DISCOVER FUKUI

Umebana Unbin was born in 1815 to a family of samurai in the Obama domain and studied at the Junzōkan academy. After repeatedly criticizing the shogunate before the domain lord Sakai Tadayoshi, Unbin was expelled from the domain and became a ronin. He was arrested in Kyoto in 1858 (Ansei 5) for plotting to overthrow the shogunate's senior councilor, Ii Naosuke, and died of illness while being transported to Edo. This marked the beginning of the shogunate's major crackdown on the Sonno Joi faction, known as the Ansei Purge. Though it claimed many more victims thereafter, their aspirations were ultimately fulfilled by the Meiji Restoration and the birth of modern Japan.