Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast.

Episode 126, The Fall of the Samurai, Part 9.

Today we're going to start off on the tumultuous events of the years 1863 and 1864, which

are going to see the stakes of the political game in Japan rise a great deal. This is really the point when events start

moving away from a tense political dispute and towards armed rebellion, civil war, and debatable

a revolution. Sounds like a recipe for a good time, so let's get going. We left things off

last week with the appointment of Matsudaira Katamori as protector of Kyoto,

a position that basically made him the city's military governor.

Once in office, Matsudaira was forced to confront a city that was in the grip of political violence,

and he had a very limited time to do so.

The Shogun, Tokugawa Iamochi,

either independently or, under the sway of his imperial wife, Princess Kazanomiya,

had decided to take a trip to Kyoto to consult with the emperor in person,

so Matsudaira Katamuri had a very limited time frame to get things back under control before the shogun arrived.

The solution he hit upon was to build up the forces under his direct command.

Remember, the Tokugawa garrison in Kyoto was actually relatively small,

and responsibility for protecting the city and the imperial palace

was shared between different domains. Matsudaira Katamori decided that the way to bring the city

to heal was to increase the number of samurai there under the Tokugawa banner. More samurai could be

brought in from other domains, sure, but this could upset the delicate balance

between all the domains who shared responsibility for Kyoto and could risk the political crisis,

especially if Matsudaira Katamori brought in samurai from his own domain of Aizu, in which case he could be

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