Elder Ii Naosuke The selfish signing of the trade treaty and the strong method of the shogun's succession issue will not only provoke the opposition of the Hitotsubashi faction, including the counselor Tozama Daimyo, but also invite strong opposition from both the sonnō and the jōi.
Naosuke Ii, who began to worry that the repulsion had begun to affect the imperial court, Ansei Purge in 1858. I wrote in a previous article that I made a crackdown called.
In addition to the lords who supported Hitotsubashi, Shoin Yoshida, Umeda Unpin, and Rai Mikisaburo were punished at this time. It also included the scholars and scholars of the revered sect.
Sakuradamon Incident
It was the low-ranking samurai group of the Mito clan who had a fierce opposition to this crackdown.
They escaped from the clan and became ronin in conflict with a group of senior samurai who avoided fighting with the shogunate. After that, he kept in close contact with the Satsuma Domains and Naosuke Ii's assassination plan . I will continue to work out.
And the fate of March 1860 Edo Castle Sakurada Gate Naosuke Ii is attacked nearby and is killed. It was fortunate for the attackers that the visibility was poor due to heavy snow on that day, and the guards were preparing for the snow. It is said that the bearer of the Kago on which Ii was riding escaped immediately, and Naosuke Ii was decapitated just minutes after the attack began.
Rōjū / Ando Nobumasa took over in the unusual situation where the top elder who was in charge of national affairs at that time was assassinated. was. His most important task was to restore the authority of the unstable shogunate.
Therefore, Ando will seek a line of cooperation with the imperial court.
First of all, I decided to use the authority of the emperor to suppress the anti-Bakufu forces.
As a concrete measure, the younger sister of Emperor Komei [ Wamiya ] Shogun Iemochi Seishitsu [ Kobu Gattai ] to reconcile the imperial court and the shogunate ] Is planned.
The second attack on the elders, the change outside Sakashitamon
This Kobu Gattai At first, both Emperor Komei and Kazumiya himself refused. However, with this as an opportunity, Emperor Komei's chamberlain, Tomomi Iwakura was aiming to restore the power of the imperial court. However, the emperor's way of thinking changes to the Kobu Gattai. Then, seven months after the change outside Sakuradamon, Wamiya decided to marry Iemochi on the condition that he was defeated.
The shogunate tried to suppress the reverence movement with this Kobu Gattai policy, but when the political marriage detracted from the authority of the imperial court, the reverence movement would escalate. I did.
Thus 1862 Second Rōjū Attack Will occur.
The suspect was a revered scholar, led by the Mito Domain Ronin. Masanobu Ando, an old man, was attacked near the Sakashitamon Gate of Edo Castle. Fortunately, Ando was not fatal, but it was a fatal event for the authority of the Shogunate.
Sakuradamon Incident and Sakashitamon Incident The case that the highest authority of the shogunate was attacked twice in a row was enough to inform the world of the loss of authority of the shogunate. The authority of the shogunate had fallen to the point of being irreparable.
Masanobu Ando, who was the victim of a strange event outside Sakashitamon, was dismissed from the responsibility of this turmoil, and Tomomi Iwakura, who had been enthusiastic about the work of the imperial court, was also dismissed.
From around this time, foreigners were attacked by the revered scholars and [ Tenchu . ] The acts of terrorism such as the assassination case will spread in Japan.