Toshiyoshi Kawaji

Japanese: 川路利良 - かわじ・としよし

Year of death: October 13, 1879 (Meiji 12)
Year of birth: Tempo 5.5.11 (1834.6.17)
A bureaucrat who contributed to the establishment of the modern Japanese police system. Born in the Satsuma (Kagoshima) Domain. Also known as Masanoshin, his pen name was Ryusen. The eldest son of Satsuma Domain yoriki Kawaji Toshiaki and Etsuko, Kawaji played an active role in the Kinmon Incident (1864) and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi (1868) during the late Edo period, and was known to Saigo Takamori and others. After the new government was established, he was appointed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 1871 (Meiji 4) and to the Police Chief in 1872. In the summer of the same year, with the establishment of the Ministry of Justice's Police Bureau, he became the Assistant Police Chief and Chief Superintendent, and devoted himself to the modernization of police administration. His goal was to "ensure peace throughout the country and protect the health of the people" (Police Bureau Organization Guidelines), in other words, to establish an administrative police force. With the recommendation of Saigo Takamori, Kawaji traveled to Europe in 1872 to inspect the police systems of various countries. After returning to Japan in 1873, he advocated the separation of judicial and administrative powers. Kawaji's "Draft Proposal," modeled on the French police system, laid out a blueprint for an ideal administrative police system, which was realized with the founding of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department against the backdrop of Okubo Toshimichi's establishment of the Ministry of the Interior. The administrative police Kawaji envisioned were aimed at concentrating national police power and expanding national police functions. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department became a major stronghold of police bureaucrats from Satsuma, with Chief Superintendent Kawaji at its center, and it can be said that Kawaji's ideals were put into practice by police bureaucrats from the Kawaji clan, such as Ando Norimichi. At the time of the Seinan War (1877), the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was abolished, but Kawaji became commander-in-chief of the 3rd Separate Brigade for the Expedition, and was in charge of the Metropolitan Police Force. He died of illness on his way back from an overseas inspection tour in 1812, but it can be said that he devoted himself entirely to establishing Japan's police system. <References> Suzuki Rosedo, Chief Superintendent Kawaji Toshiyoshi, Draft History of the Metropolitan Police Department

(Hidehiko Kasahara)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治12.10.13(1879)
生年：天保5.5.11(1834.6.17)
近代日本の警察制度確立に貢献した官僚。薩摩(鹿児島)藩出身。別名正之進,号は竜泉。薩摩藩与力川路利愛,悦子の長子に生まれ,幕末,禁門の変(1864)や鳥羽・伏見の戦(1868)で活躍,西郷隆盛らに知られる。新政府成立後は,明治4(1871)年東京府大属,5年邏卒総長に就任した。同年夏,司法省警保寮の発足に伴い警保助兼大警視となり,警察行政の近代化に腐心した。その目標は「国中ヲ安静ナラシメ人民ヲ健康シ保護スル為メ」(警保寮職制章程),すなわち行政警察の確立にあったといえる。西郷隆盛の推挙もあり,5年川路は各国警察制度視察のために渡欧した。6年帰国後,司法,行政両権分離を主張した。フランス警察制度に範をとった川路の「建議草案」にはあるべき行政警察体制の青写真が描かれ,大久保利通の内務省設置を背景として東京警視庁の創設により具体化された。川路のめざす行政警察とは,全国警察権の集中と国事警察機能の拡充を旨とするものであった。東京警視庁は,大警視川路を中心に薩摩出身の警察官僚の一大牙城となり,安藤則命ら川路系の警察官僚によりその理念は実践されたといえる。西南戦争(1877)に際し,東京警視庁は廃止されるが,川路は征討別働第3旅団司令長官となり,警視隊の指揮に当たった。12年の海外視察の帰路病死するが,その一身をわが国警察制度の確立にささげたといえよう。<参考文献>鈴木蘆堂『大警視川路利良』『警視庁史稿』

(笠原英彦)

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