Yikeda House Incident

Since the 18 th century,European and American had come into Japan frequently.They forced Japan to open up and to trade with them by several approaches,including the threat of force.In view of this situation,fierce debates about whether Japan should open its door or not had broken out.Without the authorization from the Emperor,the trade treaties had been signed by the Tokugawa Shogunate,which caused the Sonn?-j?i Faction strongly dissatisfied.Meanwhile,the Southwest clans,which had greatly improved comprehensive strength after their successful reformation,wanted to achieve their goals of political participation and political power expanding by supporting the radical Sonn?-j?i Faction.Therefore,fierce conflicts had broken out around the problems of repelling the barbarians and the distribution of political power between the two factions.In the evening of June 5th,the first year of Ganji(1864),Shinsen group that belonged to Matsudaira Katamori,the lord of Aizu clan,assaulted the members of Sonn?-j?i Faction by the help of Koubu-gattai Faction clans' army at the Sanjo Kawahara Street in Kyoto.This event caused serious losses of the Sonn?-j?i Faction and was known as “Yikeda House Incident”.Choshu clan took this as a chance to send their troops into Kyoto to denounce the crime of Aizu clan after that.This action initiated the Hamaguri Rebellion soon afterwards and eventually triggered Japanese Civil War.Thus,it could be seen that the “Yikeda House Incident” played a crucial role during the development process of Japanese history.This essay aims to analyze the possibility of the occurrence of this incident under the background of great argument of rebelling barbarians and the fierce struggle for the political power.The article would also analyze the social situation by the juncture,participants,process,reaction,etc.Especially the complex interest relationship of Emperor,Shogunate and clans.Moreover,the article would also discuss about the different choices of Shinsen group by its political claim,the transformation of its guiding ideology during that particular historical period.Last but not least,the impact of “Yikeda House Incident” and the Hamaguri Rebellion on the course of Japanese history and a series of political struggles ensued would also be discussed in the essay.