Tengu Party Rebellion

This incident occurred between March and December 1864 (Genji 1), when radical members of the Mito domain's Sonno Joi faction led peasants from Hitachi (Ibaraki prefecture), Shimotsuke (Tochigi prefecture), and Shimousa in fighting in various parts of the Kanto region and along the Nakasendo road. Around the Tenpo era (1830-1844), there was a trend of calling the Mito Domain reformist samurai Tengu. In March 1864, Mito Domain samurai Tamaru Inanoemon and Fujita Koshiro raised an army on Mount Tsukuba in Hitachi Province under the banner of revering the Emperor and expelling the barbarians. About 1,000 local samurai, priests, and farmers who had gathered at the Mito Domain's Nakaminato, Ogawa, and Itako schools joined them. They became known as the Tsukuba Tengu Party. The Tengu Party moved to Mount Ohira in Shimotsuke Province and Nikko, but the shogunate sent troops to pursue them and also ordered the Mito Domain and other Kanto Domains to send troops, leading to fighting in Shimotsuke, Shimousa, and Hitachi.

The farmers who had studied at the 10 or so local schools that the reform faction of the Mito domain had built throughout the domain allied with the reform faction, while the peasant-soldiers of the Koibuchi, Kawada, Usui, and Teramon factions, among others, belonged to the conservative faction (Shoheito) within the domain and fought against the Tenguto. This was compounded by the uproar over society reform, and the rural areas within the domain showed a complicated situation. Matsudaira Yorinori, the lord of the Shishido domain, a branch of the Mito domain, went to Mito as a representative of the Mito domain's lord Yoshiatsu Tokugawa to quell the internal strife, but he was caught up in a battle and was ordered to commit suicide by the shogunate. The Tenguto were defeated in the battles of Mito and Nakaminato, and some of them headed north and were annihilated at Iwakihanawa. The main force of over 800 of them headed west under Takeda Kounsai, and relying on Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu (the Imperial Guard and son of Tokugawa Nariaki, the former lord of Mito domain) who was in Kyoto at the time, they fought against the shogunate's slayer forces and soldiers from various domains, passing through Shimotsuke, Kozuke, Shinano, and Hida, and finally reaching Shinbo in Echizen Province (Fukui Prefecture), where they ran out of strength and surrendered to the Kaga domain. The following year, about 350 of them were executed by beheading. This was an extremist incident on a par with the Tenchu-gumi and Ikuno Incidents that occurred at the dawn of the Meiji Restoration.

[Takashi Akiyama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1864年（元治1）3月から12月にかけて、水戸藩士の尊王攘夷(じょうい)派のうちの急進派が常陸(ひたち)（茨城県）、下野(しもつけ)（栃木県）、下総(しもうさ)各地の農民を率いて関東各地また中山道(なかせんどう)に転戦した事件。天保(てんぽう)（1830～44）ころから水戸藩改革派の武士を天狗とよぶ風があったが、64年3月、水戸藩士田丸稲之衛門(いなのえもん)、藤田小四郎(こしろう)らが尊王攘夷を旗印に常陸国筑波(つくば)山に挙兵すると、水戸藩領那珂湊(なかみなと)、小川、潮来(いたこ)の三郷校に集結していた郷士、神官、農民ら約1000人がこれに加わった。これを世に筑波天狗党という。天狗党は下野国太平山(おおひらさん)、日光と移動するが、幕府はこれに追討軍を送り、また、水戸藩をはじめ関東諸藩に出兵を命じ、下野、下総、常陸各地に戦闘が続いた。

　水戸藩改革派が領内各地に建設した10余の郷校に学んだ農民は改革派に連なり、一方、鯉淵(こいぶち)勢、河和田(かわわだ)勢、薄井勢、寺門隊など農兵は藩内保守派（諸生党）に属して天狗党と闘い、これに世直し騒動も加わって、領内農村も複雑な様相をみせる。水戸藩主徳川慶篤(よしあつ)の代理として分家の宍戸(ししど)藩主松平頼徳(よりのり)が藩内抗争鎮撫(ちんぶ)のため水戸に下るが、戦闘に巻き込まれて幕府から自刃を命ぜられる悲惨な事件もあった。天狗党は水戸、那珂湊の戦いで敗れ、その一部は北上して磐城塙(いわきはなわ)で全滅、主流800余名は武田耕雲斎(こううんさい)を長として西上、当時京都にあった一橋慶喜(ひとつばしよしのぶ)（禁闕(きんけつ)守衛、前水戸藩主徳川斉昭(なりあき)の子）を頼って幕府追討軍、諸藩の兵と闘いながら下野、上野(こうずけ)、信濃(しなの)、飛騨(ひだ)を通り、越前(えちぜん)国（福井県）新保(しんぼ)まできて力尽き加賀藩に降伏、翌年、約350人が斬罪(ざんざい)となった。維新黎明(れいめい)期の天誅(てんちゅう)組や生野(いくの)の変などと並ぶ激派事件である。

［秋山高志］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例