The was a Japanese military-political coalition established and disestablished over the course of several months in early to mid-1868 during the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

. Its flag was either a white interwoven five-pointed star on a black field, or a black interwoven five-pointed star on a white field. It is also known as the .

History

The Alliance centered on the

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan. ...

, Yonezawa, and Nihonmatsu domains, and drew together nearly all domains from the provinces of Mutsu and Dewa, several domains of northern

Echigo Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen Province, Uzen, Iwashiro Province, Iwashiro, Kōzuke Province, Kōzuke, Shinano Province, Shinano, and Etchū Province, ...

, and even the Matsumae Domain of Ezo (modern-day

Hokkaidō is the second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by railway via the Seikan Tunnel. The ...

). Headquartered at Shiroishi Castle, the alliance's nominal head was

Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa of Japan, was the second head of a ōke, collateral branch of the Imperial Household of Japan, Japanese imperial family. He was formerly enshrined in Tainan Shrine, Tainan-Jinja, Taiwan, under the name ''Kitashirakawa no Miya Yoshihisa-shinnō ...

, the onetime abbot of Kan'eiji Temple in Edo who fled north following the Satsuma–Chōshū takeover of the city, who declared himself , with Date Yoshikuni of

and Uesugi Narinori of Yonezawa as the head of the Alliance. Although heteroclite in nature, the Alliance formed of a combination of modern and traditional forces, and mobilized a total of about 50,000 soldiers. Though the alliance did its best to support the , Aizu was not formally part of the alliance ; neither was . In addition, though it technically no longer existed as a domain, the forces of the Hayashi clan of

Jōzai Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Kazusa Province (modern-day Chiba Prefecture), Japan. The domain was centered on Manube jin’ya, in what is now the city of Kisarazu, Chiba. It was rul ...

also fought on behalf of the Alliance against the Imperial troops. While the alliance was a bold, innovative step that combined the military forces of several dozen domains, it was unable to fully act as a single, cohesive unit, and with the fall of Sendai and Aizu, it effectively collapsed.

Members of the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei

Flag of Ouetsu Reppan Domei or the Northern Alliance in Japan

References

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External links

Background on the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ouetsu Reppan Domei Meiji Restoration Boshin War 1868 establishments in Japan 1868 disestablishments 19th-century military alliances