At the end of the
Edo period, Kyoto attracted unemployed
rōnin of varying allegiances. Those from the
Chōshū,
Tosa and
Higo clans were heavily influenced by the
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,
Furutaka Shuntarō, for being a member of an anti-Shogunate group, triggering the Ikedaya incident. Furutaka had a strong relationship with the
Chōshū clans, and wanted to build trust with Mōri, a member of the court, in order to take power. There are some other theories about the cause of Furutaka's arrest. One is that Teshiro Toshisuke resented Furutaka due to a dispute over the inheritance of Masuya, and his report of Furutaka's location to the Shinsengumi led to his capture. The interrogation carried out by Shinsengumi vice-commander
Hijikata Toshizō was alleged to be particularly brutal, although there is no proof of this. With the prisoner unresponsive, Hijikata was said to have suspended him by his ankles, restraining his wrists, and driving five-inch spikes into the heels of his feet. Lit candles were placed in the holes, so that hot wax dripped all over his calves. Furutaka eventually claimed that they planned to set fires in Kyoto and
capture Matsudaira Katamori, the
daimyō of the
Aizu clan whose duties included policing Kyoto at the time. Another version of the confession claims that Furutaka planned to burn Prince
Kuni Asahiko with Kawamura Hanzō and Otaka Matajirō. Also, he revealed that many of the Chōshū retainers were hiding out in the Gion district.
Katsura Kogorō (later Kido Takayoshi) who was at the Ikedaya claimed many years later that they had only met to discuss how to rescue Furukata from the Shinsengumi. Whether or not Hijikata actually employed such a cruel interrogation method is also in some doubt, as conflicting reports from those in attendance (such as
Nagakura Shinpachi) exist. Some feel that if Hijikata had really tortured Furutaka so severely, he would have passed out and would not have been able to make a statement. Shinsengumi knew about 20 hiding places of shishi, and they started the search of shishi around 7 p.m. This incident is commonly portrayed as having unfolded in the dark, but in fact parts of the inn were moderately lit. Kondō tried to induce shishi to come down to the 1st floor because there was a light called
Hachiken that illuminated 14.5 meters down the hallway. Aizu clans praised Shinsengumi, and they gave around 500
ryō, and the imperial court gave about 100
ryō to Shinsengumi. Since the incident happened, people from Chōshū clans tended to be arrested without investigation of Shinsengumi. According to Nomi, Shinsengumi arrested even though elderly people were from Kii province and did not know about politics and circumstance. Some historians credit this incident with delaying the eventual
Meiji victory by a year or two, whereas others claim it actually hastened the fall of the bakufu by triggering a cascade of bloody retaliations and assassinations. After the Ikedaya incident, the samurai of the Choshu clan retaliated at the Hamaguri Gate of the Imperial Palace on July 19 in the
Kinmon incident. Furukata himself was later killed in jail during that incident. The Shogunate followed up with
an armed expedition in September 1864. , a man tortured by
Hijikata Toshizō of the
Shinsengumi and the one who gave the information necessary for them to start the famous Ikedaya incident. As for the Ikedaya itself, the inn stopped operating for seven months, after which the inn resumed under one of the owner's relatives, but later went out of business. The Ikedaya Inn was later taken over by the new owner. ==Present==