II Naosuke

II Naosuke

Ii Naosuke ( Jap. 井伊直弼 ; ii Naosuke * 29. November 1815 in Edo , Japan ; † 24. March 1860 ibid) was daimyo of Hikone (1850-1860) and Taïro the Tokugawa -Shogunats, a position he from April 23, 1858 until his murder on March 24, 1860. He is best known as a negotiator for the Harris Treaty with the United States . He was also an enthusiastic and accomplished tea master from the Sekishūryū school, and his writings include at least two works on the tea ceremony. After two years as Tairo at the head of the government, he was killed on March 24, 1860 in front of the Sakuradamon of Edo Castle by 17 samurai of the Mito fief and one samurai of the Satsuma fief, in the so-called Sakuradamon incident .

During Ii Naosuke's tenure, the shogunate was internally divided by two conflicts. The first internal political conflict flared up over the succession of the sickly and childless shogun Tokugawa Iesada , in which two wings within the Tokugawa faced each other: on the one hand, the Kishū wings under Ii Naosuke, who supported Tokugawa Yoshitomi (later Tokugawa Iemochi ), and on the other another was the Hitotsubashi wing under Tokugawa Nariaki , who supported Hitotsubashi Keiki (later Tokugawa Yoshinobu ).

At the same time, a foreign policy conflict was simmering about how to react to the threat from the western colonial powers, especially the USA. The Jōi faction, which refused to open up the country and wanted to throw foreigners out of the country, stood against the Kaikoku faction, which wanted to open Japan to the world and learn from abroad. With the country opening up, the future of the Tokugawa shogunate, which had ruled Japan for over 250 years, was also in question.

Childhood and youth

Ii Naosuke was born on November 29, 1815, the 14th son of Ii Naonake, daimyo of Hikone, and a mistress. As the 14th son he had no prominent position in prospect, and so he was sent to a Buddhist temple, where he lived on a small scholarship. From the age of 17 to 32 he lived alone. He developed a teacher-student relationship with Nagano Shuzen, who was only a few days older, and studied Confucianism and the teachings of the Kokugaku . He also studied the tea ceremony , waka poetry, taiko , Zen Buddhism ( Sōtō-shū ), Sōjutsu (spearfighting) and Iaijutsu .

However, by 1850 when his father died, his 13 brothers were either given up for adoption to other families in need of an heir or were no longer alive. He was therefore recalled from the monastery, took the name Ii and was installed as the daimyo of Hikone. Hikone was a so-called Fudai fiefdom, that is, a traditional ally of the Tokugawa, who did not own much land, but were positioned in strategically favorable positions in the country and - what was even more important - traditionally provided the Shogun's advisers and thus the decisive positions of power held in the Shogun, apart from the Shogun himself.

Ii became active in national politics and quickly rose to become the leader of a coalition of daimyo. In 1853 he brought a proposal into negotiations with Commodore Matthew Perry . Aware that Japan is "an imminent military threat," he argued that Japan should use its ties with the Netherlands to buy enough time to build an army that could withstand an invasion. II recommended that only Nagasaki Port should be opened to foreigners. Like Hotta Masayoshi , he did not want to keep still while Rōjū Abe Masahiro came to meet the anti-foreign faction ( Jōi ).

After Abe Masahiro negotiated the Kanagawa Treaty in 1854 , an unequal treaty that opened the ports of Nagasaki and Hakodate to the Americans, ending over 200 years of Japanese closure , Ii led a group of Fudai daimyo who forced Abe to resign. He was replaced by Hotta Masayoshi . This angered many reformist daimyo, who subsequently strengthened their ties to the imperial court in Kyoto.

Reigned as Tairō

Harris Treaty

Decree to appoint Ii Naosuke as Tairō (Japanese 井 伊 直 弼 大老 職 就任 誓詞 控)

In 1856 Townsend Harris was the first US envoy to Japan, but was quartered in Shimoda a long way from Edo . He had to stay on the Izu Peninsula for a total of two years until he had finally negotiated a draft contract with Hotta Masayoshi and was granted an audience with Shogun Tokugawa Iesada . The draft provided for the opening of a total of five ports and extraterritoriality for Americans in Japan. It marked the final departure from the conclusion of Japan and contained typical clauses of the unequal treaties .

Ii Naosuke vigorously supported the Harris Treaty and the further opening of Japan, be it to avert an impending invasion or because he saw foreign trade as opportunities to advance Japan economically and militarily. Following the protocol, he asked the heads of the Tokugawa Gosankyō for a written statement.

He met resistance from Tokugawa Nariaki , daimyo of Mito . To enforce the Harris Treaty domestically, Ii tried to win the approval of the emperor Kōmei . However, Nariaki refused to consent to submit the contract to the emperor. Although this resistance could be overcome and Hotta Masayoshi presented the contract to the emperor, the project failed because of the Tennō himself, who was a supporter of the Jōi movement.

Then Ii Naosuke was raised with the support of Mizuno Tadanaka and Matsudaira Tadakata by Shogun Iesada to the rank of Tairo (regent) to enforce the treaty. Ii Naosuke was now the second man in the government behind the shogun. (The Ii were one of four Fudai families that traditionally made up the Tairō. Ii Naoaki held the office until 1841 , after which the post was vacant .)

Harris meanwhile increased the pressure on the shogunate to sign the contract. Ii decided not to anger the Americans any further and on July 29, 1858, ordered the treaty to be signed. This happened with the support of the advisors in the shogunate, but against the will of the Tenno. A little later, Ii signed similar treaties with the Dutch, Russians, British and French. A large part of the foreign policy endeavors of the early Meiji period consisted of compensating for the loss of sovereignty stipulated in these treaties and of negotiating on an equal footing with the great Western powers.

Succession to the Shogun

Although Shogun Tokugawa Iesada was just over 30 years old, the struggle for his successor was already on fire due to his poor health and childlessness.

The reformer wing, led by the head of the Hitotsubashi lineage Tokugawa Nariaki, wanted his son Hitotsubashi Keiki to succeed him. Hitotsubashi Keiki was adopted as a child by the Hitotsubashi line of the Tokugawa, one of the Gosankyō , had risen to head of the family in 1847 and had meanwhile made a name for himself as a capable administrator. The reformer wing hoped that he would continue the innovations in the spirit of the Mito school . His supporters also included the influential daimyo of Satsuma , Shimazu Nariakira .

Ii Naosuke wanted to prevent the reforms from continuing because he saw them as a weakening of the central power of the shogunate bureaucracy. Instead, he supported Tokugawa Yoshitomi , the 12-year-old daimyo of Kii and thus head of one of the Gosanke . He hoped that such a young shogun would be easier to control. After signing the Harris Treaty, Ii turned to the question of succession. He used his position as Tairō to curtail the influence of the Shinpan daimyō (the Tokugawa subsidiary lines) and the Imperial Court in Kyoto on this issue and instead decided as the Shogun's chief minister. He was able to assert himself and, after the death of Iesada in 1858, use Yoshitomi as the 14th Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi.

This decision made Ii very unpopular with the imperial court and the reformers, especially in Mito. The reformers turned to the emperor to keep Ii in check. Even before Iesada's death, Ii responded with an edict from the Shogun that enabled him to remove his opponents from their offices. During the Ansei purges , he removed over 100 shogunate officials including daimyo and even ministers and courtiers at the imperial court from their offices. Among them were many supporters of the Mito school, including the Hitotsubashi family, as well as opponents of the Harris Treaties. Eight people were executed.

Kōbu gattai and the marriage of Iemochi and Kazunomiya

The attempt to bind the shogunate and imperial court to one another and thus restore the shogunate's declined reputation and create a stronger central power in Japan, which is under pressure from the outside, is referred to as Kōbu gattai . As a symbol of this movement, the young shogun Iemochi was to be married to a half-sister of the emperor, Kazunomiya . Although marriages between high-ranking samurai and court nobility were a common means of forming alliances, it was more common to give women from the nominally lower rank, i.e. the samurai, to the nominally higher rank, i.e. the court nobility. The only comparable case of a direct connection between the imperial family and Tokugawa was the marriage between Emperor Go-Mizunoo and Tokugawa Masako at the beginning of the Edo period.

A marriage between Iemochi and Kazunomiya was proposed as early as 1859 by Nagano Shuzen, his representative at the imperial court. He then commissioned his envoy Manabe Akibuke to propose this marriage to the emperor. Court official Konoe Tadahiro signaled his support on the condition that Kazunomiya's existing engagement be broken. However, Konoe was removed from his offices in March 1859 by the Iis Ansei purge, which is why this idea was not pursued further. It was not until after Ii's death that this marriage was finally concluded in 1861.

assassination

Color woodcut depicting the Sakuradamon incident

Sakurada gate of Edo Castle, photographed by Felice Beato , (1863–1870).

Although the Ansei Purges effectively eliminated Ii's opponents in the high ranks, it made all the more opponents in the lower samurai ranks. After 20 months in office, he was killed on March 24, 1860 in an attack on him and his porters and bodyguards in front of the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle. This attack, known as the " Sakuradamon Incident ", was carried out by 17 samurai from Mito and by Arimura Jisaemon from Satsuma . Arimura, who severed Ii's head with a blow, was seriously wounded and committed suicide on the spot.

With this attack the central figure of power of the shogunate and the symbol of his power and authority was killed. This marked the end of the last climax in the power of the shogunate, and it was not to recover from this blow.

As a result of the attack on the Tairō, there was a wave of attacks by Tenno loyalists across Japan. The poet Tsunada Tadayuki even wrote a song of praise for the murderers. Attacks were carried out on other Bakufu officials and their informants. The countermovement was also directed against court officials associated with Ii Naosuke. Among other things, Shimada Sakon , head of the Kujō (one of the Go-Sekke , the five regent houses of the Fujiwara) and imperial regent, was killed for his support of the Harris Treaty and his aiding in denunciation during the Ansei purges.

The young shogun and the shogunate administration were completely surprised and overwhelmed by the attack. Attempts have been made to cover up the real events by pretending that Ii was still alive and then proclaiming illness and resigning from office. His death was not announced until months later. Later, Ii's assassins were pardoned during a general amnesty of Bakufu.

Ii Naosuke's successor as daimyo of Hikone was his second son, Ii Naonori , in 1862 . However, the han's possession was cut by roughly a third from 300,000 koku to 200,000 koku as a punishment for the Ansei purges .

literature

• James Seguin de Benneville: Saitō Mussashi-bō Benkei . (Tales of the Wars of the Gempei). Yokohama 1910.
• Kusunoki Sei'ichirō 楠木 誠一郎: Nihon shi omoshiro suiri: Nazo no satsujin jiken wo oe日本史 お も し ろ 推理: 謎 の 殺人 事件 を 追 え. Futami bunko 二 見 文庫, Tokyo 1991.
• Matsuoka Hideo 松岡 英 夫: Ansei no Taigoku: Ii Naosuke to Nagano Shuzen安 政 の 大 獄: 井 伊 直 弼 と 長野 主 膳. Chūōkōron-shinsha 中央 公論 新社, Tokyo 2001.
• Mori Yoshikazu 母 利 美 和: Ii Naosuke井 伊 直 弼. Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 吉川弘 文 館, Tokyo 2006.
• Nakamura Katsumaro, Akimoto Shunkichi: Lord Ii Naosuké and New Japan . Japan Times, Yokohama 1909.
• Osaragi Jirō 大佛 次郎: Tennō no seiki天皇 の 世紀. Asahi Shinbunsha 朝日 新聞 社, Tokyo 1967–1974.
• Shimada Saburō 島 田三郎: Kaikoku shimatsu: Ii Kamon no Kami Naosuke den開國 始末: 井 伊 掃 部頭 直 弼 傳. Yoronsha 輿論 社, Tokyo 1888.
• Tanimura Reiko 谷 村 玲子: Ii Naosuke, shūyō toshite no chanoyu井 伊 直 弼, 修養 と し て の 茶 の 湯. Sōbunsha 創 文 社, Tokyo 2001.
• Chushichi Tsuzuki: The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan, 1825–1995. Oxford University Press , Oxford 2000, ISBN 0-19-820589-9
• 母 利 美 和 『井 伊 直 弼』 吉川弘 文 館, ISBN 4-642-06286-6
• 石井孝 「井 伊 直 弼 と 幕府 の 開国 組織」 （新人物 往来 社 編 『日本 の 組織 図 事 典』 （新人物 往来 社, 1988 年））. ISBN 4-404-01507-0

Web links

• National Diet Library: Photograph of Sakurada-mon (1902)
• Walk in the footsteps of Ii Naosuke in Hikone (Japanese)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Saturday, March 24th, 1860 in the Gregorian calendar is equivalent to the 3rd day of the 3rd month of the 7th year of the Ansei period (Japanese 安 政 七年 三月 三 日).
2. ↑ James L. McClain: Japan: A Modern History. 2002, p. 119.
3. ^ WG Beasley: The Edo Experience and Japanese Nationalism. In: Modern Asian Studies. Vol. 18, No. 4, 1984, p. 562.
4. ^ DY Miyauchi: Yokoi Shōnan's Response to the Foreign Intervention in Late Tokugawa Japan, 1853–1862. In: Modern Asian Studies. Vol. 4, No. 3, 1970, p. 271.
5. ^ Matthew Lamberti: Tokugawa Nariaki and The Japanese Imperial Institution: 1853-1858. In: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Vol. 32, 1972, p. 109.
6. ^ John Whitney Hall: The Motivation of Political Leadership in the Meiji Restoration, Yoshio Sakata. In: The Journal of Asian Studies. Vol. 16, No. 1, 1956, p. 41.
7. ^ Lamberti, p. 118.
8. ↑ Lamberti, p. 117.
9. ↑ Lamberti, p. 119.
10. ↑ Chushichi Tsuzuki: The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan, 1825-1995. 2000, p. 44.
11. ^ Edwin Lee: The Kazunomiya marriage: Alliance between the court and the bakufu. In: Monumenta Nipponica. Vol. 22, No. 3-4, 1967, p. 290.
12. ^ Anne Walthall: Off with their heads! The Hirata disciples and the Ashikaga shoguns. In: Monumenta Nipponica. Vol. 50, No. 2, 1995, p. 143.
13. ↑ Walthall, p. 149.
14. ↑ Walthall, p. 166.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Ii is the family name, Naosuke the first name.