英語訳
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Toyohashi City Historical Discourse (Alliance of Satsuma and Chōshū Domains) 572
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had arrived at this opinion regarding the timing.
At that time, Chōshū was also experiencing the rise of the Orthodox Party to power, with vigorous arguments that they must thoroughly break the shogunate's authority, restore imperial rule, and thereby unify the realm. However, since this was truly a great undertaking for the nation, even they themselves could not help but worry greatly about whether one domain alone could accomplish this. Therefore, it naturally came to be recognized among knowledgeable people that to achieve this goal, it was necessary to ally with Satsuma domain, the most powerful among all domains. However, bringing these two domains of Satsuma and Chōshū, which had been mutually hostile for many years, to finally achieve alliance involved various complications and twists, including mediation by domains like Chikuzen and Tosa. Among these, Tosa domain retainer Sakamoto Ryōma must be recognized as the most influential successful mediator.
The fact that Sakamoto Ryōma traveled between Saigō of Satsuma and Kido of Chōshū, working with utmost effort to orchestrate the alliance of the two domains, need not be detailed here. However, when this alliance agreement between the two domains was concluded and they sent goodwill ambassadors to each other, joyfully uniting, this did not merely signify the friendship between Satsuma and Chōshū, but completely transformed the great trends of the nation. Until then, the movements of various domains, the activities of patriots, and the actions of court nobles were all divided into individual forces. Even when calling for revolution or employing violence, there was no unity—lacking foresight and foundation, mostly consisting of rash and reckless actions. With such an approach, it would have been impossible to create the great power necessary to overthrow the shogunate, which held supreme military authority. However, the progress of the times suddenly provided a great catalyst here, and in a dramatic turn, the entire nation was swept along, ultimately leading to the great Meiji Restoration through the Battle of Fushimi. This all originated from the alliance of these two domains, demonstrating that momentum is truly a mysterious force.
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Publisher and Printing Office: Sanyō Printing Partnership Company, 48 Kon'ya-chō, Toyohashi City; Editor: Nakanishi Kenzō; Publisher and Printer: Kuno [?]kichi
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Sanyō Newspaper No. 4,652 Supplement (Published May 5, Taishō 3 [1914])
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◎ Imperial Restoration and Yoshida Domain
As stated in the previous chapter, the alliance of Satsuma and Chōshū domains immediately brought about changes in the great trends of the nation. Moreover, this alliance is believed to have been one cause of the failure of the second Chōshū expedition. During this expedition, Shogun Iemochi died of illness at Osaka Castle on July 19, Keiō 2 (1866), at the young age of only twenty-one and without children, so Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu succeeded him. However, regarding whether he should also inherit the military position, there were two schools of thought within, and while the shogunate council and naturally the Aizu and Kuwana domains strongly hoped for his succession to military office, domains like Echizen opposed it. Court nobles like Iwakura and Nakamikado even planned to select an imperial prince and request his appointment as shogun, but the time had not yet come. Through the petition of Owari Yoshikatsu and others, on December 5 of that year, an imperial messenger visited Nijō Castle and the shogun appointment was granted to Yoshinobu.
**Death of Emperor Kōmei**
was made as previously mentioned. However, most regrettably, from December 12 of that year His Majesty fell ill, and on the 25th he passed away. At that time, while a ceasefire had been achieved regarding the second Chōshū expedition, no clear resolution had yet been reached, so along with the issue of opening Hyōgo port, these remained as two major problems. Various complications continued regarding these two issues, but eventually, though extremely unsatisfactory for the shogunate, on January 23, Keiō 3 (1867), orders for troop withdrawal were issued, bringing the Chōshū campaign to a conclusion, and the Hyōgo port opening was also completely resolved on May 24 of the same year.
**Plans of Iwakura, Saigō and Others**
Prior to this, Iwakura Tomomi had been temporarily punished and confined to Iwakura village in northern Kyoto. He was truly a person of extraordinary insight who, through his sincere loyalty to the emperor, planned the so-called great strategy to transform heaven. The main [collaborators] who conspired with him...
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Toyohashi City Historical Discourse (Imperial Restoration and Yoshida Domain) 573