Kawamura Sumiyoshi

Kawamura Sumiyoshi

Kawamura Sumiyoshi ( Japanese 川村 純 義 ; * Tempō 7/11/11 ^lunisolar / December 18, 1836 ^greg. In Kagoshima ; † August 12, 1904 ) was a Japanese admiral in the Imperial Navy , who served among other things from 1878 to 1880 and again was Minister of the Navy from 1881 to 1885 .

Life

Kawamura Sumiyoshi completed a degree in navigation at the Nagasaki Naval Training Center and took part as a samurai in the Boshin War from 1868 to 1869, where he distinguished himself in particular during the Battle of Aizu between October and November 1868. After the end of the war he was first director of the Ministry of Military Affairs on November 23, 1869 and then director of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy (Kaigun Heigakkō) on October 27, 1870 , before becoming Deputy Minister of Military Affairs on July 15, 1871.

After founding the Ministry of the Navy, he became Vice-Sea Lord on July 27, 1872 and thus deputy of Katsu Kaishu . He held this post until April 4, 1874, when he was temporarily sent to Taiwan as commander of the naval units to carry out the Japanese punitive expedition . After his return, he was promoted to Vice Admiral (Chūjō) on August 5, 1874 and again took over the post of Vice Sea Lord as Deputy Katsu. On February 19, 1877 he was commissioned as commander of a 300,000-strong troop contingent with the suppression of the Satsuma rebellion led by Saigō Takamori in the Satsuma province and commanded in particular the troops in the battle of Shiroyama on September 24, 1877. After his return on October 10, 1877 he became a member of the council (Sangi) on November 20, 1877 .

On May 24, 1878, Kawamura was the successor of Katsu Kaishū for the first time himself Sea Lord and thus exercised the function of Minister of Navy ( kaigun-kyō ) in the State Council ( Daijō-kan ) until his replacement by Enomoto Takeaki on February 28, 1880 . Subsequently, he continued to belong to the Council of State as a member, before he replaced Enomoto as Sea Lord on April 7, 1881 and held this office as Minister of the Navy until December 22, 1885. During this time he was raised to the hereditary nobility ( Kazoku ) on July 7, 1884 as a count (Hakushaku) . After leaving the government, he was first appointed advisor to the imperial family and on April 30, 1888 as advisor to the newly created Privy Councilor Sūmitsu-in , a body to advise the Tennō . On November 11, 1893, he finally became a member of the Privy Council and belonged to it until his death.

Kawamura Sumiyoshi, who was transferred from active military service to the reserve on November 1, 1899, was posthumously promoted to Admiral (Taisho) on the occasion of his death on April 12, 1904 . His posthumous promotion to admiral was the first in the history of the Imperial Navy.

Background literature

• Andrew Cobbing: The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain , Routledge Shorton, 1989, ISBN 1-873410-81-6 .
• Andrew Cobbing: The Satsuma Students in Britain , Routledge Shorton, 2000, ISBN 1-873410-97-2 .
• Mark Ravina: The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori , Whiley, 2003, ISBN 0-471-08970-2 .
• Donald Keane: Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852-1912 , Columbia University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-231-12341-8 .

Web links

• Entry on Imperial Japanese Navy
• Entry in Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures at the National Library of Parliament (English, Japanese )

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Kawamura is the family name, Sumiyoshi the first name.