Sonnō jōi in the context of "Slogan"

Bakumatsu (幕末; Japanese pronunciation: [ba.kɯ.ma.tsɯ], 'end of the bakufu') were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government. The major ideological-political divide during this period was between the pro-imperial nationalists called ishin shishi and the shogunate forces, which included the elite shinsengumi swordsmen.

Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of bakumatsu to seize personal power. Furthermore, there were two other main driving forces for dissent: first, growing resentment on the part of the tozama daimyō (or outside lords), and second, growing anti-Western sentiment following the arrival of Matthew C. Perry. The first related to those lords whose predecessors had fought against Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, after which they had been permanently excluded from all powerful positions within the shogunate. The second was to be expressed in the phrase sonnō jōi, or "revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians". The turning point of the Bakumatsu was during the Boshin War and the Battle of Toba–Fushimi when pro-shogunate forces were defeated.

Shishi (志士), sometimes known as Ishin Shishi (維新志士), were a group of Japanese political activists of the late Edo period. While it is usually applied to the anti-shogunate, pro-sonnō jōi (尊皇攘夷; lit. 'Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarian[s]') samurai primarily from the southwestern clans of Satsuma, Chōshū, and Tosa, the term shishi is also used by some with reference to supporters of the shogunate, such as the Shinsengumi.

There were many different varieties of shishi. Some, such as the assassins Kawakami Gensai, Nakamura Hanjirō, Okada Izō, and Tanaka Shinbei, opted for a more violent approach in asserting their views. Kawakami Gensai, in particular, is recalled as the assassin of Sakuma Shōzan, a renowned pro-Western thinker of the time. Several assaults on westerners in Japan have been attributed to the shishi and associated rōnin warriors. In a 2013 article, these assassins have been called "early terrorists" (German: frühe Terroristen) since they opted to spread terror among the foreigners. Other more radical shishi, such as Miyabe Teizō, plotted large-scale attacks with little regard for public safety. Miyabe himself was one of the ringleaders of the plot, foiled by the Shinsengumi at the Ikedaya Incident, to burn Kyoto at the height of the Gion Festival.

Prince Itō Hirobumi (Japanese: 伊藤 博文 [i.toː (|) çi.ɾoꜜ.bɯ.mʲi]; born Hayashi Risuke (林 利助); 16 October 1841 – 26 October 1909) was a Japanese statesman who served as the first prime minister of Japan from 1885 to 1888. Itō would again hold office as prime minister from 1892 to 1896, January—June 1898, and 1900 to 1901. He was also a leading member of the genrō, a group of senior courtiers that dictated policy for the Empire of Japan during the Meiji era. A pragmatic statesman, Itō became a central figure in the drafting of the Meiji Constitution as well as the establishment of the National Diet and modern cabinet system.

Born into a poor farming family in the Chōshū Domain, Itō Hirobumi and his father were adopted into a low-ranking samurai family. After the opening of Japan in 1854, he joined the nationalist sonnō jōi movement before being sent to England in 1863 to study at University College London. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Itō was appointed a junior councilor for foreign affairs in the newly formed Empire of Japan. Later in 1870, he traveled to the United States to study Western currency, and subsequently helped establish Japan's modern banking and taxation systems. Itō then set off on another overseas trip with the Iwakura Mission to the U.S. and Europe. Upon his return to Japan in 1873, he became a full councilor and public works minister.

Takechi Zuizan (武市瑞山; October 24, 1829 – July 3, 1865), also known as Takechi Hanpeita (武市 半平太), was a samurai of Tosa Domain during the Bakumatsu period in Japan. Influenced by the effects of the Perry Expedition, Takechi formed the Tosa Kinnō-tō (土佐勤王党, Tosa Imperialism party) which was loyal to the ideals of the sonnō jōi movement. The Kinnō-tō killing of Yoshida Tōyō on 6 May 1862, led to sonnō jōi becoming the prevalent philosophy of Tosa Domain, but he was later imprisoned and forced to commit seppuku by the former daimyō of Tosa Domain Yamauchi Yōdō.