Yoshida Shōin
Hotta lost the support of key Daimyōs, and when Tokugawa Nariaki opposed the new treaty, Hotta sought imperial sanction. The court officials, perceiving the weakness of the "bakufu", rejected Hotta's request which resulted in the resignation of himself, and thus suddenly embroiled Kyoto and the emperor in Japan's internal politics for the first time in many centuries. When the "shōgun" died without an heir, Nariaki appealed to the court for support of his own son, Tokugawa Yoshinobu (or Keiki), for "shōgun", a reformist candidate favored by the "shinpan" and "tozama daimyōs". The "fudai" won the power struggle, however, installing the 12 year old Tokugawa Iemochi as "shōgun" whom it was perceived Tairō Ii Naosuke would have influence over, ultimately placing Nariaki and Yoshinobu under house arrest, and executing Yoshida Shōin (1830–1859, a leading "sonnō-jōi" intellectual who had opposed the American treaty and plotted a revolution against the bakufu) known as the Ansei Purge.