There followed a stream of demotions. The house of ii lost its mandate as
protector of Kyoto, and li’s retainer and adviser Nagano Shuzen was
ordered to commit suicide. Soon additional pressures represented by
the Sanio-Tosa mission persuaded bakufu officials of the need to show
good faith with the court by extending the punishments to almost all
officials who had worked with the successor governments that fol-
lowed the murder of Ii and to the men who had negotiated the treaties
with the foreigners. In considering the remarkable equanimity with
which most Tokugawa fudai saw the bakufu collapse a few years later
it is well to keep in mind the demoralizing effect that tumabouts of
this sort must have had on vassals’ loyalty and resolution.