Inoue Kowashi

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Inoue Kowashi

Inoue Kowashi ( Japanese 井上 毅 ; * 18th day of the twelfth month in 1843 ( Tempō 14) or on February 6, 1844 in Takebe, Kumamoto-han , Higo Province ; † March 17, 1895 ) was an important Japanese statesman who was particularly successful in the areas of constitutional studies and educational policy of the Meiji period .

Life

He comes from a samurai family and was the third son of Iida Kengoei or Gongobei ( 飯 田 権 兵衛 ), a vassal of the Nagaoka kenmotsu ( 長 岡 監 物 ) in the Han (fiefdom) Kumamoto . In 1866 he was adopted by Inoue Shigesaburō ( 井上 茂 三郎 ).

Inoue showed a high intellectual talent from an early age, so he is said to have been able to recite the Hyakunin Isshu by heart as a toddler . At the age of fourteen he was sent to teach the Confucian scholar Kinoshita Saitan ( 木 下 犀 潭 ; 1805-1867), who had already trained Yokoi Shōnan ( 横 井 小楠 ; 1809-1869) and Motoda Nagazane (1818-1891). In 1862 Inoue began studying at Jishūkan ( 時 習 館 ), the Confucian college of Kumamoto-han, where he developed his interest in the relationship between religion and politics.

In 1867 Inoue was sent to Edo by the Han government to learn French . Because of the political turmoil of the Meiji Restoration , he left Edo and continued from December 1867 to April 1868 his studies at Sankeijuku ( 三 計 塾 ) in Yokohama under the anti-Christian Confucian Yasui Sokken ( 安井 息 軒 ; 1799–1876). He then returned to Kumamoto for a short time, studied for a few months in Nagasaki and finally returned to Tōkyō to complete his studies .

In 1871 Inoue began his service in the Ministry of Justice under Etō Shimpei ( 江 藤 新 平 ; 1834-1874). The following year Inoue took part in a mission organized by Etō, during which he studied foreign legal systems in Europe. For three months he attended lectures by Gustave Emile Boissonade (1825-1910) at the Sorbonne and learned to appreciate the Prussian constitution. After his return to Japan in November 1873, Inoue translated several European legal texts, including the French penal code.

After Etō had to resign from his government office, Inoue began to work for Ōkubo Toshimichi , whom he helped in diplomatic matters relating to the Japanese expedition to Taiwan led by Saigō Tsugumichi ( 西 郷 従 道 , 1843-1902) from 1874 and together with Boissonade after Beijing accompanied.

In 1875 Inoue joined Itō Hirobumi as a consultant . In the same year Inoue Mori Arinori ( 森 有礼 , 1847-1889) accompanied on a mission to settle the Korean problem to China.

From the late 1870s helped Inoue as the author of two significant memorial writings he with along with Hermann Roesler wrote, Iwakura Tomomi in its efforts, the planned Meiji Constitution align content at the Prussian system. Inoue argued that the Prussian constitution was more in line with the Japanese Kokutai than the English and that the complete sovereignty of the Japanese state must lie in the person of the Tennō . From 1886 to 1888 Inoue took an active part in concrete drafts of the constitution, with his drafts being more liberal in essential points than the Meiji constitution that was finally actually announced.

Inoue was also actively involved in Japanese education policy from 1878, in which he was also strongly oriented towards the Kokutai ideal. In the spirit of a strong Japanese nation , he argued in a speech written for Yamagata Aritomo for patriotism promoted by state education . In mid-1890, Inoue participated under the new Minister of Education Yoshikawa Akimasa ( 芳 川 顕 正 ; 1842-1920) in the drafting of the Imperial Edict of Education . Inoue's draft, with the participation of Yamagata Aritomo and Motoda Eifu, ultimately became decisive for the edict issued in October of the same year.

In 1893 Inoue was appointed Minister of Education in Itō Hirobumi's second cabinet. During his brief tenure, he campaigned for moral education in the Confucian sense, the provision of equal educational opportunities for all Japanese subjects, and the strengthening of practical training, particularly in the technical-industrial sector. For health reasons Inoue had to resign on August 29, 1894 and retired to a residence, but without recovering until his death. In January 1895 he was honored with the title Shishaku . He died on March 17th of the same year.

literature

  • Joseph Pittau: "Inoue Kowashi, 1843–1895 And the Formation of Modern Japan", in: Monumenta Nipponica , Vol. 20, No. 3/4 (1965), pp. 253-282.
  • George Akita and Hirose Yoshihiro: “The British Model. Inoue Kowashi and the Ideal Monarchical System ", in: Monumenta Nipponica , Vol. 49, No. 4, (Winter, 1994), pp. 413-421.
  • Yoshimitsu Khan: "Inoue Kowashi and the Dual Images of the Emperor of Japan", in: Pacific Affairs , Vol. 71, no. 2 (Summer, 1998), pp. 215-230.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Shibata Shin'ichi:  "Inoue Kowashi" . In: Encyclopedia of Shinto. Kokugaku-in , April 12, 2006 (English)
  2. ↑ a b Pittau 1965, p. 254.
  3. ↑ Pittau 1965, pp. 254f.
  4. ↑ Pittau 1965, p. 255.
  5. ↑ Pittau 1965, p. 256.
  6. ↑ Pittau 1965, pp. 257f.
  7. ↑ Pittau 1965, p. 258.
  8. ↑ Pittau 1965, pp. 260f.
  9. ↑ Pittau 1965, p. 267.
  10. ↑ Pittau 1965, pp. 270, 272f.
  11. ↑ Pittau 1965, pp. 273-6.
  12. ↑ Pittau 1965, p. 276.
  13. ↑ Pittau 1965, p. 278.
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Inoue is the family name, Kowashi the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Inoue, Kowashi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 井上 毅 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese statesman
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Kumamoto , Higo Province
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1895