Everything about Enomoto Takeaki totally explained
Viscount was a
Japanese Navy admiral faithful to the
Tokugawa Shogunate, who fought against the new
Meiji government until the end of the
Boshin War, but later served in the government as one of the founders of the
Imperial Japanese Navy.
Biography
Early life
Enomoto was born as a member of a
samurai retainer family of the
Tokugawa clan in the Shitaya district of
Edo (modern
Taito, Tokyo). Enomoto started learning
Dutch in the 1850s, and after Japan's ‘opening’ by
Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854, he studied at the
Tokugawa bakufu's
Naval Training Center in Nagasaki and at the
Tsukiji Warship Training Center in Edo.
At the age of 26, Enomoto was sent to the
Netherlands to study western techniques in naval warfare and to procure western technologies. He stayed in Europe from 1862 to 1867, and became fluent in both the Dutch and
English languages.
Enomoto returned to Japan onboard
Kaiyō Maru, a steam warship purchased from the Netherlands by the
Shogunal government. During his stay in Europe, Enomoto had realized that the
telegraph would be an important means of communication in the future, and started planning a system to connect Edo and
Yokohama. Upon his return, Enomoto was promoted to, the second highest rank in the Tokugawa Navy, at the age of 31. He also received the court title of .
Meiji Restoration
During the
Meiji restoration, after the surrender of Edo in 1868 during the
Boshin War to forces loyal to the new
Meiji government, Enomoto refused to deliver up his warships, and escaped to
Hakodate in
Hokkaidō with the remainder of the Tokugawa Navy and a handful of
French military advisers and their leader
Jules Brunet. His fleet of eight steam warships was the strongest in Japan at the time.
Enomoto hoped to create an independent country under the rule of the Tokugawa family in
Hokkaidō, but the Meiji government refused to accept partition of Japan. On
25 December, the Tokugawa loyalists declared the foundation of the
Republic of Ezo and elected Enomoto as president.
The next year, the Meiji government forces invaded Hokkaidō and defeated Enomoto's forces in the
Naval Battle of Hakodate. On
18 May 1869 the Republic of Ezo collapsed, and Hokkaidō came under the rule of the central government headed by the
Meiji Emperor.
As a Meiji politician
After his surrender, Enomoto was arrested, accused of
high treason and imprisoned. However, the leaders of the new
Meiji government (largely at the insistence of
Kuroda Kiyotaka) pardoned Enomoto in 1872, realizing that his various talents could be of use. Enomoto became one of the very few former Tokugawa loyalists who made the transition to the new ruling elite, as politics at the time was dominated by men from
Chōshū and
Satsuma, who had a strong bias against outsiders in general, and former Tokugawa retainers in particular. However, Enomoto was an exception, and rose quickly within the new ruling
clique, to a higher status than any other member of the former Tokugawa government.
In 1874, Enomoto was given the rank of
vice-admiral in the fledgling
Imperial Japanese Navy. The following year, he was sent as a special envoy, he was sent to
Russia to negotiate the
Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875). The successful conclusion of the treaty was very well received in Japan and further raised Enomoto's prestige within the ruling circles, and the fact that Enomoto had been chosen for such an important mission was seen as evidence of reconciliation between former foes in the government.
In 1880, Enomoto became . In 1885 his diplomatic skills were again called upon to assisting
Ito Hirobumi in concluding the
Convention of Tientsin with
Qing China. Afterwards, Enomoto held a series of high posts with in the Japanese government. He was Japan's first
Minister of Communications (1885-1888) after the introduction of the
cabinet system in 1885. He was also
Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in 1888 and again from 1894 to 1897,
Minister of Education from 1889-1890 and
Foreign Minister from 1891-1892.
In 1887, Enomoto was ennobled the rank of
viscount under the
kazoku peerage system, and was selected as a member of the
Privy Council.
Enomoto was especially active in promoting Japanese emigration through settler colonies in the
Pacific Ocean and
South and
Central America. In 1891 he established - against the will of the cabinet of
Matsukata Masayoshi - a 'section for
emigration' in the Foreign Ministry, with the task of encouraging emigration and finding new potential territories for Japanese settlement overseas. Two years later, after leaving the government, Enomoto also helped to establish a private organization, the 'Colonial Association', to promote external trade and emigration.
Enomoto died in 1908 at the age of 72. His grave is at the temple of Kichijo-ji in Tokyo.
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