The Mito Rebellion Part 2: Sonnō Jōi

The Mito Rebellion by Utagawa Kuniteru III

In 1825, a scholar from Mito named Aizawa Seishisai introduced the term sonnō jōi into modern Japanese. Sonnō was regarded as the reverence expressed by the Tokugawa Shogunate to the emperor and jōi was the proscription of Christianity . 

Following the end of the Sakoku (isolationist) period, the concept of sonnō jōi was quickly adopted and adapted to fit the current situation: foreigners were a threat to Japan and the Shogunate was not taking enough measures to prevent them from demanding the opening of new trading ports. However, not all people who wanted to expel foreigners and ratify the unequal treaties wished to restore the emperor and get rid of the Shogunate (and most specifically the Tokugawa), but there were many who entertained this idea. 

In the Mito domain, it was Takeda Kōunsai (former advisor of Tokugawa Nariaki who was known for his 'jōi' ideas) who emmerged at the head of the exclusionist movement (hello Tengu party), leading men from various clans and rōnin to flock to Mito and start a campain of terrorist attacks against foreigners and Bakufu officials. 

Things will get messy from then on (as things often are in history): A small group of jōi (expel the barbarians) partisans gathered at Mount Tsukuba under the Tengu party in May 1864, and decided to take action against foreign presence.

Photo: Cassandra Lord

Meanwhile, at Mito Castle, Ichikawa Hirotomi (a regent of the clan) formed the Shoseitō party and began to eliminate the violent factions within the clan. 

Not only were the Tsukuba forces on the Shogunate's radar for their obvious threat to the government's hegemony, they also used jōi as an excuse to blackmail officials, wealthy farmers and merchants in nearby towns and villages, extorting money and goods from them and killing them if they resisted. 

You can see sonnō jōi (尊王攘夷 ) written on the banner of Utagawa Kuniteru III's Ukiyo-e representing the Mito Rebellion. 

More on this: J. Victor Koschmann, The Mito Ideology (9780520337046)