One thing that always jumped out at me when reading about the Meji Restoration and the Boshin War is that, as far as I have gleaned, the Imperial supporters were very supremacist and xenophobic (their motto was "expel the barbarian and restore the emperor) while still being in favor of westernization, while the Shogunate supporters were more open to western relations but not to modernization. This is only my shallow knowledge Of the subject, however.
This attitude, specifically of the Imperial faction, seems contradictory. Like they were saying "Our culture is the greatest and westerners are barbarians" while at the same time enthusiastically adopting not only western technology and military doctrine, but also much of its culture as well. Did anyone ever point out this hypocrisy? Were these fiery attitudes about expelling the barbarians just propaganda to stir up gung-ho samurai to fight for the emperor, even though their class would later be destroyed by the the people they were fighting for?
The two factions were much less polarised than they look from a distance. Both the Bafuku and the Imperials wanted to "expel the barbarians" and both sides quickly realised that the only way forward was to westernise. They saw no hypocracy in having to take on the outsiders technology in order to stand up to them. Especially after a British/French force casually defeated the Chosu clan in 1863.
The Imperial side managed to paint the Tokugawas as "soft on barbarians" while holding almost identical policies.
Meiji 1868 - Paul Akamatsu
Inventing Japan - Ian Buruma