promoted from assistant clerk, to Nariakira's attendant, in 1854. Ōkubo Toshimichi was exiled by Narioki for supporting Nariakira, but once Nariakira came to power he was pardoned and rose rapidly through the ranks. Saigō and Ōkubo worked on Nariakira's behalf, speaking with Nariaki, the lord of Mito to convince him to back Nariakira's view that government should have greater focus on the emperor and less on the shōgun. Saigo and Ōkubo adopted many of Nariakira's views, which would later become the foundation of the new Meiji government. These views included centralizing the government around the emperor, and Westernizing the Japanese military. Shortly before his death, Nariakira was left with only a two-year-old son (Tetsumaru) and eight-year-old daughter (Teruhime). He had been forced to ask Narioki to decide between Hisamitsu or Hisamitsu's son Tadayoshi to succeed him as daimyō. Saigō and Ōkubo felt the death of all of Nariakira's viable heirs was caused by Yura and wanted retribution, but Nariakira would not allow it. On July 8, 1858, Nariakira was supervising the joint preparatory maneuvers in Tempozan for sending 3,000 Satsuma soldiers to Edo, and he succumbed to the heat. He was transported to Tsurumaru Castle, where he died on the 16th. A few years after his death, he was deified as a Shinto kami, Terukuni-daimyōjin. His son Tetsumaru died shortly after his father. Family Father: Shimazu Narioki Mother: Iyohime (1792–1824) Wife: Tokugawa Tsunehime, daughter of Tokugawa Nariatsu, third head of the Hitotsubashi branch of the Tokugawa family Children: Kannosuke (1845–1848) Tetsumaru Hironosuke Kikusaburo by Tsunehime Tokunosuke (1848–1849) Tetsumaru (1856–1858) Torajumaru (1849–1854) Morinoshin Sumihime Kunihime Teruhime (1851–1869) married Shimazu Tadayoshi Norihime (1852–1908) married Shimazu Uzuhiko of Shimazu-Echizen family Yasuhime (1853–1879) married Shimazu Tadayoshi Adopted daughters: Tenshō-in Shimazu Mitsuko, married Konoe Tadafusa Honours Senior First Rank (May 16, 1901; posthumous) See also Ansei purge Sengan-en Notes References Sakai, Robert K. "Shimazu Nariakira and the Emergence of National Leadership in Satsuma". in Personality in Japanese History. Comp. Albert M. Craig and Donald H. Shively. Berkeley: University of California P, 1970. 209–233 Sakai, Robert. "The Satsuma-Ryukyu Trade and the Tokugawa Seclusion Policy". Journal of Asian Studies 23:3, (May 1964). pp391–403. Ravina, Mark. The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005. 43–72. Iwata, Masakazu. Okubo Toshimichi: The Bismarck of Japan. Berkeley: University of California P, 1964. 26–190. Yates, Charles L. Saigo Takamori. London: Kegan Paul International