An Attack at Ōmiya Kills Ryōma and Nakaoka Shintarō

Ryōma and Nakaoka Shintarō were attacked at Ōmiya in Kyoto late in 1867, shortly after Yoshinobu returned governing authority. Ryōma died in the assault; Nakaoka survived briefly before dying of his wounds. The killing removed two intermediaries active in the alliances and proposals surrounding the political transition.

The leading attribution is to members of the Kyoto Mimawarigumi, but the evidence does not establish a complete command chain. Later accounts from Imai Nobuo and Watanabe Atsushi, and reports of Nakaoka’s testimony, differ. These contradictions limit certainty about the assailants’ precise actions and who authorized them.

Objects from the room preserve another kind of evidence. A hanging scroll painted by Itakura Kaidō and a folding screen bear blood marks; Nagaoka Kenkichi added an inscription about the attack to the scroll afterward. The originals are held at Kyoto National Museum. Their preservation connects the victims and the violent aftermath to material records, while the marks alone cannot identify every attacker or supply the exact dialogue often repeated in dramatic accounts.