パペットホームズ、大河ドラマなどの好きなテレビ番組やラグビーについて書いています。アフィリエイトはやっていません。／Welcome to my blog. I write about some Japanese TV programmes including NHK puppetry and Taiga Drama, Sherlock Holmes and rugby. I don't do affiliate marketing.
He was born in 1835 as the second son of INOE Mitsuyuki in Suō, southern part of current Yamaguchi and was called Bunta also. In 1851 he entered Meirinkan, school of the domain and was adopted by SHIJI Shinpei by marrying his daughter. He was a middle-class samurai and his ancestors served the Mōri ⅽlan generations to generations.
In 1855, he accompanied MŌRI Takachika, lord of Choshu domain who attnded on the shogun (sankin kōtai) and then studied Dutch language and gunnery. After that he had a daughter and once returned to Chōshū but went to Edo again to study naval engineering. While staying in Edo, he joined a sonnō-jōi (expelling foreigners and respecting the Emperor) party and attempted to kill foreign ministers but it came to light and was ordered to be confine himself in the house for a few days. In 1862, the group called Mitate-gumi fired a British embassy in Edo.
But then he decided to go to Britain to study with other four samurais of Chōshū domain (Chōshū Five) because he was influenced by SAKUMA Shōzan who insisted making Japan be equal to other powerful countries. He divorced his first wife then. He studied English in London and inspected factories, museums and naval establishments there and the experience made him become to support opening the country. When he learned the Shimonoseki Campaign, he returned to Japan with ITŌ Shunsuke (Hirobumi) and served as an interpreter during the treaty talks between the four countries - Britain, the US, France and the Netherlands - and Chōshū domain.
In 1864, he was slashed by some members of Senpō-tai that had hostile relations to Kihei-tai he belonged to. Though he could escape death, he was forced to stay in the house because so-called Zokuron-tō, the party against the samurais who supported overthrowing the shogunate seized real power in the domain. However, TAKASUGI Shinsaku who rose up and led Kihei-tai in December of the same year. After that the power of overthrowing the shogunate came back to politics.
The Satchō Alliance was formed in Kyoto soon after. In the second subjugation of Chōshū in 1866, he fought against the army of the shogunate and beat some troops. In 1867, he argued about overthrowing the shogunate with SAIGŌ Takamori and ŌKUBO Toshimichi secretly but prior to it, TOKUGAWA Yoshinobu returned the government to the Crown in October. So the New government Army went to war against the army of the shogunate.
After the Meiji Restoration, he held some government positions and remarried Takeko, sister of former vassal of the shogunate. And he was appointed in the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Treasury but the government got into financial troubles and there was a conflict with other ministries. And his scandal was find out so he was forced to resign his position. But after that he returned to the government.
In 1879, he was appointed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and built Rokumeikan, the place of social interaction to westernise Japan more to enable the country to revise the treaties with Western countries easily. But it failed and he left the government again. In 1892, he returned to the political world and collected funding for the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. He received the title of marquis in 1907.
He declined in his health in his last days and died in 1915. His second house called Seikō-en in Atami, Shizuoka is a hotel now.
In this series, he is described as an official from Chōshū who has a significant power. But he is urged to resign his position because of a scandal.
