Although the bakufu shifted to the quasi-emergency regime due to the chaotic political situation since the opening of the country to the world in 1854, such change was not initiated by the bakufu itself (the cabinet officials of the Shogunate) but was forced under the pressure from the imperial envoy dispatched by the initiation of Hisamitsu SHIMAZU who was the father of the the lord of the Satsuma Domain as well as the court nobles supporting Kobu Gattai (an idea of uniting the court and the shogunate), so the reality was that the shogunate had no option but to carry out the reform.
1854年の開国以来の混沌とした政治情勢を受けて半ば非常時の体制へ移行したものであるが、その主導者は幕府自身（幕閣）ではなく、薩摩藩主の父・島津久光および朝廷の公武合体派公卿らに主導されて出された勅使による圧力の下、やむを得ず改革を迫られたというのが実情である。