Ikedaya Affair

The Ikedaya Incident (池田屋事件, Ikedaya jiken^?), also known as the Ikedaya Affair, was an armed encounter between the shishi which included masterless samurai (rōnin) formally employed by the Chōshū and Tosa clans (han), and the Shinsengumi, the Bakufu's special police force in Kyoto on July 8, 1864 at the Ikedaya Inn in Kyoto, Japan.

At the end of the Edo period, Kyoto attracted unemployed rōnin of varying allegiances. Those from the Chōshū and Tosa clans were heavily influenced by sonnō jōi (revere the Emperor, expel the foreign barbarians) philosophy and supported forcibly removing all western influences from Japan. Emperor Kōmei and the Aizu and Satsuma clans preferred a unification of the bakufu and the imperial court. The bakufu tried to retain their centralized power. In this political chaos, ronin from the various factions began to assassinate each other. The bakufu organized groups of ronin including Shinsengumi and charged them with arresting or killing (should they resist arrest) the sonnō jōi shishi.

The shishi were using the Ikedaya Inn as a staging point for their forces. The Shinsengumi arrested one of the shishi, Shuntaro Furutaka. The method of interrogation, carried out by Shinsengumi vice-commander Hijikata Toshizō was alleged to be particularly brutal, although it appears to be largely without verification. With the prisoner unresponsive, Hijikata was said to have suspended the man by his ankles, restraining his wrists, and driven five-inch spikes into the heels of the man's feet. Placing lit candles upon the holes, hot wax dripped deep into his calves. The prisoner eventually claimed that they planned to set fire in Kyoto and Matsudaira Katamori, the daimyō of the Aizu clan whose duties included policing Kyoto at the time. The urgency of the situation thus revealed, Kondō Isami led a group of Shinsengumi troops to the inn to arrest the shishi; a second group, led by Hijikata arrived shortly thereafter.

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