Overthrow of The Tokugawa
After 1858, Kido was based at the domain's Edo residence, where he served as liaison between the domain bureaucracy and radical elements among the young, lower-echelon Chōshū samurai who supported the Sonnō jōi movement. Coming under suspicion by the Shogunate for his ties with Mito loyalists after the attempted assassination of Andō Nobumasa, he was transferred to Kyōto. However, while in Kyōto, he was unable to prevent the 30 September 1863 coup d'état by the forces of the Aizu and Satsuma domains, who drove the Chōshū forces out of the city. He was involved in the unsuccessful attempt by Chōshū to regain control of the city on 20 August 1864, and forced into hiding with a geisha by the name of Ikumatsu, who later became his wife.
After radical elements under Takasugi Shinsaku gained control of Chōshū politics, Kido was instrumental in establishing the Satchō Alliance which proved to be critical in the Boshin War and the subsequent Meiji Restoration.
Read more about this topic: Kido Takayoshi
Famous quotes containing the word overthrow:
“There is something singularly grand and impressive in the sound of a tree falling in a perfectly calm night like this, as if the agencies which overthrow it did not need to be excited, but worked with a subtle, deliberate, and conscious force, like a boa-constrictor, and more effectively then than even in a windy day.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)