15 Facts About Ii Naosuke

Ii Naosuke was a daimyo of Hikone and Tairo of the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan, a position he held from April 23,1858, until his death, when he was assassinated in the Sakuradamon Incident on March 24,1860.

Ii Naosuke is most famous for signing the Harris Treaty with the United States, granting access to ports for trade to American merchants and seamen and extraterritoriality to American citizens.

Ii Naosuke was an enthusiastic and accomplished practitioner of the Japanese tea ceremony, in the Sekishuryu style, and his writings include at least two works on the tea ceremony.

Ii Naosuke managed to coerce the Tokugawa shogunate to the last brief resurgence of its power and position in Japanese society before the start of the Meiji period.

Ii Naosuke was born on November 29,1815, as the 14th son of Ii Naonaka, the daimyo of Hikone by his concubine.

However, since Naosuke was the 14th son, he was not in line for a prominent position and was sent early in life to a Buddhist temple, where he lived on a small stipend from his family.

In 1858 after Hotta Masayoshi's disastrous attempt to obtain the emperor's approval for the Harris treaty the Tokugawa shogun Tokugawa Iesada chose Ii Naosuke to be the Tairo ; a decision influenced by the Kii Party.

An intelligent and capable politician Ii Naosuke was determined to restore the power of the bakufu in Japanese policy making, both in a domestic and a foreign role.

Ii Naosuke regarded the Harris treaty, which Hotta Masayoshi had negotiated with the American envoy Townsend Harris as in Japan's best interests.

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.

Ii Naosuke was able to remove officials who had expressed unhappiness with his handling of the Harris treaty and the shogunal succession from public life.

Ii Naosuke broached the topic to the Imperial court through his Envoy Manabe Akibuke.

The assassination of Ii Naosuke, who was seen as the symbol of the bakufu's power and authority, was construed as crushing any hopes for the resurrection of the shogunate's power.

The death of Tairo Ii Naosuke started a wave of loyalist terrorism across Japan, the poet Tsunada Tadayuki even wrote a poem praising Ii's assassins.

On October 7,2009, Ii Naotake, a family descendant of Ii Naosuke, attended a memorial ceremony with the people of Fukui in reconciliation over the execution of Hashimoto Sanai in the Ansei Purge.