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Matsudaira Shungaku was the last ''[[daimyo|daimyô]]'' of [[Echizen han]], and played a prominent role in [[Bakumatsu]] politics.
Matsudaira Shungaku was the last ''[[daimyo|daimyô]]'' of [[Echizen han]], and played a prominent role in [[Bakumatsu]] politics.
He adopted a daughter of [[Matsudaira Naoharu]] (lord of [[Itoigawa han]]) named Makoto, and married her to [[Tairo|Tairô]] [[Abe Masahiro]] in [[1853]].<ref>Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 1 (1937), 402.</ref> Shungaku was forced into retirement and house arrest in [[1858]] as part of the [[Ansei Purges]]; the shogunate designated [[Matsudaira Naokiyo]], lord of [[Itoigawa han]], to become his successor.<ref>Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 3 (1937), 5.</ref>
In [[1862]], Shungaku received a document containing "three emergency measures" from [[Kiyokawa Hachiro|Kiyokawa Hachirô]]. He then formed the [[Roshigumi|Rôshigumi]], hiring a group of ''[[ronin]]'' to help guard Shogun [[Tokugawa Iemochi]] on a [[1863]] trip to [[Kyoto]]. In conjunction with these responsibilities, Shungaku was named ''seiji sôsaishoku'', a high-ranking government oversight position.
In [[1862]], Shungaku received a document containing "three emergency measures" from [[Kiyokawa Hachiro|Kiyokawa Hachirô]]. He then formed the [[Roshigumi|Rôshigumi]], hiring a group of ''[[ronin]]'' to help guard Shogun [[Tokugawa Iemochi]] on a [[1863]] trip to [[Kyoto]]. In conjunction with these responsibilities, Shungaku was named ''seiji sôsaishoku'', a high-ranking government oversight position.
Shungaku is known to have been an avid collector of ''[[ukiyo-e]]'' woodblock prints, and it has been suggested that the production of pictorial records of Iemochi's trip to Kyoto by ''ukiyo-e'' artists rather than by those of the [[Kano school|Kanô school]] may have been his idea.<ref>Daniele Lauro, "Displaying authority: Guns, political legitimacy, and martial pageantry in Tokugawa Japan, 1600 - 1868," MA Thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2013), 31-32.</ref>
In the last years of the Bakumatsu period, Shungaku, along with [[Yamauchi Yodo|Yamauchi Yôdô]], were among those who debated the possibility of a more democratic form of government, based on public opinion.
In the last years of the Bakumatsu period, Shungaku, along with [[Yamauchi Yodo|Yamauchi Yôdô]], were among those who debated the possibility of a more democratic form of government, based on public opinion.