Kido Takayoshi
The two ringleaders of the opposition to the Bakufu were from the provinces Satsuma (present day Kagoshima prefecture) and Chōshū (present-day Yamaguchi prefecture), two of the strongest tozama anti-shogunate domains in Edo period Japan. Satsuma military leaders Saigō Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi were brought together with Katsura Kogorō (Kido Takayoshi) of Chōshū. As they happened to be directly involved in the murder of Richardson for the former, and the attacks on foreign shipping in Shimonoseki for the latter, and as the Bakufu declared itself unable to placate them, Allied forces decided to mount direct military expeditions.