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A 2TEW NATION. 369
of the new government was to ratify the treaties
with the foreign nations in the name of the
Mikado.
All this was not done without opposition, and the
who had now the
far-seeing and high-souled patriots
destinies of Japan in their hands were denounced as
traitors both by the fanatical retainers of Tokugawa
and by the haters of the bakufu, who thought that
they had been betrayed by their old comrades. To
many of the ronins the possession of the Mikado and
government had been eagerly awaited as the signal
of war, but instead they found it meant peace. Echizen
and Owari were sent to Ke'iki to invite him to
high office under the new government. He at first
agreed, but afterward yielded to the counsel of Aidzu
and other clans and advanced on Kyoto with a
large army to drive out the men forming the new
government. At the battle of Fushimi, fought during
three days, from January 27 to 30, the ex-Tycoon's
forces were beaten and he himself found refuge
on the American man-of-war Iroquois. The loyal
army now marched against Yedo, captured it, fought a
battle at Uye'no, and then in the north won victories
in many places. On the sea, with the ironclad ex-
Confederate ram Stonewall, brought from the United
States, the loyal forces overcame the navy of the
adherents of Tokugawa. Yedo was made the kyo,
or capital, and being in the east was called Tokyo,
or Eastern Capital. Here the Mikado came to live,
and henceforth Tokyo became the political, literary,
educational, and religious center of the empire.
Kyoto was named Sai-kyo, or the western capital,