Person

Ii Naosuke

1815–1860 · 19th century

Ii Naosuke was lord of the Hikone domain and, from 1858, great elder (tairō) of the Tokugawa shogunate. He signed the Harris Treaty opening Japan to Western trade without imperial approval and purged his opponents in the Ansei Purge, including Tokugawa Nariaki of Mito. In 1860 Mito samurai assassinated him outside Edo Castle's Sakurada Gate.

Ii Naosuke
Image: Kanō Eigaku · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 profile

Tokugawa ShogunateDecline

Mentioned in 2 state histories

Hikone DomainMito Domain

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Ii Naosuke. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ii-naosuke
MLA
“Ii Naosuke.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ii-naosuke. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Ii Naosuke.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ii-naosuke.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Ii Naosuke’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ii-naosuke (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻