Photo/Illutration A letter begins with a subject line in red ink that states, “About burning barbarians to death.” It makes clear that the sender, Tokugawa Nariaki, is angered by the audacity of the United States to send warships and demand that Japan open up its ports to foreign trade. He writes about his desire to kill the U.S. delegates with swords. (Kunio Ozawa)

KURASHIKI, Okayama Prefecture--A feudal warlord was so incensed by the temerity of the United States in the 19th century to dispatch warships to Japan and demand the isolated country open its ports to foreign trade that he plotted to seize one of the vessels and kill the high-ranking delegates on board, a letter from the period shows.

The letter was written by Tokugawa Nariaki (1800-1860), a daimyo who ruled the Mito Domain (present-day Ibaraki Prefecture).

It was found among 103 letters and documents from leading figures during the waning days of Japan’s feudal past and after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. They are kept by the Nozaki family, famed as the “king of salt farms of Kojima” during the Edo Period (1603-1867).

Word of the trove came from the Ryuo Kaikan Foundation, which maintains and manages the old Nozaki family residence, a government-designated important cultural property here.

Foundation officials said they have been analyzing the documents since 2012, adding that many materials represented new discoveries.

Of them, 16 documents are related to Nariaki, a prominent nationalist and the father of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th and last ruler of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

One letter begins with a subject line in red ink that states, “About burning barbarians to death.” It was sent to his close aide Fujita Toko in 1855, the year after the Japan-U.S. Treaty of Peace and Amity was signed.

Nariaki displays his bitter resentment toward the United States, which in his view disrespectfully sent warships and demanded that Japan open up its ports under threat of an attack. He discloses his plot to board one of the vessels under the pretext of wining and dining U.S. delegates, seize the ship and cut down high-ranking members with swords.

According to the foundation, the wife of the top official in charge of an administrative district that included the Kojima area was a daughter of a samurai from the Mito Domain.

This explains how the Nozaki family ended up with a large number of documents from the Mito Domain.

“It appears that the Nozaki family was concerned about valuable documents being scattered and lost, so they obtained them in bulk,” said Sadamu Yokoyama, vice director of the Okayama Prefectural Museum who analyzed the letter. “Their intention to convey the documents for future generations can still be felt today.”

Among the documents are 64 items related to Tomomi Iwakura (1825-1883), who served as plenipotentiary ambassador dispatched to the United States and Europe by the Japanese government during the first decade of the Meiji Era (1868-1912).

In one letter, he is asked by Toshimichi Okubo (1830-1878), a samurai from the Satsuma Domain (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture) and a leading architect of the Meiji Restoration, about how to proceed with “hanseki hokan” to request domain leaders hand over their lands and people to the emperor.

A special exhibition featuring 36 of 103 newly discovered documents will be held at the prefectural museum in Okayama’s Kita Ward from Jan. 7.

They will be compiled into a reference book slated for release in February.

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