The was the assassination of Ii Naosuke, Chief Minister ( Tairō) of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

, on March 24, 1860 by ''

rōnin In feudal Japan to early modern Japan (1185–1868), a ''rōnin'' ( ; , , 'drifter' or 'wandering man', ) was a samurai who had no lord or master and in some cases, had also severed all links with his family or clan. A samurai became a ''rō ...

'' ''

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

'' of the Mito Domain and

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a Han system, domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of ...

, outside the

Sakurada Gate is a gate in the inner moat of Tokyo Imperial Palace, in Tokyo, Japan. It was the location of the Sakuradamon Incident (1860), Sakuradamon Incident in 1860, in which Tairō Ii Naosuke was assassinated outside the gate by samurai of the Mito Doma ...

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established th ...

Context

Ii Naosuke, a leading figure of the

Bakumatsu were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate Meiji Restoration, ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a Feudali ...

period and a proponent of the reopening of Japan after more than 200 years of seclusion, was widely criticized for signing on behalf of the Tokugawa Shogunate the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States (negotiated by U.S. Consul to Japan Townsend Harris) and, soon afterwards, similar treaties with other Western countries. The Harris Treaty was signed by the

Tokugawa Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

in defiance of

Emperor Kōmei Osahito (22 July 1831 – 30 January 1867), posthumously honored as Emperor Kōmei, was the 121st emperor of Japan, according to the List of Emperors of Japan, traditional order of succession.Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')孝明天皇 ...

's instructions not to sign the treaty, thus branding the Shogunate as having betrayed the emperor and by extension, the country. From 1859, the ports of

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

Hakodate is a Cities of Japan, city and seaports of Japan, port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of January 31, 2024, the city had an estimated population of 239,813 with 138,807 househol ...

, and

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

became open to foreign traders as a consequence of the treaties and foreigners were granted

extraterritoriality In international law, extraterritoriality or exterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Historically, this primarily applied to individuals, as jurisdict ...

, among a number of trading stipulations. Ii was also criticized for reinforcing the authority of the Tokugawa shogunate against regional ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

s'' through the Ansei Purge. He also made strong enemies in the dispute for the succession of Shōgun Tokugawa Iesada, and because he forced retirement on his opponents, specifically the retainers of Mito, Hizen, Owari, Tosa, Satsuma, and Uwajima. These policies generated strong sentiment against the shogunate, especially among proponents of the Mito school.

Assassination

The assassination took place on March 24, 1860, on the day of the Double Third Festival where all daimyos stationed in Edo (modern

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

) were scheduled to enter

for meetings. The assassins attacked Ii's entourage just outside the Castle, near the Sakuradamon (

) when Ii was reaching the premises. Ii had been warned about his safety, and many encouraged him to retire from office, but he refused, replying that "My own safety is nothing when I see the danger threatening the future of the country". Ii's entourage was composed of around 60 samurai guards and Ii's

palanquin The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of people. Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the el ...

carriers. A total of 17 Mito rōnin ambushed Ii together with Arimura Jisaemon, the lone member of the group who was not from Mito since he was a samurai from

. While an attack at the front drew the attention of the guards, a lone assassin fired one shot into the

containing Ii, with a Japanese-made

Colt 1851 Navy Revolver The Colt Revolving Belt Pistol or Navy Pistol, sometimes erroneously referred to as "Colt Revolving Belt Pistol of Naval Caliber" or "of Navy Caliber" (Naval is heavy gun and Navy Size Caliber was termed later for another Colt model), is a .36 ...

, which had been copied from the firearms that Commodore Matthew Perry had given the shogunate as gifts. Drawing the injured and likely paralyzed Ii out, Arimura decapitated Ii and then performed

seppuku , also known as , is a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honor, but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa era (particularly officers near ...

The conspirators carried a manifesto on themselves, outlining the reason for their act: Accounts of the violent event were sent via ship across the Pacific to San Francisco and then sped by the

Pony Express The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company. During its 18 months of opera ...

across the American West. On June 12, 1860, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported that Japan's first diplomatic mission to the West received the news about what had happened in Edo. The assassination dealt a severe blow to the prestige of the shogunate such that officials refused to admit Naosuke's death for a month, claiming that he was merely injured and was recuperating. The minister's death was only made official in April when the office of Tairo was declared vacant.

Fate and punishment of Ii Naosuke's entourage

Out of the 60 samurai guards defending Ii Naosuke, four died in combat and four died within days from fatal wounds. Those samurai who were

killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...

were allowed to keep and pass on their hereditary samurai titles (thus privilege) to their heirs. Survivors, however, all received various degree of punishment for failing to protect the Chief Minister. Two years after the incident in 1862, investigation was completed and verdicts were reached to punish the surviving guards. The seriously wounded, such as Shugoro Kusakari, were exiled to the Sano, Shimotsuke Province and had their stipends reduced. The slightly wounded were ordered to commit

, and all the unharmed were beheaded, with their samurai status revoked.

Consequences

The popular upheaval against foreign encroachment and assassination of Ii forced the Bakufu to soften its stance, and to adopt a compromise policy of '' kōbu gattai'' ("Union of the Emperor and the Shogun") suggested by

and Mito Domain, in which both parties vied for political supremacy in the years to follow. This soon amplified into the violent '' Sonnō Jōi'' ("Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians") movement. The Sakuradamon Incident ushered in a decade of violence in Japan, reviving the culture of the warrior rule and warrior spirit. Prior to the event, the warrior class had been described as weak and incapable of fighting, having lost all sense of warrior mission amid Japan's move toward modernization. For the following years until the fall of Bakufu in 1868, Edo, and more generally the streets of Japan, would remain notably hazardous for Bakufu officials (as displayed in events such as the attack on Andō Nobumasa) and foreigners alike ( Richardson murder), as the ''Sonnō Jōi'' movement continued to expand. According to Sir

Ernest Satow Sir Ernest Mason Satow (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British diplomat, scholar and Japanologist. He is better known in Japan, where he was known as , than in Britain or the other countries in which he served as a diplomat. He was ...

: "A bloody revenge was taken on the individual i but the hostility to the system only increased with time, and in the end brought about its complete ruin". The conflict reached its resolution with the military defeat of the shogunate in the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

, and the installation of the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

in 1868. Despite the defeat of the Bakufu, the new government adopted a policy of trade and diplomatic relations with the Western powers closer to that of Ii Naosuke than that of his assassins.

References

Citations

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakuradamon Incident (1860) Bakumatsu Edo Castle 1860 in Japan Mito Domain March 1860 Assassinations in Japan Anti-Christian sentiment in Japan 1860 murders in Japan