Saigō Tsugumichi

Saigō Tsugumichi

Tsugumichi in old age

Margrave Saigō Tsugumichi ( Japanese 西 郷 從 道 / 西 郷 従 道 , actually read Saigō Jūdō ; born June 1, 1843 in Kajiyachō, Kagoshima , Satsuma Province (today: Kagoshima Prefecture ); † July 18, 1902 ) was a Japanese politician and army officer in the Meiji period . He was the younger brother of Saigō Takamori .

Life

Saigō Tsugumichi was born to Saigō Kichibē , a samurai from Satsuma. As a child he learned Kenjutsu and Koryu and, on the recommendation of Kaieda Nobuyoshi, became the page of Shimazu Nariakira , the daimyo of Satsuma, who was responsible for the tea ceremony .

Under the influence of his older brother Takamori, he took part in the Sonnō-Jōi movement and took part in the war between Great Britain and Satsuma on the part of Satsuma in 1863 . In the Boshin War he served on the side of the imperial forces. After the end of the war, Saigō Yamagata accompanied Aritomo on a study trip to Europe to study the organization, technologies and tactics of the western military.

After his return he rose to the rank of lieutenant general in July 1871 and in 1874 commanded the punitive expedition of Japanese troops to Taiwan . When his brother left the government in protest after the Seikanron debate in 1873 and sparked a revolt in Satsuma a few years later, Tsugumichi remained loyal to the Meiji government, although many former Satsuma samurai Takamori joined them.

After the assassination of Ōkubo Toshimichi , Saigō Tsugumichi was appointed to the State Council, which he belonged to until the introduction of the cabinet government in 1885. In 1878 he held the post of Minister of Education and then Minister of War. From 1881 to 1884 he was Minister of Agriculture and Trade . From 1885 he belonged to the first cabinet of Itō Hirobumi and subsequent cabinets, in which he held the offices of naval minister , interior minister and army minister. In 1894 he rose to the rank of admiral. Since he made outstanding contributions to the establishment and reform of the Imperial Japanese Navy during his ten-year tenure as Minister of the Navy , he received the honorary title of gensui (Grand Admiral) in 1898 .

In 1892 Saigō sat briefly on the Privy Council . In the same year he also supported the establishment of the pro-government party Kokumin Kyōkai . He was considered a genrō , even if he could never develop as such the political influence of an Itō Hirobumi or Yamagata Aritomo.

From 1884 Saigō Tsugumichi was allowed to bear the title of Count , in 1895 he was raised to the status of kōshaku ( margrave ) due to his services as War and Navy Minister in the First Sino-Japanese War .

See also

• Saigō Tsugumichi's residence in the Meiji Mura Open Air Museum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} "Saigō Tsugumichi", in: Janet Hunter (ed.): Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History , Berkeley 1984, p. 185
2. ↑ ^{a b} Exhibition of the Japanese parliamentary library with portraits and short biographies of important Japanese personalities of the modern age

Web links

Commons : Saigō Tsugumichi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

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