Secret Imperial Edict of Bogo

Japanese: 戊午の密勅 - ぼごのみっちょく

In the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, in the fifth year of the Ansei era (1858), the Imperial Court issued an Imperial edict to expel foreigners to Tokugawa Nariaki, the former head of the Mito Domain. When relations between the Shogunate, represented by Shogun Tokugawa Iesada and Chief Advisor Ii Naosuke, and the Imperial Court, represented by Emperor Komei and Regent Kujo Naotada, deteriorated over the issue of treaty approval and the Shogun's succession, Mito Domain samurai Ukai Kichizaemon Tomonobu and Satsuma Domain samurai Kusakabe Isajiro, who were members of the Hitotsubashi faction, tried to persuade the Left Minister Konoe Tadahiro to make Nariaki realize the expulsion of foreigners. On August 7, the Imperial Court decided to issue an Imperial edict not only to the Mito Domain but also to the Shogunate, and the following day, the Imperial edict to Mito was given to Ukai to be conveyed to the other domains, and the Imperial edict to the Shogunate was also issued on the 10th. In the shogunate, the senior official Manabe Akikatsu and others ordered the Mito domain to suppress the transmission of the message, and carried out the Ansei Purge while sending Manabe to Kyoto to interpret the treaty and promote the union of the Imperial Court and the Shogunate. In Mito, conflict arose between those who supported the Imperial Court (the radical pro-imperial faction and the pro-Japanese faction) and those who supported the Shogunate (the traitorous faction), and the following year, at the request of the Shogunate, the Imperial Court issued a decree to return the Imperial decree to the Mito domain. This order to return the decree further complicated the situation, and the Mito roshi escalated to the point of assassinating Ii outside the Sakuradamon Gate (→Sakuradamon Gate Incident). However, after Nariaki died of illness, in June 1862, the imperial envoy Ohara Shigenori was sent to Edo to advise the shogunate on three policies: unity between the imperial court and the military, complete expulsion of foreigners, and assisting Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu as assistant to the shogun. The senior councilor Mizuno Tadayoshi urged the Mito domain to make the imperial edict public rather than return it, and the two domains agreed to accept the imperial decree, and the issue was resolved.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

幕末，安政5 (1858) 年 (戊午の年) 朝廷が水戸前藩主徳川斉昭に下した攘夷の勅諚 (ちょくじょう) 。条約勅許と将軍継嗣をめぐって将軍徳川家定，大老井伊直弼の代表する幕府と孝明天皇，関白九条尚忠らの代表する朝廷との関係が悪化すると，一橋派の水戸藩士鵜飼吉左衛門知信，薩摩藩士日下部 (くさかべ) 伊三次らは，左大臣近衛忠煕に説いて，斉昭に攘夷の実現をはからせようとした。8月7日水戸藩だけでなく幕府にも勅諚を下すよう朝議が決り，翌8日まず水戸への勅諚が列藩に伝達すべきものとして鵜飼に授けられ，10日には幕府への勅諚も発せられた。幕府では老中間部 (まなべ) 詮勝らが水戸藩に命じてその伝達をおさえ，安政の大獄を実行するとともに条約締結の弁疏と公武合体の推進のため間部を京都に送った。水戸では，朝廷支持派 (尊王激派，同鎮派) と幕府支持派 (奸派) の対立が起り，翌年朝廷は幕府の要請で水戸藩に勅諚返納の沙汰書を出すにいたった。この返納命令はさらに事態を紛糾させ，水戸浪士は桜田門外に井伊を暗殺するところまでエスカレートした (→桜田門外の変 ) 。しかし斉昭が病死し，やがて文久2 (62) 年6月，勅使大原重徳が幕府に公武一致，攘夷貫徹，一橋慶喜の将軍補佐の三事の策をさとすため江戸に送られると，老中水野忠精は水戸藩に勅諚の返納ではなくその公表を促し，ともに勅旨を奉承することとなって問題は落着した。

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