The Sakuradamon Incident(s)
Statue of Ii Naosuke in Yokohama
Sakurada gate art by Kawase Hasui (1952)
The Sakuradamon Incident (桜田門の変 ) was the assassination of the Tairō Ii Naosuke
in 1860 at the Sakurada gate (mon) in front of Edo castle.
The role of the Tairō, a high-ranking official position similar to that of a prime minister in today's terms, was to preside over the council of elders (rōjū) and act as a provisional head of the Shogunate (Bakufu) in the potential absence of a shōgun.
Ii Naosuke (1815-1860) was the lord of Hikone, a fudai (hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa) domain in central Honshu gifted to Ii Naomasa by Tokugawa Ieyasu following the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. His assassination was the result of widespread resentment following both the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce signed with the United States and other western nations and the Ansei purge, a series of actions (mostly involving assassinations and imprisonments) undertaken to oppose imperial loyalists and reinforce the central government.
This incident is not to be confused with the 1932 Sakuradamon Incident where a Korean independence activist attempted to murder Emperor Hirohito.
The role of the Tairō, a high-ranking official position similar to that of a prime minister in today's terms, was to preside over the council of elders (rōjū) and act as a provisional head of the Shogunate (Bakufu) in the potential absence of a shōgun.
Ii Naosuke (1815-1860) was the lord of Hikone, a fudai (hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa) domain in central Honshu gifted to Ii Naomasa by Tokugawa Ieyasu following the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. His assassination was the result of widespread resentment following both the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce signed with the United States and other western nations and the Ansei purge, a series of actions (mostly involving assassinations and imprisonments) undertaken to oppose imperial loyalists and reinforce the central government.
This incident is not to be confused with the 1932 Sakuradamon Incident where a Korean independence activist attempted to murder Emperor Hirohito.
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