He continued policies of fiscal retrenchment and development of new industries to raise revenues to pay for the ever increasing expenses for military assistance demanded by the shogunate.

In 1867, the shogunate attempted to entice him with a raise in courtesy title to Sakonoechūshō; however, Yoshitaka cited a crop failure in Akita and a pandemic, and asked for leave to return to his domains to manage the situation.

[3][4] However, the Satake had political difficulties with the alliance, which culminated in the murder,[5] in Akita, of a delegation from Sendai on August 21, 1868,[6][7][8] and the display of the messengers' gibbeted heads at Kubota Castle.

[10] The Satake then backed out of the alliance and supported the imperial army; eleven days later, on September 1, 1868[11] the Tsugaru clan of the neighboring Hirosaki Domain followed suit.

[13] Kubota forces were hard-pressed to defend their territory, with the result that the alliance troops had made serious advances by the time the war ended in northern Honshū.

[14] Satake Yoshitaka relocated to Tokyo in 1871 after the abolition of the han system and subsequently received the kazoku peerage title of koshaku (Marquess).