Kinri Goshuei Sotoku (post to guard Kinri Palace) (禁裏御守衛総督)
Kinri Goshuei Sotoku is the post set up to protect the kinri gosho (Kyoto Imperial Palace) under the understanding of bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) in the end of Edo Period. Yoshinobu TOKUGAWA, who was designated to the post, was also appointed to the post of command of coastal defense to prepare for foreign forces invading from Osaka Bay areas.
On April 30, 1864, Yoshinobu HITOTSUBASHI (Yoshinobu TOKUGAWA) assumed the post of Kinri Goshuei Sotoku at the same time he was excused from the post of the Shogun-kokenshoku (one of three major posts of Edo bakufu). Though the post was appointed by the Imperial court, he obtained a consensus to receive 7,500 bales of rice a month as a reward for the Kinri Goshuei Sotoku from the bakufu. He had his army headquarters at To-ji Temple. He gained vassals such as Katamori MATSUDAIRA, Kyoto shugoshoku (Military governor of Kyoto), and Sadaaki MATSUDAIRA, Kyoto shoshidai (The Kyoto deputy), and he worked independently from the cabinet officials of the Shogunate in Edo and took the leadership role in the bakufu forces stationed in Kyoto. (See Ichikaiso government).
In May, 1864, Yoshinobu inspected the coastline of Settsu Province. In July of the same year, Yoshinobu commanded the whole force of domains of Aizu, Kuwana, Ogaki, and Satsuma and fought off the force of Choshu domain from the Kinmon Incident. In 1865, he was appointed an assistant of political affairs. On September 9, 1866, Yoshinobu resigned the post of Sotoku and inherited the head of the TOKUGAWA family. In the course of this, the Kinri Goshuei Sotoku as a post was naturally abolished.