From the Compromise between the Imperial Court and the Shogunate to the Expedition against Choshu

While the Choshu clan, through Nagai Uta, was working for a rapprochement between the Imperial Court and the Tokugawa Shogunate in the interest of the country, the clan of Satsuma, by the efforts of its Roshi, actually brought about a combination of the two political influences in Japan, thus stealing a march upon Choshu, to the no small indignation of that clan. This sentiment of discontent grew until the general political opinion of the Choshu clan changed from advocating a political combination of the Imperial Court and the Tokugawa Shogunate to the restoration of Imperial rule in the place of the military rule of the Tokugawa, and the expulsion of the foreigners out of Japan—in short, a conservative foreign policy. The malcontents sent letters to their political associates in Kyoto and Edo, denouncing the actions of Nagai and his friends and asserting that Nagai’s aim was to save the Tokugawa Shogunate out of its political difficulties, under the beautiful name of a political combination of the Imperial Court and the Shogunate, and to assist it in submitting to the demands of the foreign countries and opening Japan to foreign intercourse and trade.