Ejima-Ikushima affair

The Ejima-Ikushima affair (江島生島事件, Ejima Ikushima jiken) was the most significant scandal in the Ōoku, the Tokugawa shōgun's harem during the Edo period of the history of Japan, that occurred in February 1714.

The Ōoku was highly regimented and controlled, resident women were held to strict standards, and adult men were forbidden from entering without the shōgun.

On the twelfth day of the first month of the fourth year of the Shōtoku era (February 26, 1714, by the Western calendar), Ejima, a high-ranking lady in the Ōoku, visited the grave of the late shōgun Tokugawa Ienobu.

Ejima then accepted an invitation to attend a kabuki performance by the popular actor Ikushima Shingorō at the Yamamura-za theatre, located near Edo Castle.

Ten'ei-in seized the opportunity of Ejima missing her curfew to launch an investigation of the Ōoku by the Machi-bugyō, with numerous infractions being discovered, and ultimately over 1,300 people were punished.