Ryozen Museum of History

The Ryozen Museum of History is situated over the street from the Kyoto Ryozen Gokoku Shrine in the Gion area of Kyoto. The Ryozen Museum of History is committed to the frequently rough occasions that conveyed to an end the Tokugawa administration at the peak of the Edo Period. This time of Japanese history is known as the Bakumatsu - or "the finish of the Bakufu" and saw the ruin of the shogunate in 1868 after over 250 years in control.

The impetus for this change, however not the immediate reason for the fall of the Tokugawa, was the landing of Commodore Perry's Black Ships at Shimoda in Tokyo Bay. Different equipped groups accumulated in Kyoto, the magnificent capital, under the motto of sonno joi Revere The Emperor; Expel the Barbarians wanting to compel an arrival to royal govern to balance the danger from the infringing Western forces, in particular the USA, Britain, France and Russia.