Bakumatsu and Restoration– category –
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Opening and closing Hakone ―― The strategy of Oguri Kōzuke no suke as recorded by Ninagawa Arata, and the sixty years that followed
It was in Keiō 4 (1868), after the fighting against the Shōgitai at Ueno had ended. -
Shallow abuse ―― Ninagawa Arata defends Oguri’s argument for borrowing French troops
It was the year when Ikeda Chikugo no kami, the envoy the shogunate had dispatched to France, was staying there. In this year, a certain proposal was brought to the shogunate from the side of the… -
Ii Naosuke Becomes Great Elder ―― From the Second Month of Ansei 5 to the Twelfth Month of Ansei 5
It was just past noon. A visitor came to the Ii residence. Yakushiji Motozane, head of foot soldiers. Onoda Koichirō, the guest reception officer, came out to receive him. He said he wished to report… -
The Person at Umoregi no ya Was Waiting ―― In the Fourth Month of Ansei 5 (1858), Hotta Masayoshi’s Return to Edo and Two Difficult Problems
There, an envoy of Matsudaira Yoshinaga, the leader of the Hitotsubashi faction, caught up with him. Tokutomi Sohō writes that Yoshinaga, unable to wait for Hotta's return to Edo, had deliberately… -
The Chancellor of the Spring Breeze ―― Abe Masahiro and the Forecast of the Eleventh Month of Kaei 5
The second day of the eleventh month of Kaei 5 (1852). At the Satsuma domain residence in Edo, Shimazu Nariakira took up his brush. The letter was addressed to his younger brother Hisamitsu, who was… -
A Night with the Three Scrolls of Heaven, Earth, and Man ―― In Man’en 1 (1860), before his voyage to America, Oguri Tadamasa received the full transmission from Fujikawa Seisai
The first month of Man'en 1 (1860). In Edo's Shitaya, someone knocked at the gate of a secluded residence at midnight. The visitor was the inspector Oguri Bungo no kami Tadamasa, who had come… -
Three Hundred Years of a Residence, Ended by One Document ―― The Confiscation of Bannerman Residences and the People of Edo on the Sixteenth Day of the Seventh Month of Keiō 4
The sixteenth day of the seventh month of Keiō 4 (1868). It had been a little over three months since Edo Castle was handed over. The new government issued an order to confiscate the residences of… -
The Honor of a House for Sale, Storehouse Included ―― How Ninagawa Arata Recorded the Origins of Oguri Tadamasa and the Yokosuka Ironworks
Some years before, a complete set of steam ship-repair machinery had been presented to the shogunate by Saga. The proposal was that someone should use it and take on the trouble of the work. -
A Shot Through the Throat ―― How Ninagawa Arata Recorded Kawaji Toshiakira’s Suicide on the Fifteenth Day of the Third Month of Keiō 4 (1868)
On the night of the fifteenth day of the third month of Keiō 4 (1868). In a residence in Edo's Banchō, an old man rose from his bed. He was paralyzed on one side of his body. He bathed, put on formal… -
The Wound Called Ryūkyū ―― How Did Shimazu Nariakira Inherit Satsuma?
Two reports from Satsuma reached Shimazu Nariakira in Edo. One was addressed from Shimazu Shōsō to Shimazu Iwami. Its content was that Ryūkyū was peaceful and there was nothing to worry about. The… -
The Four Walls Are All Full of the Expel-the-Barbarians Party ―― In the Fifth Month of Bunkyū 3 (1863), Tokugawa Yoshinobu’s Journey to Edo and Submission of His Resignation
Tsuchiyama post station in Ōmi. Several assassins attacked the inn where Okabe Suruga no kami was staying. Suruga no kami escaped the danger. But Tokugawa Yoshinobu, worried about what lay ahead,… -
“The tyranny truly caused lamentation” ―― In the fifth month of Ansei 6 (1859), the imperial letter and gifts bestowed after the four lords’ tonsure
A cut sheet of formal paper, wrapped in Mino paper. A note states that it conveys a private command.
