While the Shogun Still Lives ―― Ii Naosuke’s Disposition of Owari and Mito on the Fifth Day of the Seventh Month of Ansei 5

The Ōoku at the hour of nine-half at night on the third day of the seventh month

Ii Naosuke entered the castle at the usual hour, and on this day his withdrawal came at the hour of nine-half at night, as late as one in the morning.Original
The reason was that the beriberi of the shogun, Tokugawa Iesada, had worsened.Original
“The shogun’s beriberi condition is such that he is not doing well” — meaning that the shogun’s beriberi was severe and he was not improving.Original
That night, the great elder and the senior councilors were summoned to the sleeping chamber of the Ōoku.Original
The next day, the fourth, the same faces were again summoned to the Ōoku.Original
What was conveyed to them there was not an inquiry after the shogun’s health.Original
Retirement and confinement for Tokugawa Yoshikumi, confinement for Tokugawa Nariaki, retirement and confinement for Matsudaira Yoshinaga.Original
Here Tokutomi Sohō reads the character of Ii Naosuke.Original
His immediate concern, Tokutomi Sohō writes, was neither foreign affairs nor Kyoto, but what might be called “the eradication of the so-called plotters.”Original
It was not the manner of Abe Masahiro, who had aimed at unity of the whole realm, but the single-minded insistence on pushing through his own manner to the end — that, Tokutomi Sohō writes, was the fundamental spirit at its root.OriginalOriginal

The Ii side regards Tokugawa Nariaki as the source of the trouble

Tokugawa Nariaki is said to have declared, “Today I will certainly make Kamon no kami cut open his belly.”Original
This amounts to saying that today, without fail, he would make Ii Naosuke commit suicide.Original
On that occasion, Tayasu Yoshiyori is said to have declared outright as follows.Original
Matsudaira Yoshinaga was his own younger brother, but he had never until now thought him so wicked a man.Original
It was disloyal conduct, behavior beyond words.Original
He asked that severe censure be imposed.Original
From this one document, Tokutomi Sohō states, it can be seen that the Ii side regarded Tokugawa Nariaki as the sole source of all the trouble.OriginalOriginal

Kuze Hirochika, sleepless through the night

At dawn on the fifth day of the seventh month.Original
The steward Utsugi Kagetoshi was summoned, and Kuze Hirochika, coming out to the barred entrance, ordered him to read a letter.Original
Its contents urged postponement.Original
Kuze wrote that if the worst should happen, since Tokugawa Yoshitomi was still young a guardian would in any case have to be appointed, and that in any event the matter should be set aside for the present, today.Original
And at the end.Original
“Though yesterday I gave my assent, to raise objections today is, in every respect, a matter for deep apology” — meaning that although he had agreed the day before, to voice dissent today was most regrettable.Original
He also stressed that he was by no means in agreement with the other side.Original
Tokutomi Sohō surmises that Kuze, who had once been pressed by Ii into agreeing, reconsidered, realized the impropriety of it, and, unable to sleep through the night, had written and sent this letter.Original
Ii’s reply was short.Original
Because the shogun was gravely ill, if the matter were left as it stood and the worst should happen, it would become “the root of great disorder” — so he stated, and declared that to leave orders unissued would invite great disorder, and for this very reason the order had been given; he dismissed Kuze’s proposal as “a mistaken notion.”OriginalOriginal

Utsugi Kagetoshi makes his rounds of the senior councilors

Ii moved quickly.Original
Once at the castle the matter would come up for deliberation, and it would be troublesome if someone sided with Kuze.OriginalOriginal

He therefore gave an order to Utsugi Kagetoshi.Original
First Manabe Akikatsu, second Ōta Dōjun, third Matsudaira Noriyasu.Original
He was to call on them in this order.OriginalOriginal

Manabe Akikatsu at once cleared the room and met with him.Original
Having looked over the letter, Manabe responded that to leave the matter as it stood would be the root of great disorder, that informal notice had already been given to each office concerned, that it would be a grave matter if delay allowed word to leak to the other side, and that once at the castle a formal document should be issued, and that even if it meant going into the night, the matter had to be settled that very day or it would be a grave matter.OriginalOriginal

Ōta likewise agreed.Original
Moreover, even before Utsugi arrived, Ōta had already received from Kuze a note declining attendance on grounds of illness, and had sent back word urging him to come to the castle regardless.OriginalOriginal

Ōta’s words have been preserved.Original
Utsugi also reported that, as the hour had grown late, he had not gone on to call upon Matsudaira Noriyasu.OriginalOriginal

The disposition of retirement for Tokugawa Yoshikumi

That day, Ii Naosuke remained in the castle until the hour of eight-half at night, three in the morning.Original
It amounted to spending a full day and night within the castle.Original
The disposition then conveyed to Tokugawa Yoshikumi was retirement, residence at the Toyama mansion, and quiet, circumspect confinement.Original
The succession of the Owari house went to Matsudaira Yoshichika.Original
It was further ordered that meetings and correspondence with close relatives be entirely forbidden, and that this be strictly conveyed to the chief retainers.Original
To begin with, Tokugawa Yoshikumi could hardly be called a member of Tokugawa Nariaki’s faction.Original
He had not readily responded to Matsudaira Yoshinaga’s solicitation to support Hitotsubashi.Original
He was a man who had come from the Takasu domain to succeed to the Owari house, and some are said to have remarked that “the Owari lord’s only merit lies in his skill at Chinese-style calligraphy.”Original
Even so, he had pride as head of the Owari house and views of his own, and on matters of foreign policy he was of one mind with Nariaki in some respects.Original
The view was that the Owari house, provided it mended its ways from now on, would likely come to no further harm.Original
Yet this disposition came on the fifth day of the seventh month.Original
Tokutomi Sohō asks whether Owari had been caught up in the Mito affair, whether it was out of a sense that it would be unfair to punish Mito alone and not extend the punishment to Owari.Original
In any case, the retirement of Tokugawa Yoshikumi was utterly unexpected.OriginalOriginal

The arrival of the shogunal envoy and word of confinement

As for conditions on the Mito side, the notes of Kayane Yasushi are detailed.Original
A document was passed along from the castle liaison, Yokoyama Jinzaemon.Original
Tokugawa Nariaki found it suspicious that the Owari chief retainer was missing from the list.Original
Having seen the document, Nariaki and Tokugawa Yoshiatsu said that since the three related lords—Matsudaira Yoritane, Matsudaira Yorinobu, and Matsudaira Yorinawa—together with Hosokawa Narimori and Niwa Nagakuni, had come, it must be to strike against them.Original
At the fourth watch, Takeda Shuri returned and presented the document that had been handed to him.Original
It was a shogunal order placing the Owari lord under house confinement.Original
While everyone present was grieving, another report came from the castle liaison.Original
It said that, besides the related lords serving as envoys, the senior inspector Ikeda Harima no kami would be accompanying them.Original
Such attendance by a senior inspector had not occurred even at the time of Nariaki’s shogunal reprimand in the fifth month of Kōka 1 (1844), and it sounded as though an examiner were being sent.Original
No conclusion emerged even after exhausting the discussion.Original
It was therefore decided that they would meet privately with Matsudaira Yorinobu to probe the matter, and only then receive the envoy.Original
Nariaki did not meet him; Yoshiatsu went out instead.Original
Depending on its content, it might not be possible to accept it—just as the discussion had reached this point, the envoy arrived.Original
Matsudaira Yoritane is said to have left midway, claiming a stomach ache, and returned to his own residence.Original
The documents numbered three.Original
The senior councilor Okada Shinano no kami and Takeda Shuri received them, reported to both lords, and wrote down and delivered the statement of acceptance.Original
“The time had already passed the fifth watch.”Original
Dawn was about to break.Original
Sohō supposes that, since a senior inspector was accompanying the envoy, they had worried that seppuku might be ordered, but were relieved once they learned it was only confinement at the Komagome residence.Original
The following day, the sixth.Original
The Komagome residence was badly damaged, and they wished to request a delay in moving in, but it was difficult to petition for it directly.Original
So they had Matsudaira Yorinobu stop by on his way to the castle and made the request to him.Original
But he said it would be difficult to raise the matter with the senior councilors.Original
Kayane Yasushi writes that he saw them off in the inner chambers of the Matsu Palace, closing with the phrase “unable to bear the sorrow.”Original
These are words meaning that one cannot bear one’s feelings.Original
On the same sixth day, Tokugawa Yoshiatsu was also forbidden to attend the castle.Original
Yoshiatsu intended to petition for retirement, but was strongly dissuaded by his retainers and abandoned the idea.OriginalOriginal

“To Confine a Related Domain Without Proof of Guilt”

Who bore responsibility for the punishment?Original
The Mito side’s records state as follows.Original
The shogun’s illness had suddenly struck on the first day of the seventh month, and by the second and third days he was already in critical condition.Original
A shogun who was feeble and silent even in ordinary times could not possibly have judged the rightness of such a major punishment while suffering the agony of life and death.Original
The responsibility for deciding it alone must therefore be attributed to Ii Naosuke.OriginalOriginal

Sohō agrees, saying that no one could object to this reasoning.Original
What was called the shogun’s wish was nothing more than Ii’s wish announced under the shogun’s name.OriginalOriginal

Among the ministers, Ōta Dōjun too seems to have initially been among those who objected.Original
“To confine a related domain without proof of guilt—what of the troubles that will follow?”—if a related domain were confined without evidence, what would be done about the calamity to come?Original
Ii answered as follows.Original
If Kyoto were investigated, charges would certainly be found; and if no charges were found, he himself would bear the responsibility.Original
Ōta could not argue against this.OriginalOriginal

Sohō raises the suspicion that this crafty Ōta may have deliberately objected in the council chamber the day before, in order to place the responsibility on Ii.Original
But the conclusion does not change.Original
Whether the ministers as a whole approved or objected, the one responsible was Ii Naosuke himself—on this one point, Sohō notes, the views of the Mito side and the Ii side unexpectedly coincide.OriginalOriginal

Sohō supposes that such wariness stemmed from something deeply feared within himself.OriginalOriginal

Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu was ordered to refrain from attending the castle.Original
Even so, he was told to refrain from attending the castle for the time being.OriginalOriginal

The Three Men Misled by an Informer

The sixth day of the seventh month was, compared to the previous day, again a day of many events.OriginalOriginal

The junior councilor Honda Yasukata was dismissed from his post.Original
The attendant Ishiko Masahira was discharged from service and placed under retirement and confinement.Original
The inner physician Oka Rekisen’in was likewise discharged from service and placed under retirement and confinement.Original
His son Oka Ryōsetsu was granted a stipend of two hundred fifty bales of rice and entered the Kobushin corps.OriginalOriginal

Oka’s offense is said to have been a mistaken diagnosis of the shogun’s illness.Original
Honda was a man who had enjoyed the favor of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, served close to him for several decades, and was promoted to junior councilor under the Hotta administration.Original
Ishiko had held various offices and was known for his ability; on the recommendation of Matsudaira Tadakata, he moved from the Hitotsubashi tutorship into the attendants.Original
Both men, it is said, were disliked by Ii.OriginalOriginal

On the third day of the seventh month, on account of Iesada’s illness, Totsuka Seikai, Itō Genboku, Tōda Chōan, and Aoki Shuntai were summoned and appointed physicians in attendance, each receiving two hundred bales and thirty portions.Original
Subsequently, Takeuchi Gendō and Itō Kansai were also summoned.Original
Oka Rekisen’in had initially diagnosed the illness as colic.Original
At the morning audience on the sixth, he was asked whether it would be all right for the shogun to go out to the outer hall that day, and he answered that it would be all right.Original
It is said that in that outer hall the illness suddenly worsened, bringing him to the point of death.OriginalOriginal

Concerning the punishment of these three men, Sohō cites Katsu Kaishū’s “Thorns on the Wall.”OriginalOriginal

Katsu added the following to it.
Someone slandered two or three people, suspicion bred suspicion, and in the end this brought disorder to the state.Original
As a warning for later generations, he could not bear to discard this small, unsightly record.OriginalOriginal

Tokutomi Sohō confirms Katsu’s position.Original
At the time, Katsu was engaged in the navy that the shogunate had newly established, and had no connection at all with the political struggle.Original
Even in the matter of the shogunal succession, he did not belong to the Hitotsubashi faction.Original
He was a man with no reason to be overly sympathetic toward the Mito faction.Original
He says this.
So, Tokutomi Sohō observes, it was something that outside observers alike regretted, how badly Ii had been misled by the reports of his spies, and that this was rather the beginning of his missteps.OriginalOriginal

If we do not restrain him

Whether the death of the shogun Tokugawa Iesada occurred on the fourth day or the sixth day, and whether the arrival of the imperial letter from Kyoto occurred on the fourth day or the sixth day—Original
the accounts given by the Mito side and the Ii side do not agree.Original
But Tokutomi Sohō sets this aside as not being the great issue.OriginalOriginal

Ii’s motive in punishing his relatives was not necessarily tied to the contents of the imperial letter.Original
At the very least, he must have recognized the need for punishments of this scale even before the shogun’s death.OriginalOriginal

And he says this.
Ii had resolved that he and the Mito faction could never coexist.Original
If we do not restrain him, he will certainly restrain us.
Assuming this, he acted first to restrain the other side.OriginalOriginal

The castle, with its lamps still burning until half past the eighth hour of the night.Original
Tokugawa Nariaki, dressed in formal attire, moving to Komagome in the evening.OriginalOriginal

Between the one who restrained and the one who was restrained, which spent more sleepless nights?

This article is a reading of Kinsei Nihon kokuminshi, vol. 39: The Administration of Ii Naosuke. Tokutomi Sohō’s views are those of the 1920s and 1930s and may differ from current scholarship. The source text is a century old and may differ from current scholarship.