What a start to 2024! A major earthquake in the Ishikawa, Noto Peninsula area on New Years’ Day, and an aircraft crash at Haneda Airport on the 2nd, not a good start to the Year of The Dragon. …in fact as I write this at 10:55am on the 3rd, my home in Nagoya is swaying as the Noto Peninsula, 170km away, suffers another 5+ quake on the Japanese scale ….. Please note, because of the recent troubles and my work in the media consuming the time dedicated to date correlating, today’s article suffers from a mix of modern calendar and traditional lunar dates.
The Boshin War
The Meiji Restoration took place on this day, January 3 in 1868. It also marks the start date of the Boshin War. The Boshin War between the forces loyal to the Emperor and to those of the Shogun, commenced on this day too. Around 120,000 samurai were mobilized, and between the commencement and ending of the Boshin War in May 18, 1869, some 3,500 were killed.