Background
Nobumasa Andō was born on 10 June 1819. He was the eldest son of Ando Nobuyoshi; in childhood he went by the names Kinnoshin and Kinnosuke, but after his coming-of-age assumed the name Nobuyuki and later Nobumasa.
安藤 信正
Nobumasa Andō was born on 10 June 1819. He was the eldest son of Ando Nobuyoshi; in childhood he went by the names Kinnoshin and Kinnosuke, but after his coming-of-age assumed the name Nobuyuki and later Nobumasa.
In 1847 he succeeded his father as lord of the castle of Taira. In 1853 he was appointed to the post of jisha-bugyo (official in charge of religious affairs for the shogunate). He advanced in office until in 1860 he became a roju (councilor of state) to the shogun, being assigned to handle foreign affairs. When the tairo (senior councilor of state) Ii Naosuke was assassinated in the fourth month of the same year, he became the leading councilor of state. He was faced with various problems regarding foreign affairs, among them the conclusion of a commercial treaty with Prussia, the assassination of Henry C.J. Heusken, the interpreter of the American legation, and the appearance of a Russian warship at Tsushima Island.
He was a supporter of the kobu-gattai policy, which sought to strengthen relations between the imperial court and the shogunate. To further this aim, he arranged for Kazunomiya, the younger sister of Emperor Komei, to become the wife of the shogun Tokugawa Iemochi. But this last action aroused the enmity of the forces who were working for restoration of power to the emperor. In 1862 he was attacked and wounded by members of this group outside the Sakashita Gate. As a result, he resigned from the position of councilor of state. But he was accused of irregular conduct in arranging for an heir to succeed Ii Naosuke and was deprived of lands amounting to a revenue ot 20,000 koku of rice.
In 1868, when fighting broke out between the forces of the emperor and those loyal to the shogunate, he joined other domains of northern Honshu in resisting the imperial forces. When the hostilities had ended, the imperial government ordered him to be placed under house confinement for the rest of his life. He was pardoned the following year, but died in 1871 at the age of fifty-two.
father: Ando Nobuyoshi