Incident Namamugi v britsko-japonských vztazích
The Namamugi Incident in the relations between Great Britain and Japan

Summary/Abstract: The conclusion of unequal treaties with Western Powers caused unrest in Japan. Adherents of the sonno joi movement demanded expulsion of the foreigners and return of the political power into the hands of the Emperor. They therefore initiated a series of attacks against influential figures of the ruling regime and against the foreign residents in Japan. The most important of these incidents was a murder of British merchant Charles Richardson by radical samurai from the Satsuma Domain. British representatives demanded a payment of indemnity for this act and a punishment of the culprits. The ruling Tokugawa bakufu was however reluctant to yield because of its anxiety of the impact on the internal Japanese policy. An open conflict was an acute possibility in the spring of 1863. Only the naval threat forced bakufu to make concessions. The Satsuma Domain however decided to resist. Its defiance was broken only after British fleet shelled its capital city of Kagoshima. This incident was one of the steps which persuaded the adherents of sonno joi to abandon their idea of expulsion of the foreigners.

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