The following information as to the assassins appears to have been given to the Gorochiu by Hossokawa, the Daimio to whose residence several of the assassins fled, saying that they were men from Mito, and wished to place themselves under his protection. He is supposed to have known all about the affair from the first.
One of the assassins, Mori, said that, about three months before, he had attempted to kill the Regent by shooting him with a pistol. The ball passed through the norimono, and he made his escape. The day they came to Hossokawa’s house was very cold, so they were provided with food and wine. There was much snow falling, which furthered the designs of the assassins, as they thought it was assistance given them from heaven. They were all very tired and sleepy. Upon the 18th day of the 2d month they all went to Mito, afterward returning to Yedo; and they met in the morning of the 3d day of the 3d month at Atango yama. They did not sleep there; but the Buddhist priest was cognizant of what was going on.
The government in Yedo had doubtless good cause for alarm at the present crisis, as Mito, on the one hand, and the young Ee, son of the Regent, on the other, were making preparations for a fight. The policy of Iyeyas in compelling the lords to be personally in Yedo with few followers, while their strength in men remained at their provincial seats, prevented any outbreak. Mito was gradually filling his houses in Yedo with men.
On the other side, the family retainers of the Ee Kamong no kami, the lad who had succeeded to his father, fearing what might be the result of the present crisis, brought up ten cannon from his shta yashiki in the suburbs of Yedo, to his kami yashiki. [Every Daimio of any wealth has three houses in Yedo: his own residence, kami yashiki, where his wife and family reside, near the castle; naka yashiki, where concubines, servants, etc., reside; and shta yashiki, where he has a garden, and retainers, servants, and their families reside.] From his lands at Sano, in the province of Simotsuki, he brought up 400 men.
On the same day on which the Regent was killed, an attempt was made by Ronins of Mito to kill Matzdaira Sanuki no kami, who was a near relative of Mito, but a friend and son-in-law of Ee Kamong no kami. He had some suspicion, and was unwell on the day of the levee, and sent his son in his place. The norimono was attacked, but when the son was dragged out, and they discovered their mistake, the assassins let him go. The father did not long escape, however. He had taken as a concubine a girl from Mito, who, during the next month, stabbed him while in bed, and cut off his head, sending it to Mito. Matzdaira Koonai no tayu, another friend of the Regent’s, and also a relative of Mito, hearing in the palace of the murder of the Regent, escaped by a back way.
The Daimio Hossokawa Etshiu no kami wrote to the government as follows:
“Yesterday morning some men came to my guards at the main gate, and said they were servants of Mito and had killed the Regent, and it was right that they should go to the Gorochiu; but as it is the first time they have come to Yedo, and do not know where the Gorochiu live, they requested me to go with them. I asked them who they were and what they wanted. They answered, that they had been this morning fighting with the Regent at the Sakurada gate; and having first wounded him with a pistol, they pulled him by the right hand out of the kango and cut off his head. There came at first only nine men, but these were followed by a number of others: whence they came I do not know.”
Hossokawa accompanied these men to the Hio jo sho, where the judges on duty asked them to give in writing their reasons for killing the Regent. The answer was: “We have good reasons. From the time of Zin mu tenwo to the present day the Japanese nation has never received any insult from a foreign nation; now five foreign nations have made treaties, and all through the empire the people are angry and sorry and vexed, and the Regent did not care. If he does not care for this, he makes himself an enemy to the nation, and therefore we killed him. We have no other reason.”
The officers at the Hio jo sho were afraid to ask any more questions.
Mito sent the following letter to the Shiogoon: