Prior to that, ITAGAKI, Kenkichi KATAOKA, Yuzo HAYASHI and others, deploring their exclusion from the amnesty granted upon promulgation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, had been heading a campaign to receive amnesty as political offenders, and when ITAGAKI took a position as Minister of Home Affairs in the second ITO cabinet in July 1896, Kenshi and his comrades were finally released.
これにさきだって板垣、片岡健吉、林有造らは、自分たちが大日本帝国憲法発布の寛典にもれたことを遺憾とし、国事犯に準じて特赦復権に浴したいと運動していたが、板垣が第2次伊藤内閣内務大臣(日本)の地位についたのでついに1896年（明治29年）7月、同志らとともに釈放された。