Ōmiya Incident (近江屋事件) refers to the assassination of Sakamoto Ryōma and Nakaoka Shintarō at the residence of Iguchi Shinsuke (井口新助), the Ōmiya (近江屋) in the Kawaramachi (河原町) district of Kyoto, on 15 November, Keiō 3 (10 December 1867). It is believed to have been carried out by the Kyoto Mimawarigumi.
Course of events
Because the Teradaya, which Ryōma had until then used as his lodging, had come under the attention of the shogunate, he moved to the Ōmiya on 3 November. On 13 November, Itō Kashitarō visited and urged him to move to the Tosa Domain residence, saying that the Shinsengumi were targeting him, but Ryōma remained at the Ōmiya.
On 15 November, in the early evening, Nakaoka visited the Ōmiya and discussed the Sanjō Notice Board Incident with Ryōma. At night, a visitor came to the Ōmiya, identifying himself as a Totsukawa district samurai (十津川郷士) and asking to meet Ryōma. Yamada Tokichi (山田藤吉), a former sumo wrestler, attempted to bring the visitor before Ryōma, but was cut down from behind. (He died the next day.)
At this time, Yamada let out a loud cry, "Gyaa!! (ぎゃあ!!)", and Ryōma said, "Hotaena! (ほたえな!)" (a Tosa dialect expression meaning "Don't make a racket"), thereby revealing his location to the assassins. The assassins ran up the stairs quietly, opened the sliding door, and invaded the room. Ryōma was cut on the forehead. In his hazy consciousness, Ryōma is said to have called Nakaoka by an alias, "Ishikawa, do you have a sword?", out of concern that Nakaoka's true identity would be discovered. Afterward, Ryōma was cut in several places, including the chest, and eventually died. Nakaoka survived and called for help, but he vomited two days later and died.
Who carried out the attack
Initially, because the assailant had shouted "Konokunno!" (こなくそ!) in the Iyo dialect (a dialect of Japanese spoken in Ehime Prefecture), it was believed to have been the work of Harada Sanosuke or Ōishi Kuwajirō of the Shinsengumi. At the time, Ōishi had been executed for the murder of Ryōma. Moreover, due to the Shinsengumi's actions up until the Meiji period, including the Ikedaya Incident, when the Boshin War broke out, the new government forces carried out a thorough purge of the Shinsengumi.
Many aspects of this incident remain incomprehensible, and in addition to the theory of Imai Nobuo described below, there are interpretations such as the entirely different popular theory that the assailants were samurai of the Satsuma Domain, and the one presented in Asada Jirō's Lost to the Sword (original title: Mibu Gishi Den).
Furthermore, Sakamoto Ryōma's current name recognition is overwhelmingly higher than that of Nakaoka Shintarō, and his assassination is often discussed with the premise "Who was the killer of Sakamoto Ryōma?" However, because Ryōma's name recognition at the time was not very high, there is also a theory that Nakaoka was the true target of the assassins and Ryōma was simply caught up in the attack.
Kyoto Mimawarigumi theory
After the Taishō period began, the former Mimawarigumi chief Imai Nobuo and Watanabe Atsushi testified, according to their oral accounts, that Sasaki Tadasaburō and others were the actual perpetrators. In addition, Katsu Kaishū speculated that the order came from the upper echelons of the shogunate. This Mimawarigumi theory became the accepted view, and no historian has expressed doubts about it. However, because there are parts of the oral accounts of Imai and Watanabe that are inconsistent (such as the composition of the assassins and the owner of the scabbard left at the scene), various alternative theories have emerged, mainly from writers.1 It is also said that Tani Tateki, who rushed to the scene and visited Nakaoka Shintarō, did not believe the Kyoto Mimawarigumi theory.
Although Imai Nobuo said at the time of his testimony that he had only been a lookout, in his middle and old age he is said to have told his children that he himself had killed Ryōma, showing them the weapons (a sword and a spear) he claimed to have used and explaining the situation in detail.
Watanabe Atsushi is said to have been called Ichirō in his youth, and some say he was a different person from Watanabe Ichirō of the Mimawarigumi who actually killed Ryōma. His testimony about the assassination of Ryōma is said to have come when he gathered his family, saying he had something to say, shortly before his death. The old man, who normally did not talk about the past, called his family together and told them that he was the true killer of Ryōma. This became famous when it was reported in newspapers. However, perhaps because of his advanced age, his account contained many inconsistencies, and it contained no detailed information known only to those directly involved, so it is said to have no value as historical material.
By that time, a considerable amount of time had passed since Ryōma's assassination, and the truth of the incident had to some extent been clarified, so it was said that the general public was not entirely unaware of it. Above all, Imai Nobuo, the only witness, had died, and there were no more Mimawarigumi members left who could give a statement about the incident. In other words, there is also a theory that this Watanabe Atsushi was not an actual perpetrator, but performed a show merely to capitalize on his own name as "the man who killed Ryōma."
Shinsengumi theory
Based on physical evidence such as the scabbard left at the scene at the time of Ryōma's assassination, and testimony from associates of Itō Kashitarō (who was assassinated three days later), the Goryō-eshi (御陵衛士), it was believed that the attack was carried out by Harada Sanosuke of the Shinsengumi. However, based on the wounds, some theories hold that the attacker was left-handed. If this theory is adopted, one candidate is Saitō Hajime, a person capable of killing Ryōma, who was left-handed and a master of the Hokushin Itto-ryū. (There are various theories about when Saitō returned to the Shinsengumi, but in Asada Jirō's Lost to the Sword, he argues that Saitō was a member of the Goryō-eshi (Kōdaiji-tō).) However, the claim that Saitō was left-handed is unlikely to be historical fact. It is a setting created through literary imagination, and there is no clear evidence that he was actually left-handed.
After the incident, on 26 November, Kondō Isami, the Shinsengumi commander, was interrogated by the shogunate, and in his statement he denied involvement, saying, "We are professionals. If we had done it, Mr. Nakaoka would not have survived." (In fact, Nakaoka Shintarō, who was also injured in the attack, survived for about two more days and gave testimony about the incident.) Ōishi Kuwajirō, who was arrested and interrogated together with Kondō, also denied involvement in this incident. He was regarded as one of the most skilled swordsmen in the Shinsengumi, having assassinated Itō Kashitarō even within the Shinsengumi. At the time, when the Tosa Domain samurai were nearly certain of the Shinsengumi theory and insisted on it, Ōishi was subjected to numerous tortures to force his confession. Unable to endure it, Ōishi once reluctantly admitted guilt, but then immediately retracted it, dismissing it by saying he had only "heard Commander Kondō say, after the incident, that the Mimawarigumi's Imai and Watanabe had done a fine job of getting rid of Mr. Ryōma." Both Kondō and Ōishi were beheaded on suspicion of Ryōma's murder, but this was merely the result of forcing a conclusion without concrete evidence, driven by the fierce, almost vengeful insistence of the Tosa samurai.
At the time, Ryōma did not have the recognition he has today, but he was a well-known samurai. Therefore, it would have been a great achievement for the shogunate's patrol to have eliminated him, so there was no reason to conceal it; rather, they would have boasted of it. Nevertheless, the Shinsengumi consistently denied the allegations from the time of the assassination.
Today, there are almost no researchers who support the Shinsengumi theory.
Satsuma Domain conspiracy theory
After the Taisei Hōkan, Ryōma's attitude toward the shogunate softened, and he is said to have leaned toward the establishment of a new government through a council of daimyō including Tokugawa Yoshinobu. It is said that Saigō Takamori, Ōkubo Toshimichi, and others who advocated the overthrow of the shogunate by force could not overlook Ryōma's movements and deliberately leaked Ryōma's whereabouts to the shogunate side.
It is certain that Saigō and Ryōma differed in their views on how Yoshinobu should be treated. The theory that the advocates of forceful overthrow assassinated the advocates of the Taisei Hōkan is based on materials such as letters from Sasaki Tamon and testimony from Ōmiya employees. However, this theory overemphasizes the confrontation between the Taisei Hōkan line and the forceful overthrow line beyond what is necessary, and the greatest problem is that it completely ignores the academic view2 that the two were not mutually unacceptable lines, which makes its basis weak. Because this theory has some enthusiastic supporters,3 it is barely taken seriously in academic history circles.4
Footnotes