Ikedaya Incident

The Ikedaya Incident (池田屋事件, Ikedaya jiken), also known as the Ikedaya Affair, was an armed encounter between the shishi which included masterless samurai (ronin) formally employed by the Chōshū and Tosa clans (han), and the Shinsengumi, the Bakufu's special police force in Kyoto on July 8, 1864 at the Ikedaya Inn in Kyoto, Japan.

At the end of the Edo period, Kyoto attracted unemployed ronin of varying allegiances. Those from the Chōshū and Tosa clans were heavily influenced by sonnō jōi (revere the Emperor, expel the foreign barbarians) philosophy and supported forcibly removing all western influences from Japan. Emperor Kōmei and the Aizu and Satsuma clans preferred a unification of the bakufu and the imperial court. The bakufu tried to retain their centralized power. In this political chaos, ronin from the various factions began to assassinate each other. The bakufu organized groups of ronin including Shinsengumi and charged them with arresting or killing (should they resist arrest) the sonnō jōi shishi.