Ii Naosuke

Ii Naosuke (1815–1860) was a domain lord of Ōmi Hikone Domain (present-day Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture) and, as Great Elder (Tairō) of the Edo Shogunate, a figure who moved the political situation in the Bakumatsu period. Ascending to Tairō in 1858 (Ansei 5), he signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan and resolutely opened Japan to the world. He suppressed opponents in the "Ansei Purge" (Ansei no Taigoku), but on March 3, 1860 (Ansei 7), was assassinated outside the Sakuradamon gate of Edo Castle by rōnin from Mito and Satsuma. This "Sakuradamon Incident" (Sakuradamon-gai no Hen) became the trigger for the decline of shogunate authority.

Naosuke was born in 1815 (Bunka 12) as the fourteenth son of Hikone domain lord Ii Naonaka. Having many older brothers, Naosuke was long not a candidate for succession and spent approximately fifteen years in a modest estate called "Umoregi-no-ya" (House of Buried Wood). During this "Umoregi-no-ya period," he studied many arts and martial practices including tea ceremony (Sekishū-ryū), Noh, and swordsmanship, cultivating philosophical depth. He became domain lord in 1850 (Kaei 3) and in 1858 (Ansei 5) became Tairō under Tokugawa Iesada.

Following his appointment as Tairō, Naosuke negotiated with American Consul-General Harris and signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan without obtaining imperial sanction. This unilateral action drew fierce criticism from the imperial court and the expel-the-barbarians (jōi) faction. Furthermore, in the shogunal succession dispute, he overrode the Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu faction and determined that Tokugawa Yoshitomi of Kii Domain (later Iemochi) would succeed as shogun. He carried out suppression of opponents through the "Ansei Purge," executing Yoshida Shōin, Hashimoto Sanai, and others. However, on March 3, 1860, while en route from the Hikone domain residence to the castle, he was assassinated outside the Sakuradamon gate by eighteen rōnin from Mito and Satsuma.

Regarding his connection to Japanese swords, Naosuke possessed deep knowledge of swordsmanship and sword culture. During the "Umoregi-no-ya period," he studied iaijutsu (居合), and later founded his own iaijutsu school called "Shinshin Shinryū" (新心新流). Hikone Domain was known throughout the Edo period as a domain where swordsmanship flourished, and Naosuke was a domain lord who valued martial arts. The scene of the Sakuradamon Incident, in which numerous Mito rōnin engaged in mortal combat with Hikone domain guards using Japanese swords, is remembered as the final death struggle of the Japanese sword and samurai in the Bakumatsu era. It is said that Naosuke himself drew his sword from within his palanquin and fought back, and he is evaluated as a figure who embodied the final brilliance of the Japanese sword and the samurai spirit.