This was the third magnicide against the restoration government leaders, after Shonan YOKOI and Masujiro OMURA, and the Emperor Meiji, who highly trusted in Hirosawa, gave an exceptional imperial order to urge the capture of the criminals as ''to ensure the arrest of the perpetrators.'
横井小楠、大村益次郎に続く維新政府要人の暗殺であり、広沢を厚く信頼していた明治天皇は「賊ヲ必獲ニ期セヨ」という犯人逮捕を督促する異例の詔勅が発せられた。