The Harris Treaty and Kome's Assassination

The Harris Treaty is what really brought Kome into the political life of Japan. The signing was not really optional because the alternative was a war Japan could not win. When on July 31st 1858 Kome was informed the treaty had been signed anyway, he immediately summoned the Kyoto Shoshidai and announced that he would abdicate. He seems to have calculated correctly that at such a delicate moment the shogunate did not want a child emperor on the throne but an adult who could help lend credibility to the difficult choices around the foreign issue.