Maejima Hisoka

Maejima Hisoka

Maejima Hisoka ( Japanese 前 島 密 ; * January 24, 1835 in Shimoikebe , Kubiki County , Echizen Province (today: Shimoikebe, Jōetsu , Niigata Prefecture ); † April 27, 1919 , real family name was Ueno ( 上 野 ), usually he was Raisuke ( 来 輔 ) called, his stage name ( gō ) was Kōsō ( 鴻 爪 )) was a Japanese statesman and founder of the modern Japanese postal system.

life and work

In 1847 Maejima went to the capital Edo , initially studied medicine, but then went to Hakodate for Bakufu to learn Dutch and English at the Kaiseisho ( 開 成 所 ) training center there, and in 1865 he became an English teacher at a Satsuma training center . In 1867 he returned to Edo and took over from the House of Maejima, which provided ministers for Bakufu.

After the Meiji Restoration , he advocated Tokyo as the capital of the Meiji government and served in the Ministry of Interior and Treasury . In 1870 he went to England to study postal services. On his return the following year, he became head of the post office ( 駅 逓 頭 , ekitei no kami ) and set up the post office between Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka . It was Maejima who coined the term yūbin ( 郵 便 ) for “post” and kitte ( 切 手 ) for “postage stamps”. He later became President of the Post ( 駅 逓 総 官 , ekitei sōkan ) and put all his strength into further development.

During the government crisis of 1881 Maejima left the government together with Ōkuma Shigenobu and others, but took part in drafting the constitution. From 1886 to 1890 he was President of Tokyo College, later Waseda University . From 1888 to 1891 he was then Deputy Minister for Communication . In his later years he became involved in entrepreneurship, particularly in the railway sector. In 1902 he was appointed baron ( danshaku ).

Maejima had also been a committed advocate of writing reform since 1860 with the aim of abolishing the Chinese characters ( kanji ).

Memories of Maejima and the development of the post office are shown in Jōetsu in the Maejima Kinenkan Museum ( 前 島 記念 館 ). The portrait of Maejima has appeared on a number of stamps, most recently in 2007 in the “Commemorative Series on the Privatization of Facilities” ( 民 営 化 発 足 , Mineika hossoku ).

literature

• Suzuki, Toshihiko (ed.): Nihon daihyakka zensho (Denshibukku-han) , Shogakukan, 1996.
• Hunter, Jane: Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History. Kodansha International, 1984, ISBN 4-7700-1193-8 .
• Leaflet from the Maejima Museum in Joetsu, 2013.

Web links

Commons : Maejima Hisoka  - collection of images, videos and audio files