Dutch, and other nations. Japan's foreign relations became more and
more complicated and therefore difficult to manage.

The discussion quoted above is a type of the arguments used by the
Jo-i party and the Kai-Koku party. The history of Japanese politics
from 1853 to 1868 is the history of the struggle between these two
parties, each of which soon changed its name. As the Jo-i party allied
itself with the court of Kioto, it became the O-sei or Restoration
party. As the Kai-Koku party was associated with the court of Shogun,
it became the Bakufu party. The struggle ended in the triumph of the
Restoration party. But by that time the Jo-i party, from a cause which
I shall soon mention, had been completely transformed and converted to
the Western ideas.

Among the leaders of the Jo-i party was Nariaki, the old prince of
Mito. He belonged to one of the San Kay (three families), out of which
Iyeyasu ordered the Shogun to be chosen. He was connected by marriage
with the families of the Emperor and the highest Kuges in Miako, and
with the wealthiest Daimios. In power the Mito family thus ranked high
among the Daimios. Among the scholars the Prince of Mito was popular.
The prestige of his great ancestor, the compiler of Dai-Nihon-Shi, had
not yet died out. The Prince of Mito was thus naturally looked up to
by the scholars as the man of right principles and of noble ideas. A
shrewd, clever, and scheming old man, the Prince of Mito now became
the defender of the cause of the Emperor and the mouthpiece of the
conservative party.

At the head of the Bakufu party was a man of iron and fertile
resources, Ii Kamon No Kami. He was the Daimio of Hikone, a castled
town and fief on Lake Biwa, in Mino. His revenue was small, being only