Upon first glance, Umoregi-no-ya seems to be a humble samurai residence. This home was where Naosuke Ii lived between the ages of 17 and 32 for a total of 15 years.

Naosuke Ii was an intellectual, and it would be fair to say that Umoregi-no-ya was where the basis of his personality formed. We’re going to collect the vestiges of the history left in this building that influenced Naosuke Ii’s personality. It will be interesting to see what sort of impression you have of Naosuke at the end of our journey.

First, let’s review the life of Naosuke Ii. Take a look at the timeline of Naosuke’s life.

Naosuke Ii was born on October 29th, 1815, in the Ninomaru lord’s residence within Hikone Castle. He was the 14th son of Ii Naonaka, who was the 11th lord of Hikone Domain. As 14th in line to succeed his father, there was no reason that Naosuke would even think to become the next lord of Hikone.

At the age of 5, he lost his mother, then at the age of 17, he lost his father. As was customary in Hikone Domain, Naosuke moved into Umoregi-no-ya with his brother Naoyasu, who was 5 years younger than him. Their life in this home was by no means glamorous. This residence wasn’t an adequate dwelling for the lord’s children to be living in. The brothers’ life at Umoregi-no-ya was even humbler than middle-class warriors.

Still, this home was only meant to be a temporary residence. Traditions dictated that they would either leave this nest by being adopted into a powerful lord’s family or going to work for a temple.

Eventually, it was the boy’s time to leave the nest. Naosuke traveled with his younger brother to Edo so they could meet with the Nobeoka Domain, as they were being considered for adoption. Naosuke was convinced that he would be adopted, to the point that he’d hosted a going-away party for himself to celebrate the end of his frugal life at Umoregi-no-ya. Unfortunately for Naosuke, it was his younger brother Naoyasu that was adopted.

“Buried bog-wood may avert its gaze from the world, but its spiritless body will be buried not.”
Upon returning home, the disappointed Naosuke named this residence Umoregi-no-ya, or “bogwood house.” With that, he declared his intention that though he may be as invisible as a piece of buried bogwood, he wasn’t going to remain underground.

It is said that following that declaration, Nasouke insisted that he needed no more than four hours of sleep a day, and he began spending time studying rather than sleeping.

And so, Naosuke spent the next 15 years living in Umoregi-no-ya, until he was the age of 32. It seemed that he would perhaps be in this home for the rest of his life, but no one knew what fate had in store for him.

Naomoto, who was the successor to the current lord of the domain, Naoaki, passed away at the age of 38. In order to have an heir, Naoaki adopted his younger brother, Naosuke, which led to Naosuke moving out of Umoregi-no-ya to live in Edo. Several years later, Naoaki passed, and at the age of 35, Naosuke became the 13th lord of Hikone Domain. Upon becoming the lord of the domain, Naosuke immediately distributed the 150,000 ryō his brother left behind to the people of the domain, including his vassals, townspeople, and farmers. Naosuke then searched through the entirety of the domain on foot, speaking to every person he came across. He treated everyone equally and worked to solve all of their problems.

Though he was doing all of this work in Hikone, during the Edo period, a lord was expected not to live in his own domain, but rather in Edo, so that he could serve the Shogun.

Immediately following Naosuke’s appointment as lord of Hikone Domain, Commodore Matthew Perry’s “Black Ships” arrived in Japan. The entire nation was in an uproar. People fought over whether they should keep the foreigners out, or if they should open the country. Public opinion was split into two camps: those who wanted to start a war with foreign countries to send them away, and those who wanted to dissolve isolationist policies to trade with other countries.

In the middle of this tumultuous period, at age 43, Naosuke was given the position of Tairō. Immediately following this appointment, the Harris Treaty was signed without the emperor’s approval, which led to the shogunate being opposed by those with strong imperialistic and exclusionistic beliefs.

After the Ansei Purge, at the age of 46, Naosuke Ii was assassinated by rōnin from the Mito Domain during the Sakuradamon Incident.