The Sendai Domain was the focal member of the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei against the Meiji Restoration during the Boshin War.

When Date Masamune presented himself to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was undertaking the Odawara Campaign, he was granted the former fiefs of the Kasai 葛西 and Ōsaki 大崎 families, in return for his hereditary lands of Yonezawa 米沢, Aizu 会津, and Sendō 仙道.

A relief sculpture on the base of Masamune's equestrian statue in Sendai Castle commemorates his entry into the city, which was then a small village.

[9] In 1868, the Sendai Domain did not have forces active in the Battle of Toba–Fushimi; however, it did have a liaison office in Kyoto which kept track of the developing situation.

However, Date Yoshikuni, the daimyō of Sendai, opposed the harshness shown against Aizu, saying that it was like "a sentence being passed on one who never had a trial".

This came to an end in May 1868, when Sendai men discovered that the Chōshū officer Sera Shūzō (who had accompanied the imperial delegation) had written a slanderous letter indicating a desire to describe "all in the north to be enemies," and to ask for reinforcements to subdue the entire region by armed force.

A group of these men killed Sera, and pushed ahead with Sendai sponsorship of a northern coalition of domains.