Kaneko Magojiro

Japanese: 金子孫二郎 - かねこ・まごじろう

Year of death: 26th July 1861 (31st August 1861)
Year of birth: Bunka 1 (1804)
A sonno joi (sonno joi) samurai of the Mito domain who masterminded the Sakuradamon Incident. His given name was Noritaka, originally called Sonnojiro, later Magosaburo, Magojiro, and then Nishikimura. He was the second son of the daughter of his father Kawase Noritoku and mother Kawase Norikata. He was adopted by Kaneko Yoshihisa. His family stipend was 150 koku. In 1829 (Bunsei 12), he worked with his comrades to support Tokugawa Nariaki as heir to the Mito domain. During Nariaki's rule, he served as a foot attendant and inspector, and in 1838 (Tenpo 9), he became an inner court official and then a county magistrate, and participated in the Tenpo Reforms. In 1844 (Koka 1), when Nariaki was under house arrest in retirement, he participated in the movement for pardon, and was placed under house arrest in an ageya. With Nariaki's return to the domain's administration, he was placed under house arrest in April 1849, but the punishment was lifted in November of the same year. In 1853, he returned to his position as county magistrate, and in 1854, he also served as the reverberatory furnace inspector. In August 1856, a secret imperial decree (the Bogo Secret Imperial Rescript) that rejected the shogunate's policy of opening the country was issued to the Mito domain, and the sonno joi faction of the domain gathered together to demand that the secret imperial decree be circulated to the various domains, but out of consideration for the domain lord's orders to calm things down and the progress of the Ansei Purge, they outwardly advocated restraint. In reality, from October 1856, together with Takahashi Taichiro, he attempted to cooperate with the southwest domains, and with the punishment of Mito domain members, including Nariaki's house arrest in August 1863, their plans were expanded to the actual circulating of the secret imperial decree, the prevention of the transfer of the secret imperial decree to Edo, reforming the shogunate's administration by assassinating Ii Naosuke, and the obedience to the imperial decree to expel the barbarians, and he also deepened his cooperation with the sonno joi faction of the Satsuma domain. He escaped from his domain to Edo in February 1860, and on March 1, he instructed the group that attacked Ii to follow Article 5 of the Code. On March 3, the day of the attack, he waited in Shinagawa, and after receiving news that the assassination had been successful, he tried to go to Tokyo, but he was arrested in Yokkaichi, Ise Province, and executed in Edo. It is said that he felt sorry for his 11-year-old son, who had clung to him when he escaped from his domain, but had silently shook him off.

(Masahiko Yoshida)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：文久1.7.26(1861.8.31)
生年：文化1(1804)
桜田門外の変を首謀した尊攘派水戸藩士。諱は教孝,初め子之次郎,のちに孫三郎,孫二郎と称し錦村と号す。父川瀬教徳,母川瀬教方の娘の次男。金子能久の養子。家禄150石。文政12(1829)年,徳川斉昭の水戸藩継嗣擁立に同志と尽力。斉昭の治下,徒目付,吟味役を経て天保9(1838)年奥右筆,次いで郡奉行となり天保改革に参加。弘化1(1844)年,斉昭の隠居謹慎時に宥免運動に参加,揚屋入り謹慎。斉昭の藩政復帰により嘉永2(1849)年4月に自宅蟄居,同11月に処分解除,6年,郡奉行に復帰し安政1(1854)年には反射炉用掛を兼務。5年8月に幕府の開国政策を否定した密勅(戊午の密勅)が水戸藩に降下すると同藩尊攘派は諸藩への密勅廻達を求めて屯集したが,藩主の鎮静化の命や安政の大獄の進行を配慮して,表面,自重を唱えた。その実,5年10月より高橋多一郎と共に西南諸藩などとの連携を図り,6年8月の斉昭蟄居など水戸藩関係者の処罰により,その計画も密勅の廻達実現,奉勅から密勅の江戸移送阻止,井伊直弼暗殺による幕政矯正,奉勅攘夷に拡大し薩摩藩尊攘派との連携も深まった。万延1(1860)年2月に脱藩出府,3月1日,井伊襲撃グループに規約5条を指示した。襲撃当日の3月3日には品川で待機し暗殺成功の報を得て上京しようとしたが,伊勢国四日市で捕縛され江戸で刑死した。脱藩時に袖に縋るのを無言で振り放した11歳の息子のことを不憫がっていたという。

(吉田昌彦)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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