Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Meiji Restoration began on the 3rd of January 1868 when Emperor Mutsuhito declared the restoration of political power to the Imperial House. This event ended over two centuries of rule by the Tokugawa shogunate and marked the start of a fundamental restructuring of Japanese society.
The young emperor who initiated the Meiji Restoration was named Mutsuhito. He came to be known as Emperor Meiji and his authority became the central symbol of the new national community during the transition from feudal autonomy to a centralized state.
The arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's fleet in Uraga, Kanagawa, on the 8th of July 1853 triggered the end of Japan's national isolation policy known as sakoku. This event forced the Tokugawa shogunate to confront the reality of Western military and technological superiority and led to the signing of the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.
The Satsuma Domain and the Chōshū Domain formed the alliance that defeated the Tokugawa shogunate during the Boshin War. Their cooperation was formalized on the 7th of March 1866 and their forces defeated the Tokugawa army at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi on the 27th of January 1868.
The abolition of the domains was completed in January 1872 when 302 domains were formally reorganized into 72 prefectures. This process dissolved the feudal system and placed all lands under the authority of the new Meiji government to enforce political decisions within a centralized bureaucracy.