Katsushige Itakura - Katsushige Itakura

Japanese: 板倉勝静 - いたくら・かつきよ

Year of death: April 6, 1889
Year of birth: Bunsei 6.1.4 (1823.2.14)
He was a senior councilor in the late Edo period. His father was Matsudaira Sadanaga, lord of Kuwana Domain (Mie Prefecture), and in 1842 he was adopted by Itakura Katsumoto, lord of Matsuyama Domain in Bitchu Province (Okayama Prefecture), and inherited his fief in 1849. His maternal grandfather was Matsudaira Sadanobu, the senior councilor who carried out the Kansei Reforms. His pen name was Matsuso. In the domain's administration, he promoted Yamada Hokoku, a Confucian scholar of the Yangming school (head of the domain school Yushukan), to the position of chief supervisor and auditor, and worked to rebuild the domain's finances, promote industry, and reform the military administration, eliminating approximately 100,000 ryo of debt and generating surplus funds of almost the same amount. In 1857 he was appointed as the fifth agent in the Ansei Purge as a solicitor and magistrate of temples and shrines, but he came into conflict with the chief councilor Ii Naosuke by arguing for lenient punishment, and was dismissed. He was reinstated in 1861, and the following year was appointed as a senior councilor, where he handled the Namamugi Incident, and then accompanied Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi to Kyoto, where he received the Imperial order to expel foreigners, and negotiated the closure of the port of Yokohama. He retired from his position as a senior councilor in 1864, but was reappointed in 1865, and advocated leniency during the second Choshu expedition. After Shogun Iemochi's death, he promoted the inauguration of Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu as Shogun. Later, as part of Yoshinobu's policy to strengthen the Shogunate, he was appointed as the newly established Chief Accountant, and worked hard to reform the Shogunate. In October 1867, he received a proposal from Yamauchi Toyonobu, the former lord of Tosa, to return power to the Emperor, and he worked hard to make it a reality. After the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, he followed Yoshinobu back to Edo, resigned as a senior councilor, and handed over the family headship to his son, Katsuzen. Matsuyama Castle surrendered to the expeditionary force of the Okayama Domain without bloodshed. While under house arrest in Nikko, he was transferred to Utsunomiya by the new government forces, but was rescued by Keisuke Otori, became a staff officer for the Oshu-Uetsu Reppan Dōmei, and then fought in Hakodate Goryōkaku. However, he returned to Tokyo, turned himself in, and was sentenced to imprisonment, but was pardoned in 1872 and became a shrine official at Ueno Toshogu Shrine.

(Junichi Nagai)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治22.4.6(1889)
生年：文政6.1.4(1823.2.14)
幕末の老中。父は桑名藩(三重県)藩主松平定永,天保13(1842)年備中国(岡山県)松山藩主板倉勝職の養子となり,嘉永2(1849)年襲封した。寛政の改革を行った老中松平定信は外祖父。号は松叟。藩政面では陽明学派の儒者山田方谷(藩校有終館学頭)を元締役兼吟味役に抜擢して財政再建,殖産興業,軍政改革などに努め,約10万両の負債を解消し,さらにほぼ同額の余財を生み出した。安政4(1857)年奏者番兼寺社奉行として安政の大獄の五手掛に任じられたが,寛大な処分を主張して大老井伊直弼と対立し,罷免された。文久1(1861)年復職し,翌年老中に任じられ生麦事件を処理,さらに将軍徳川家茂の上洛に随行し攘夷の勅命を奉承し,横浜鎖港談判に当たった。元治1(1864)年老中を退職したが,慶応1(1865)年再任され,第2次長州征討に際し寛典論を主張した。将軍家茂没後,一橋慶喜の将軍就任を推進する。その後慶喜の幕府強化策により新設された会計総裁に任じられ,幕政改革に尽力した。慶応3年10月土佐前藩主山内豊信の大政奉還の建言を受けると,その実現に努めた。鳥羽・伏見の戦ののち,慶喜に従って江戸に帰り,老中を辞し世子勝全に家督を譲る。松山城は岡山藩の征討軍の前に無血開城した。日光で謹慎中に新政府軍により宇都宮に移されたが,大鳥圭介に救出され,奥羽越列藩同盟の参謀となり,さらに箱館五稜郭に転戦した。しかし,東京に戻り自首し禁錮に処せられたが,明治5(1872)年赦免され,上野東照宮祠官となった。<参考文献>田村栄太郎『板倉伊賀守』

(長井純市)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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