Seijisosaishoku (president of political affairs) (政事総裁職)
Seijisosaishoku was one of the three most important posts in the Edo bakufu, which was newly established towards the end of the bakufu system in the late Edo period, together with Shogun-kokenshoku (the post for the guardian of shogun) and Kyoto shugoshoku (the military governor of Kyoto).
In 1862, the Imperial court in Kyoto and the Satsuma domain pressured the bakufu so as to appoint Yoshinaga MATSUDAIRA, the lord of the Fukui domain of Echigo Province, to Tairo (the highest post in the bakufu government) and Yoshinobu HITOTSUBASHI to Shogun-kokenshoku. For this, the bakufu decided to pardon the lords of the Hitotsubashi group, including Yoshinaga and Yoshinobu, on May 23 and appointed Yoshinaga to Seijisosaishoku, on August 4. It is said that this measure was taken because there was no precedent which a lord of Shinpan (the domains whose lords were male descendents of Ieyasu TOKUGAWA) assumed Tairo (the highest position in the bakufu government). Yoshinaga, together with Yoshinobu, conducted the reformation of shogunate administration in the Bunkyu era(1861 - 1864). However, while staying in Kyoto to arrange a visit to Kyoto by Iemochi TOKUGAWA in 1863, seii taishogun (literally, "the great general who was to subdue the barbarians"), Yoshinaga suffered from confrontation between the Imperial court and the bakufu, and returned to Echizen, his own domain, after his resignation from his post submitted on April 19, was turned down. For this, he was placed in confinement on May 12, and was dismissed from the Seijisosaishoku post. After that, on November 21, Naokatsu MATSUDAIRA, the lord of the Kawagoe Domain, was appointed as his successor and endeavored to coordinate opinions of the Sanyo-kaigi (councilors' meetings) and the bakufu. However, the post was abolished on July 25, 1864.