1859. Yokohama, Nagasaki, Hakodate opened. First Christian missionaries. 1860. Assassination of Ii, Prime Minister of the Shōgun. 1861. Frequent attacks on foreigners. 1862. First foreign embassy. Richardson affair. 1863. Bombardment of Kagoshima. 1864. Bombardment of Shimonoseki. 1865. Imperial sanction of treaties. Tariff convention. 1866. Shōgun Iyemochi died; succeeded by Keiki. 1867. Emperor Kōmei died; succeeded by Mutsuhito. Keiki resigned. Reorganization of the Government. 1868. Restoration, or Revolution. This era has been so named because it was marked by commotions, not merely between different factions among the Japanese, but also between Japanese and foreigners. The anti-foreign spirit that manifested itself in numerous assaults and conspiracies was so involved with internal dissensions that it is quite difficult to distinguish them. The assassination of Ii, the Shōgun’s Prime Minister, who had the courage and the foresight to sign the treaties, was the natural sequence of the opening of three ports to foreign commerce. The conservative spirit, moreover, was still so strong that the Shōgun had to send an embassy, the first one ever sent abroad officially by Japan, to petition the treaty-powers to permit the postponement of the opening of other ports. The murder of Richardson, an Englishman who rudely interrupted the progress of the retinue of the Prince of Satsuma, was the pretext for the bombardment of Kagoshima; and the firing on an American vessel that was passing through the Straits of Shimonoseki was the excuse for the bombardment of Shimonoseki. About the middle of this period the Imperial sanction of the treaties was obtained, and a tariff convention was negotiated. The civil dissensions, however, continued; the great clan of Chōshiu became engaged in actual warfare against the Shōgun’s troops in Kyōto and were proclaimed “rebels,” against whom an Imperial army was despatched; the young Shōgun, Iyemochi, died and was succeeded by Keiki; and the Emperor Kōmei also died and was succeeded by his young son, Mutsuhito, the present Emperor. Finally, the new Shōgun, observing the drift of political affairs and the need of the times for a more centralized and unified administration, resigned his position; and the system of government was re-formed with the Emperor in direct control. The new Emperor declared in a manifesto: “Henceforward we shall exercise supreme authority, both in the internal and [the] external affairs of the country. Consequently the title of Emperor should be substituted for that of Tycoon [Shōgun], which has hitherto been employed in the treaties.” Of this manifesto, one writer says: “Appended were the seal of Dai Nippon, and the signature, Mutsuhito, this being the first occasion in Japanese history on which the name of an Emperor had appeared during his lifetime.”[86]