人

Nagaoka was a small country.
But  Nagaoka was a relatively large  lord in Echigo's lord.
　
人

Lower right is route from the Kanto.
Lower left is route from the Shinshu. (Current Nagano）
Both is mountain route.
Become elongated plain from the confluence point.
And vertex is Nagaoka.
There is a Niigata port on this extension.
　
Nagaoka was a transportation hub.
So Tokugawa was placed reliable lords on this land.
It was Makino clan.
　
Nagaoka is Place name.
Makino is Lord name.
　
Makino was a vassal from an early Tokugawa.
At that time Tokugawa was small lord of Mikawa.
　
"I want to do something for Tokugawa clan."　
Submission of the petition was due to this strong intention of Lord.
(However，its contents was strongly reflected the intention of Kawai.)
　
　
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Kawai was the middle class of Nagaoka samurai in the first place.
Of course class was important in feudal times.

At first，Kawai had exceptional achievements as local staff of Nagaoka.
Normally，there was no reason Kawai can get ahead.

"This era Nagaoka need a talent like him."
But lord trusted him.
　
Finally lord has appointed him to prime minister of Nagaoka.
　
　
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"Livelihood of the people is the first."　
Kawai had excellent achievements at civilian rule.　
　
"In order to protect the lives of the people of Nagaoka、we will be surrender to the government troops is good."
Probably he thought so.
This means that、 Nagaoka become fight with people from the Tokugawa faction.
But Nagaoka had a sense of resistance against it.

There were many enclaves of lords of the Tokugawa faction in Echigo.
In addition to the geographical conditions，Nagaoka was close to them emotionally.

Above all，lords did not want it.


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Regardless the forces of either，lower class samurai was beginning to have the real power.
(Ōu region was still not so much.)
Its existence was beginning of denial of the feudal. 　
Kawai was one of those people.　
　
But he did not abandon loyalty to the lord and affection to the people under one's dominion.　
　
He was older than any of them.
He was 40s,the same age as Saigo.
(Average life expectancy was less than 50 years old at this time.)
So he was also know well about the feudal society.

”Nagaoka remain neutral.”
He made up his mind.