On 24 October 1876, the Shinpūren rebellion was launched by the Shinpūren, a radical anti-Meiji samurai organization in Kumamoto, against the Imperial Japanese Army and officials of Kumamoto Prefecture. The very rapid modernization and Westernization of Japan was resulting in massive changes to Japanese culture, dress and society, and appeared to many samurai to be a betrayal of the ' joi ' ('Expel the Barbarian') portion of the Sonnō jōi justification used to overthrow the former Tokugawa shogunate.

Many conservative members of the samurai, the former powerful warrior class, were disgruntled as the reforms saw them lose their privileged social status, eliminating their income, and the establishment of universal military conscription had replaced much of their role in the society. The new Meiji government enacted policies of modernization and Westernization, including reforms aimed at deconstructing feudalism in Japan such as the abolition of the han system and the Tokugawa class system. In 1868, the Meiji Restoration established the Empire of Japan and overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate that had ruled Japan as a feudal state since 1600. Meiji kunen no henn Senkaku resshi no hi in Hakozaki Shrine