ABSTRACT
ATTEMPT TO POSTPONE THE OPENING OF JAPAN TO FOREIGN INTERCOURsE.-In November 1860 Princess Kazuko, sister of the Emperor Komei, married Shogun Iyemochi, and Kyoto and Edo seemed to be on friendly terms; while there were indications that the Imperial Court might approve the foreign policy pursued by the Shogunate. On the night of the 5th of December, 1860, however, Heusken, an American interpreter in the employ of the representative of Prussia, was assaulted by some Roshi of the Mito clan in Edo, and later the Roshi attacked the British Legation, on which occasion interpreters attached to the Legation were wounded and seven Roshi were killed by the Japanese guards. Ando Tsushima-no-kami, who then directed the foreign affairs of the Tokugawa Shogunate, was greatly disturbed and thought that if he forced the opening of further Japanese ports of foreign trade, according to the terms of the treaties, serious events might occur and Japan be placed in a very awkward position. On
EXPEDITION AGAINST CHOSHU 339 the 22nd of December, therefore, he dispatched three officials of the Shogunate-Takeuchi Shimotsuke-no-kami, Matsudaira Iwamino-kami, and Kyogoku Noto-no-kami-to France, Holland, Russia, England, and Portugal to negotiate with the Governments of those countries for a postponement of the opening of the other Japanese ports to foreign trade which was called for by the treaties, according to the terms of which Japan had within two years to open to foreign trade four more of her ports, namely Edo, Osaka, Hyogo (present Kobe), and Niigata, in addition to Nagasaki and Hakodate, already opened. Just about the time when these three envoys reached France, Ando Tsushima-no-kami was attacked in Edo by Roshi and wounded, but wounded as he was he kept a bold face and saw the British Minister at the appointed hour on the same day, told him of the political conditions in Japan, which did not favour an immediate opening of further Japanese ports, and asked him to help him in postponing the opening of the other ports for the time being. The British. minister was so much moved by Ando's gallantry that he immediately took the matter up with his Government, and as a result England agreed to the postponement of the opening of the additional ports for five years on the condition that Japan would lower the rate of duty upon glass wares and liquids imported into her country from England. France, too, following England's example, agreed to the postponement in return for a reduction in the rate of duty upon French wines. The three Japanese representatives dispatched to Europe reached the Red Sea by land via Alexandria, and from there returned home by a French warship. To their great surprise they found Ando not only dismissed, but even punished for what he done while in office, and offered as a sacrifice to help on the movement for a political combination of the Imperial Court and the Shogunate. In such circumstances the efforts made by Lord Ando and his official associates in Japan's foreign dealings brought about no change at all in the political situation in Japan.
