Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/245

Rh of the clansmen would have gladly seen the administrative power wrested from the hands of the Yedo Court.

In Kyōtō a corresponding difference of opinion began to declare itself. The clamour and turbulence of the anti-foreign party produced a reaction, which strengthened the hands of the men by whom the marriage between the Shōgun and the Emperor's sister had been promoted. Two factions, therefore, gradually assumed distinct shape: the extremists, led by Princes Arisugawa and Sanjo, who advocated immediate expulsion of foreigners and overthrow of the Shogunate; the moderates, led by Princes Shishi-o, Konoye, and Iwakura, who urged less drastic measures with regard to foreigners and favoured the maintenance of the Shōgun's administration. To the first of these factions the Chōshiu men naturally attached themselves; to the second the Satsuma leaders. It had been generally supposed that the Satsuma chief would place himself at the head of the extremists. But his accession to the ranks of the moderates gave the ascendency at once to the latter. They utilised it to contrive that an envoy should be sent to Yedo with an Imperial rescript indicating three courses of which the Shōgun was invited to choose one; namely, first, that the Shōgun himself should repair to Kyōtō, and there hold a conference with the principal feudatories as to the best method of securing national tranquillity; secondly, that the five