II KAMON NO KAMI, i•-17• kii'mtin no or It NsvDsicia. Baron (1515-111). The Japanese statesman whose wise and vigorous statesman ship led to the opening of Japan to foreign na tions, and the establishment of friendly rela tions with them. Ile was the fourteenth son of Baron li, of Ilikone on Lake Biwa. and was born of a line of ancestors known honorably in the tenth century. At twenty-one. Ii went to Yedo, and had his mansion within the inelosnre of liedo Castle at Sakurada, or Cherry Field. In 1550 he was made heir to the baronetcy, assum in• the highly honorable title of Kamon no Eami, which gave him standing at the Mikado's court. In 1553 the question of foreign intercourse, pre cipitated by Commodore Perry, divided the opin ions of the daimios. Although he shared with many a feeling of hatred toward foreigners, li drew a line of distinction between personal feeling's and .national interests, and declared himself to he in favor of intercourse with foreigners, and of a re vival of the military spirit for national defense. The Shogun lyesada being childless and in poor health, the question of appointing an heir added to the romplication of the period. Pressed by Townsend Harris (q.v.) to sign the treaty which lie had negotiated, 111111 whiell Illt• Court in Kinto opposed, the Shogun had to face a crisis %vhiell ad mitted of no delay. on .luny 1, 1855, two days after the .likado's refusal to approve the treaty, the Shogun appointed li to be Tairo or Regent, and on the 5th he was publicly installed. it. the virtual ruler of Japan, hut noting in the natioe of the Shogun. The Shogun lycsada died suddenly _August 15th, leaving no heir. Carrying out his master's Ai appointed who sub sequently took the name of ly(onoclii. the Prin.• kishin, then a child of twelve. to be his su•
c•ssor, and. takit;g the responsibility. in view of the rapid approach of the squadrons of the Rus sians, British. and French after their victorious campaign in China, he signed the liberal drawn op by the States :Minister. The treaty with Great Britain followed on August :11th and that with France on October 9th.
The great •la Milos of Mite. Owari. and Echizen, however, opposed his nominee to the shogunate, the two former daintios wishing also to have I:citiz•n made regent. On the outbreak of the long-gathering st.o-to of opposition, li ernislied his enemies with a strong hand. and dispatched an to the United States to ratify th• treaty. Among other triumphs he had the Prin eess I?azu, aunt of the present Emperor, be trothed in marriage to the young Shogun. and they were niarried in Vedo in 15111. Before this. on the 23,1 of iNlarch, ISM. a. snowy day, while on his way in his milanquin with a large fol lowing of bodyguards to the palate in Tedo, they were att aeked by a band of eighteen assassins, seventeen from one from satsuma, all of them Bonin-, Li the fight which ensued Baron li himself was stabbed, aim his head flit otT and carried away to the castle town of :\lito, and there exposed on a pole. For years the name Ti rested under a cloud. but it has been idealised by Shimada Saburo in hi. hook Kai Kok,' of the ('olintry, Beginning and Fall"), which has been translated into Eng lish under the title of Agitated Japan (15961. The man and the episode of his assassination have rise to a considerable body of native litera ture. and the episode is treated in fiction by A. C. Ma•lay in Jilt° Yashiki (3•I ed., 1599).