used its lunisolar calendar. The submission occurred on Keiō 3, tenth month, fourteenth day, corresponding to 9 November 1867 in the Gregorian calendar.