Site of a Temporary Residence of Hashimoto Sanai

Hashimoto Sanai was a samurai and political reformer from Fukui Domain, during the last years of the Tokugawa shogunate. He was active here from February to April 1858 while residing in the Kyoto residence of the lord of Fukui that used to stand here.
Hashimoto Sanai, who also went by the penname of Keigaku, was born in the castle town of Fukui, and studied Western learning and medicine in Osaka and Edo. The lord of Fukui Domain, Matsudaira Yoshinaga, later appointed him as deputy head of the official domain school, Meidokan.
In 1857, alongside people like Yuri Kimimasa, Hashimoto Sanai applied his abilities to reforming the domain’s administration system. This was also when there was a dispute over succession to the position of shogun. Yoshinaga led a campaign to install the pro-reform Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu. On domain orders, Sanai moved from Edo to Kyoto, where he went by the names Momoi Ryotaro or Momoi Iori, and stayed here temporarily while he sought backing for Yoshinobu. However, this campaign failed when Ii Naosuke assumed office as Great Elder in 1858. Sanai was imprisoned, and executed in 1859 during the Ansei Purge. He was 26 years old.
Kyoto City