Fuun Bakumatsuden Japan

After Commodore Perry 'encouraged' the Japanese to sign the Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31st, 1854 and therefore opened up trade with the United States, Japan was thrown into chaos. Japan's 200 years of self-imposed isolation ended and the samurai ranks began to question the power of the Tokugawa Shogunate and its ability to defend Japan. In his second trip to Japan, Perry had threatened to shell Edo if his demands were not met and the Shogunate had buckled too easily to his whims. Journeying from the whole of Japan, marauding bands of roshis (masterless samurai warriors - not ronins or rurounis) gathered in Kyoto and sought to topple the perceived weak Shogunate and repel the western invaders who had arrived on the black ships.