Atsutada Odaka

Japanese: 尾高惇忠 - おだか・あつただ

Year of death: January 2, 1901 (Meiji 34)
Year of birth: Tempo 1.7.27 (1830.9.13)
He was the first director of the government-run Tomioka Silk Mill, and a promoter of industrial development in the early Meiji period. He was the son of Odaka Yasutaka, the headman of Tekae Village, Haruzawa County, Musashi Province (now Fukaya City). His childhood name was Shingoro, his pen name was Shigyo, and he went by the pen name Aika. In 1868 (Meiji 1), he joined the Shogitai, but left, and later joined the Shinbu Army, fighting against the government forces and being defeated. After the Meiji Restoration, he was the Chinese classics teacher of Shibusawa Eiichi, who was attached to the Shizuoka Domain's Industrial Promotion Bureau in 1869, a junior supervisor at the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 1870, and then in charge of planning the Ministry of Finance's Silk Mill. As he was his brother-in-law (his sister Chiyo was Eiichi's first wife), he was appointed to the Ministry's Industrial Promotion Bureau's Tomioka Silk Mill (later to the Ministry of Industrial Promotion), and worked hard to build and manage the silk mill. His eldest daughter, Isamu, volunteered to be a trained factory girl and cooperated with this. He also studied methods of raising autumn silkworms and worked to popularize them. He left the silk mill at the end of the year, and from the following year he worked at the Morioka and Sendai branches of the First National Bank. He also devoted himself to improving and popularizing the indigo manufacturing method, and published works including "Silkworm and Mulberry Cultivation Strategy" (1889) and "Indigo Manufacturing Guide" (1890).

(Sadayuki Inoue)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治34.1.2(1901)
生年：天保1.7.27(1830.9.13)
官営富岡製糸場の初代所長,明治前期の殖産興業推進者。武蔵国榛沢郡手計村(深谷市)の名主尾高保孝の子。幼名新五郎,字は子行,藍香と号した。明治1(1868)年彰義隊に参加するが脱退,その後振武軍に加わり官軍と戦って敗退。維新後は明治2年静岡藩勧業付属,3年民部省監督権少佑,次いで大蔵省製糸場の計画を担当した渋沢栄一の漢学の師であり,義兄に当たる(妹千代が栄一の最初の夫人)ことから,同省勧業寮富岡製糸場掛(のち勧業大属)となり,同製糸場の建設,経営に尽力。長女勇は伝習工女に志願してこれに協力した。また秋蚕の飼育法を研究し,その普及に努力した。9年末同製糸場を辞し,翌年から第一国立銀行盛岡支店,仙台支店に勤めるかたわら,製藍法の改良普及にも尽くし,著書に『蚕桑長策』(1889),『藍作指要』(1890),がある。<参考文献>塚原蓼洲『藍香翁』

(井上定幸)

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

<<: Otaga-sama - Otaga-sama

>>: Odaenathus - Odaenathus