Kinshirokukuzure Incident

• Date: 1808-1809
• Japanese: 近思録崩れ (kinshiroku kuzure)

The Kinshi-roku kuzure incident was a dispute over policy within Satsuma domain which ended with Shimazu Shigehide forcing Shimazu Narinobu to abdicate in favor of Shimazu Narioki, and forcing some 50-100 officials to either be expelled from office or to commit suicide.

Shimazu Narinobu became lord of Satsuma in 1787, but due to the various progressive and development projects of his predecessor, Shimazu Shigehide, the domain was on the verge of a dire financial situation. In 1807, Narinobu joined a group known as the Kinshiroku-ha, which compiled a volume known as Kinshiroku (lit. "Record of Recent Thought"), and which encouraged active political action. Operating in accordance with the political thought of this group, Narinobu appointed karô Kabayama Chikara and Chichibu Tarô to oversee an austerity program, and revoked a great number of Shigehide's programs and reforms, with the aim of improving the domain's financial situation. Shigehide, terribly angered by this, ordered Kabayama, Chichibu, and some 50-100 other domain officials to either be exiled, to take the tonsure (enter a monastery, retiring from public/official life), or to commit seppuku. Shigehide also worked to force Narinobu to step down, abdicating his position as lord of the domain in favor of his son, Shimazu Narioki.

Partial List of Victims

• Shimazu Narinobu (forced to step down as lord of Satsuma)
• Chichibu Tarô (forced to commit suicide)
• Kabayama Chikara (forced to commit suicide)
• Minaki Hôtoku (exiled to an island)
• Morimoto Kôken (exiled to Tokunoshima)
• Morimoto Sôsetsu (exiled to an island)
• Tashiro Kiyota (exiled to Ôshima)

References

• Honjin ni tomatta daimyô tachi, Toyohashi, Aichi: Futagawa-juku honjin shiryôkan (1996), 28.
• "Kinshiroku kuzure," Sekai daihyakka jiten.