Site of Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro’s Assassination (Site of Omi-ya Inn)

This street corner holds the site of the Omiya Inn, a soy sauce merchant shop that once served as a sanctuary for those plotting the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In November eighteen sixty-seven, the influential samurai Sakamoto Ryoma and his ally Nakaoka Shintaro were staying here on the second floor. Both men were key figures in the movement to return political power to the Emperor, and their presence in the city made them primary targets for those loyal to the dying feudal order.