At the end of the Edo period, Naosuke became a Tairo after a Roju (senior councillor of the Tokugawa shogunate) Masahiro ABE's death, and as to the issue of the successor to the Shogun, he supported the Nanki group (a group supporting Yoshitomi from the Kishu-Tokugawa family).
江戸時代後期に直弼は老中阿部正弘の死後に大老となり、将軍後継問題では南紀派を後援した。