Oguri Tadamasa

Oguri Tadamasa

Oguri Tadamasa ( Japanese 小栗忠順 ; born 16 July 1827 in Edo ( Musashi Province ); died 27. May 1868 ) was a Japanese official of the Tokugawa Shogunate .

life and work

Oguri Tadamasa, a high-ranking Hatamoto , began his career as "Metsuke" (目 附), a kind of official government watchdog, at the Japanese Embassy to the United States in 1860 . As the financial administrator (Kanjō bugyō, 勘定 奉行) of the shogunate, he made every effort to strengthen the position of the shogunate, to weaken the daimyō with its large domains, to create a united nation.

Oguri developed a good relationship with the French consul general in Japan, Léon Roches , who supported him financially and militarily in his endeavors. Oguri set up a shipyard in Yokohama and formed companies in such a way that the state achieved a monopoly on foreign trade. He aligned the army and navy on the western model and developed a plan to finance the funds with special taxes.

As a staunch opponent of the imperial government in Kyoto, he was dismissed by Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu in early 1868. He was arrested by imperial agents while leaving Edo and executed by the new government on May 27th as the only important figure in the former shogunate.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Oguri Tadamasa . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1132.

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