At the head of Japan's dissident faction…

At the head of Japan's dissident faction is Tokugawa Nariaki, who had long embraced a militant loyalty to the emperor along with antiforeign sentiments, and who had been put in charge of national defense in 1854.

The Mito school—based on neo-Confucian and Shinto principles—has as its goal the restoration of the imperial institution, the turning back of the West, and the founding of a world empire under the divine Yamato Dynasty.