The Teradaya Incident (寺田屋事件)
The Teradaya Incident can refer to one of two incidents that occurred at the Teradaya inn in Fushimi (present-day Fushimi ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture) in the suburbs of Kyoto at the end of the Edo period.
These two incidents were:
A purge of the royalist faction in the Satsuma domain carried out in 1862.
An attack on Ryoma SAKAMOTO by the Fushimi magistrate carried out in 1866.
The purging of the Satsuma domain
In this incident the royalist faction in the Satsuma domain was purged by Hisamitsu SHIMAZU, the father of the lord in the Satsuma domain, and the de facto ruler, on May 29, 1862. It is also called the Teradaya disturbance.
Hisamitsu entered Kyoto at the head of 1,000 domain soldiers, carrying with him the hopes of royalists from across Japan. At that time, however, Hisamitsu had no intention of overthrowing the Shogunate, and in fact supported the union of the Imperial court and the Shogunate (Kobu-gattai). Dissatisfied with him, extremists in the Satsuma domain such as Shinshichi ARIMA conspired with devoted members of the royalist faction such as Izumi MAGI and Kawachinosuke TANAKA to carry out a raid on the residences of the chief adviser to the Emperor, Hisatada KUJO, and the Kyoto-shoshidai (commissioner dealing with police and judicial affairs in Kyoto), Tadaaki SAKAI (also the lord of the Obama domain in Wakasa Province), and they gathered at the Teradaya, an inn for sailors in Fushimi. At that time, the Teradaya was an inn for sailors which was owned by the Satsuma domain and suited for gathering to plan such a conspiracy.
Hisamitsu attempted to suppress this disturbance by sending Toshimichi OKUBO, who failed; then, he sent retainers from the royalists, comrades of the rebels, to bring them to the domain residence, so that he himself could dissuade them from partaking in the raid. Just in case something should go wrong, he selected retainers with excellent swordsman skills in particular for the chinbushi (temporary provincial superintendent): Tsunayoshi OYAMA, Shigeru NARAHARA, Gorobe MICHIJIMA, Yuemon SUZUKI, Masanosuke SUZUKI, Kanenoshin YAMAGUCHI, Chuzaemon KOKA, and Zensuke MORIOKA. Furthermore, Gensuke KAMIDOKO volunteered for the chinbushi, which was now comprised of nine members in total.
Tsunayoshi OYAMA and some other members asked Shinshichi to come along with them, but Shinshichi refused, and an intense sword fight broke out between the comrades. In this fight, one member of the anti-rebel group died (Gorobe MICHIJIMA), while six members of the rebel group were killed (Shinshichi ARIMA, Aijiro SHIBAYAMA, Sosuke HASHIGUCHI, Naogoro NISHIDA, Ryusuke DESHIMARU, and Denzo HASHIGUCHI) and two were badly wounded (Kensuke TANAKA and Shingoezaemon MORIYAMA). Still, many members of the royalists (Iwao OYAMA, Tsugumichi SAIGO, Michitsune MISHIMA, Kunimoto SHINOHARA, and Yaichiro NAGAYAMA) stayed upstairs, but after Tsunayoshi OYAMA dropped his sword and burst into the room in a desperate attempt to persuade them, the rest of the devoted members in the royalists surrendered.
The two wounded rebels were forced to commit seppuku, and the masterless samurai from the various domains in the royalists were handed over to their domains. Those, such as Kawachinosuke TANAKA, whom no domain wanted to take in, were said to be handed over to the Satsuma domain, but in fact they were taken away in a ship and were killed. Yakichi SHIBAYAMA (柴山矢吉), who slew them, is said to have gone insane later. Not only he, but also many of the chinbushi members died a miserable death. On the other hand, many of the surviving members in the royalist faction played major roles in the Meiji government.
As a result of this incident, Hisamitsu gained more trust from the Imperial Court, and he left for Edo to realize the policy of Kobu-gattai (Reformation in the Bunkyu period, or 文久の改革).
Incidentally, Hisamitsu submitted a written statement concerning Kobu-gattai to Tadafusa KONOE on May 14, prior to the Teradaya incident, and received an Imperial order to pacify masterless samurai. This is why it seems necessary to rethink the widely held view that the incident was an internal feud of the Satsuma domain.
The attack on Ryoma SAKAMOTO
It was an incident in which the torikata (policemen capturing criminals) under the Fushimi magistrate attempted to apprehend or assassinate Ryoma SAKAMOTO while he was staying at the Teradaya on March 8, 1866.
Ryoma had a narrow escape from the raid thanks to the wit of the adopted daughter of the inn Ryo NARAZAKI and his guard Shinzo MIYOSHI, and concealed himself while in Kagoshima through the help of Takamori SAIGO. Ryo ran up the stairs from the bathroom, naked, to alert Ryoma to the danger. Ryoma fought back, mainly with a gun. He injured his left thumb.
Relationship with the current Teradaya
The Teradaya explains that 'the bathroom Ryo used' as well as 'bullet marks' and 'sword marks' from the incident still remain in the current building of the Teradaya, as if the current building remained as it was at the time of the incident. However, the building at the time of the incident was burned down during the Battle in Toba-Fushimi; in fact, the current building in 263 Minamihama-cho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City was built to the west of the Teradaya of the incident (the current building was registered in 1905). The monument 'Satsu Han Kyuresshi Isekishi' (memorial site for nine bushi of the Satsuma domain) built to the west of the current building carries the inscription 'the site of the Teradaya' in the fifth line from the end of the inscription (rubbed copy).
Section on Minamihama-cho
Since the space of the bathroom was added to the new building and registered in 1908, it can not be the same one as the time of the incident (Ryo had passed away two years before).
The premises of the building at that time correspond to the area (262 Minamihama-cho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City) to the east of the current building, which includes a monument and a stone statue, serving as a garden for the current Teradaya; the ground was donated to Fushimi Ward, Kii District at that time in 1914 by the landowner (who is not related to the owner of the current Teraedaya), and after municipal mergers, it is presently owned by Kyoto City.