Yamauchi Toyoshige
Yamauchi Toyoshige (Yôdô) was lord of Tosa han from 1849 to 1859, and was a prominent and influential figure in Bakumatsu politics.
Although a staunch supporter of the Tokugawa shogunate, Yôdô later shifted his allegiance to the restoration of Imperial Rule. Although forced into retirement in 1859 during the Ansei Purge, Yôdô still managed to control han politics for a time, before retiring more completely from politics sometime prior to his death in 1872. Although he never met Sakamoto Ryôma, it was Yôdô who passed on Ryôma's memorial to Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, urging the shogun to resign peacefully and cede political control back to the throne, which he did.
His elder sister Maki 真喜 married Rokujô Ariosa in 1855.[1]
Yôdô retired in 1859 in favor of Yamauchi Toyonori, fourth son of a relative, Yamauchi Toyosuke.[2]
References
- Hillsborough, Romulus. RYOMA- Life of a Renaissance Samurai. Ridgeback Press, 1999
- Jansen, Marius B. Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration. Columbia University Press, 1994.
