Ii Naosuke
Ii Naosuke | |
---|---|
Lord of Hikone | |
In office 1858–1860 | |
Preceded by | Ii Naoaki |
Succeeded by | Ii Naonori |
Personal details | |
Born | Edo, Japan | November 29, 1815
Died | March 24, 1860 Edo, Japan | (aged 44)
Ii Naosuke (井伊 直弼, November 29, 1815 – March 24, 1860)
Under Ii Naosuke's guidance, the Tokugawa shogunate navigated past a particularly difficult conflict over the succession to the ailing and childless
Early life
Ii Naosuke was born on November 29, 1815, as the 14th son of Ii Naonaka, the
Ii became involved in national politics, rapidly rising to lead a coalition of daimyōs. In 1853 Ii put forward a proposal concerning the Japanese negotiations with U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry during Perry's mission to open Japan to the outside world. Realizing that Japan was faced with immediate military danger[3][4] Ii argued that Japan should use their relationship with the Dutch to allow them to buy enough time to develop armed forces, which could resist invasion. Ii recommended that only the port of Nagasaki be opened for trade with foreigners[5] Ii, like Hotta Masayoshi, refused to remain silent while shogunal advisor Abe Masahiro appeased the anti-foreign party.[6] Ii led the fudai daimyōs in their effort to bring about the downfall of Abe Masahiro and replace him with Hotta Masayoshi. This alienated many reformist daimyōs, leading them to strengthen their association with the Imperial court.[7]
Family
- Father: Ii Naonaka (1766–1831)
- Mother: Otomi no Kata (1785–1819)
- Foster father: Ii Naoaki (1794–1850)
- Wife: Masako (1834–1885)
- Concubines:
- Senda Shizue
- Nishimura Sato
- Children:
- Ii Naonori by Nishimura Sato
- daughter
- Son
- Chiyoko (1846–1927) married Matsudaira Yoritoshi
- Ii Naotomo (1849–1887) by Masako
- Ii Naoyasu (1851–1935) by Nishimura Sato
- daughter
- son
- Manchiyo
- daughter
- son
- Michiyo
- daughter
- Ii Naoyuki (1858–1927) by Masako
- Tokiko married Aoyama Yukiyoshi
Tairō
In 1858 after Hotta Masayoshi's disastrous attempt to obtain the emperor's approval for the Harris treaty the Tokugawa shōgun
Ii Naosuke regarded the Harris treaty, which Hotta Masayoshi had negotiated with the American envoy
Ii was unwilling to sign the Harris treaty without approval from Emperor Kōmei in Kyoto. However the daimyōs of the Hitotsubashi faction were preventing him from presenting the treaty to the emperor by withholding their approval.[9] At this time Harris started putting pressure on the shogunal officials to sign the treaty. Ii decided not to risk aggravating the Americans and on July 29, 1858, encouraged by the full backing of the bakufu officials, Ii ordered the Harris treaty to be signed.[10] Soon after this Ii negotiated a number of similar unequal treaties with the Dutch, the Russians, the British and the French. Bakufu critics considered the treaties signed by Ii Naosuke to have seriously compromised Japan's sovereignty, and recovery of this power became the basis of a large part of the policies formed during the Meiji period.
Due to the frail health of the shōgun
To end meddling in bakufu affairs, shortly after he signed the Harris treaty Ii settled the matter of the shogunal succession by claiming that the shogunal succession was a matter for the Tokugawa house alone and neither the shinpan daimyōs or the Emperor had the right to interfere. As head councilor of the Tokugawa house Ii was now free to influence the decision in favor of whichever candidate he preferred without any interference. In this way Ii was able to ignore the daimyōs who supported Hitotsubashi Keiki, the reformist candidate for the office of shōgun and crowned the fudai daimyō's candidate, Tokugawa Yoshitomi who changed his name to Tokugawa Iemochi, as the 14th Tokugawa shōgun.
Ii's decision made him very unpopular with Imperial loyalists, especially with the Mito samurai. Towards the end of 1858 the reformists went to the emperor with the hopes of restraining Ii. In response to the attempt by Tokugawa Nariaki and his supporters to denounce him in the emperor's court Ii had a shogunal decree passed which allowed him to conduct the Ansei Purge. During the rest of 1858 and into 1859 Naosuke purged over 100 officials from the bakufu, the imperial court and the lands of various daimyōs. Eight of the officials who were purged were executed; the remainder were forced into retirement. During the Ansei purge Ii Naosuke was able to force Hitotsubashi Keiki's supporters to retire and place Hitotsubashi and his family under house arrest. Ii Naosuke was also able to remove officials who had expressed unhappiness with his handling of the Harris treaty and the shogunal succession from public life.
Kōbu gattai and the Kazunomiya marriage
In early 1859 Ii Naosuke's agent in the Imperial Court, Nagano Shuzen, approached him with the idea of
Death and consequences
Although Ii's Ansei purge was very effective in silencing the officials and his high ranking opponents, it did not have the same effect on lower-ranking samurai. Ii Naosuke's 20-month dictatorial reign as tairō came to an abrupt end in the third month of Ansei 7 (March 24, 1860).[11]
In the
The death of Tairō Ii Naosuke started a wave of loyalist terrorism across Japan, the poet Tsunada Tadayuki even wrote a poem praising Ii's assassins.[14] Soon attempts were being made on the lives of other members of the bakufu and their informants. The wave of popular dissent also turned against officials with a connection to Ii Naosuke, no matter how distant it was. Shimada Sakon, retainer of the Kujō, (one of the Sekke families; the 5 regent houses, and among the most powerful in the court), Imperial regent, was killed by dissidents for supporting the Harris treaty and helping Ii's confidant, Nagano Shuzen, expose members of the court who were targeted during the Ansei purge.[15]
The shōgun and the Bakufu were astounded and taken completely off-guard by the death of Ii Naosuke. They didn't even announce his death until several months after the assassination took place. Instead, during this time the shōgun and the bakufu first pretended that Ii was still alive and rendering service to the shōgun. Then they faked an illness and had him render his resignation to the shōgun before announcing his death. In this way Ii continued to serve the shōgun, even after death. Ii's assassins were later granted a general amnesty by the bakufu, a precedent later used by Yamagata Aritomo, a key member of the Meiji restoration and a main architect of the military and political foundations of early modern Japan and Japanese militarism, to show that any action can be forgiven if it is performed for the betterment of the emperor.[16]
Accounts of the dramatic event were sent via ship across the Pacific to San Francisco and then sped by
Legacy
After his death, Ii Naosuke was quickly both vilified and defended. Even his enemies would admit that, along with Tokugawa Nariaki, Ii was one of the most important political figures of the late Edo period of Japanese history. Due to the often-tyrannical means Ii used to maintain his power, he was the subject of extremely negative press and was portrayed as a villain in much of the literature from his time, for example in the poems of Tsunada Tadayuki. Historians such as Miyauchi and Beasley consider that Ii was nonetheless a patriot who carried out all of his acts in the belief that they were for the good of Japan and the Emperor. They base this theory upon Ii's 1853 proposal concerning the Japanese negotiations with Commodore Perry, where Ii realized that Japan could not stand up to the Western powers and therefore suggested a policy of placation while the Japanese built up their armed forces (which was the policy chosen by the Meiji government). Ii's successors could not overturn his policy decisions, and his attitude towards the foreigners became the cornerstone of Japanese policy well into the Meiji period.
After Ii Naosuke's death, the Ii family was disgraced for many years; recently, however, Ii's actions have been looked at in a more favorable light and Ii Naosuke has taken his place as one of the most important political figures of Japanese history. On October 7, 2009, Ii Naotake, a family descendant of Naosuke, attended a memorial ceremony with the people of Fukui in reconciliation over the execution of Hashimoto Sanai in the Ansei Purge.[18]
Ii is buried in the temple of
References
- ^ Gregorian calendar date of Saturday, March 24, 1860, is equivalent to the 3rd day, 3rd month of 7th year of Ansei (安政七年三月三日).
- ^ McClain, James L. 2002. Japan: A Modern History, p. 119.
- ^ Beasley, W. G. (1999), The Japanese Experience: A Short History of Japan, Orion House, p. 192.
- ^ Beasley, W. G. (1984) "The Edo Experience and Japanese Nationalism", Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 18, No. 4, p. 562.
- ^ Miyauchi, D. Y. (1970). "Yokoi Shōnan's Response to the Foreign Intervention in Late Tokugawa Japan, 1853–1862", Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, p. 271.
- ^ Lamberti, Matthew. (1972). "Tokugawa Nariaki and The Japanese Imperial Institution: 1853–1858", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 32, p. 109.
- ^ Hall, John Whitney. (1956). "The Motivation of Political Leadership in the Meiji Restoration, Yoshio Sakata", The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1, p. 41.
- ^ Lamberti, p. 117.
- ^ Lamberti, p. 118.
- ^ Lamberti, p. 119.
- ^ Tsuzuki, Chushichi. (2000). The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan, 1825–1995, p. 44.
- ^ Lee, Edwin. (1967). "The Kazunomiya marriage: Alliance between the court and the bakufu", Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 22, Nos. 3–4, p. 290.
- ISBN 9780226412351.
- ^ Walthall, Anne. (1995). "Off with their heads! The Hirata disciples and the Ashikaga shoguns," Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 50, No. 2, p. 143.
- ^ Walthall, p. 149.
- ^ Walthall, p. 166.
- ^ "The Japanese in Philadelphia". The New York Times. June 12, 1860.
- Japan Times, October 8, 2009.
- Benneville, James Seguin de. (1910). Saitō Mussashi-bō Benkei. (Tales of the Wars of the Gempei). Yokohama.
- Kusunoki Sei'ichirō 楠木誠一郎 (1991). 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. Tokyo: Futami bunko 二見文庫.
- Matsuoka Hideo 松岡英夫 (2001). Ansei no Taigoku: Ii Naosuke to Nagano Shuzen 安政の大獄: 井伊直弼と長野主膳. Tokyo: Chūōkōron-shinsha 中央公論新社.
- Mori Yoshikazu 母利美和 (2006). Ii Naosuke 井伊直弼. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 吉川弘文館.
- Nakamura Katsumaro, Akimoto Shunkichi (1909). Lord Ii Naosuké and New Japan. Yokohama: Japan Times.
- Osaragi Jirō 大佛次郎 (1967–1974). Tennō no seiki 天皇の世紀. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha 朝日新聞社.
- Shimada Saburō 島田三郎 (1888). Kaikoku shimatsu: Ii Kamon no Kami Naosuke den 開國始末: 井伊掃部頭直弼傳. Tokyo: Yoronsha 輿論社.
- Tanimura Reiko 谷村玲子 (2001). Ii Naosuke, shūyō toshite no chanoyu 井伊直弼, 修養としての茶の湯. Tokyo: Sōbunsha 創文社.
- Tsuzuki, Chushichi. (2000). The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan, 1825–1995. Oxford: ISBN 0-19-820589-9
External links
- National Diet Library: photograph of Sakurada-mon (1902)