During the Boshin War, which was the civil war that occurred between 1868 and 1869, the Akita domain stood on the side of the new government forces (Emperor’s military) and against the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei (the alliance between the domains in the Tohoku region now). Akita was pressed by the surrounding allied army; however, they requested support from the new government forces, and 250 reinforcements from the Saga domain arrived on July 6th, 1868. It was then that steamships entered the port of Tsuchizaki-Minato for the first time in history. It could be said that the modernization of Tsuchizaki thus began in Minato.
