“I am told that some men who were formerly in my service, but who were dismissed, have gone this morning to the Sakurada gate and killed Ee Kamong no kami. They appear to have gone to Hossokawa, wishing that he should take them into his employ. A messenger from Hossokawa has brought me this information. I am very sorry for it, and it has caused me much distress. I could not employ so many servants, and therefore was obliged to reduce my establishment, while some men who would not obey me went away of their own accord. On this account I am unable to arrest or punish such men, and must trust to the servants of the Shiogoon doing so, while I must try to find those who have absconded; but the Shiogoon is powerful while I am comparatively powerless; I therefore beg the assistance of the Shiogoon.”
The Shiogoon wrote to Mito on the 4th day of the 3d month:
“Yesterday your servants killed the Gotairo, and now I fear they may attack and kill some of the Gorochiu. It is ordered that your servants from morning to night, all day and all night, are not to move out of the house.”
Otta, Hiobu sho, wrote to the Shiogoon:
“This morning about 8 A.M. the men of my guard informed me that two soldiers had passed them wounded and covered with blood. They, when very near my cross guard, committed suicide. I thereupon sent an Ometski to investigate the case. I asked the men standing near whence they had come. They said from the direction of the Heebiyah gate, and that on account of a severe wound of the shoulder one of them was faint and could not walk. He said to his companion, ‘I cannot kill myself, as I cannot move my right hand’; the other said, ‘If you are weak I will do it for you,’ and cut off his head, and immediately after doing so he cut his own throat. We found that one of the swords of these men was bent round like a bow, and on examining the pockets, one had seven boos [coins], and the other seven boos and a half; and besides the money was a crest similar to that used by the Shiogoon [Mito uses the same crest—the awoyee, or three leaves], which had been cut from his coat; and a receipt from the Yebi ya [i.e., lobster inn], a tea-house at the Yosiwarra [the government brothel]—viz., two boos for Tamanyoshi and two for Chittosay, two girls; one boo for a singing-girl; one boo for drink, two boos for fish, and ten tenpos for rice, with half a boo as a present to the servants of the house, with the date, 2d month, 27th day.”
The street governor came and examined the corpses, and took them away on the 4th day of the 3d month.
On the 4th day of the 3d month—i.e., the day after the assassination—Satsuma wrote to the Shiogoon:
“A servant of mine, Arimura Yooske, yesterday absconded and has not yet returned. I find that a man who committed suicide yesterday, near the residence of Endo Tajima no kami, was his elder brother. As I am ignorant of what he has been doing, please to order him to be arrested.”
On the 3d day of the 3d month the Ronins in the service of Mito who had assisted in the murder wrote out the following statement and gave it to Hossokawa:
“We left our province of Hitatsi on the 18th day of last month; we did not meet together, but stopped at different parts of the town during our stay in Yedo. This morning we all met at the temple on Atango Hill [in the middle of Yedo], and thence we went to the Cherry gate, and waited between the guard-house of Osumi no kami and the Cherry gate. The Gotairo came along with his retinue. All at once we surrounded the kango on both sides. For some time we argued with the Gotairo. We told him that he was a bad man. We spoke to him about foreigners coming to the country, about the export of gold, about his receiving money as bribes from foreigners. He answered, and his men tried to prevent any attack being made upon him. One of our men fired a pistol into the kango (by which shot he was wounded in the back). He crawled out of the kango, but could not rise off his hands and knees quickly. His servants ran away, and one man cut off his head; six or seven others hacked at his body.”