Myōkoku-ji

[1] Oda Nobunaga, a major daimyō during the Sengoku era who tried to unite Japan in 1580, transplanted this cycad to Azuchi Castle in what is now Shiga prefecture.

On February 15, Keiō 4, (March 8, 1868) around 100 sailors from a French warship offshore boarded boats and landed at Sakai Port.

[1][2] They came into Sakai for sightseeing and loitered inside temples and shrines and scared women and children who were astonished by the foreigners.

The guardians of Myōkoku temple from the Tosa clan sought out the French sailors, but were unable to resolve the problem because of mass confusion and the inability to understand each other's language.

On February 23 in front of Myōkoku temple with witnesses from both countries present the samurai began to cut their stomachs open.

The French witnesses hastily left the temple and the remaining nine samurai were ordered to stop seppuku and were later exiled back to Tosa (Kochi Prefecture) by the government.