Emperor Komei was a strong believer of exclusionism, he let his younger sister Imperial Princess Kazunomiya Chikako marry to the fourteenth Seii Taishogun (literally, "great general who subdues the barbarians"), Iemochi TOKUGAWA, and he encouraged the movement of the union of the Imperial Court and the Shogunate, he strongly wished isolation for the country.
孝明天皇は攘夷の意思が激しく、妹・和宮親子内親王を第14代征夷大将軍・徳川家茂に嫁がせるなど、公武合体運動を推進し、あくまで鎖国を望んだ。