First Chōshū expedition

The First Chōshū expedition (Japanese:第一次長州征討) was a punitive military expedition led by the Tokugawa Shogunate against the Chōshū Domain in retaliation for the attack of Chōshū on the Imperial Palace in the Kinmon Incident. The First Chōshū expedition was launched on 1 September 1864.

The conflict finally led to a compromise brokered by the Satsuma Domain at the end of 1864. Although Satsuma initially jumped on the opportunity to weaken its traditional ally Chōshū, it soon realized that the intention of the Bakufu was first to neutralize Chōshū, and then to neutralize Satsuma. For this reason, Saigo Takamori, who was one of the Commanders of the Shogunate forces, proposed to avoid fighting and instead obtain the leaders responsible for the rebellion. Choshu was relieved to accept, as were the Shogunate forces, who were not much interested in battle. Thus ended the First Chōshū expedition without a fight, as a nominal victory for the Bakufu.