Maebara Issei, a disillusioned hero of the Meiji Restoration and former samurai of the Chōshū Domain, planned an attack on Yamaguchi Prefecture officials inspired by the Shinpūren rebellion four days earlier.

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 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.

On 24 October 1876, Maebara was contacted by the leaders of the Shinpūren Rebellion in Kumamoto to join forces in a widespread uprising against the Meiji government in Kyushu and southwestern Honshu.

Instead, Maebara decided to march along the coast of the Sea of Japan to the national capital Tokyo, winning over the ex-samurai from the various former domains along the way, and to commit mass seppuku (ritual suicide) at the feet of Emperor Meiji.