Takahira Kanda

Japanese: 神田孝平 - かんだ・たかひら

Year of death: July 5, 1898
Year of birth: Tempo 1.9.15 (1830.10.31)
A Western scholar, enlightened thinker, and enlightened bureaucrat during the late Edo and Meiji periods. Born as the son of Kanda Mengming in Iwate Village, Fuwa County, Mino Province (Tarui Town, Gifu Prefecture). His original name was Meng Ke, later Kohei, and his pen names were Tangai and Tang Huayang. At the age of 17, he left his hometown to study Chinese classics and Confucianism in Kyoto and Edo, before returning home for a short time, and then moving back to Tokyo, where he studied Dutch studies under Sugita Seikei, Ito Genpaku's Zosendo, and Tezuka Ritsuzo's Matashindo, among others, after the arrival of Perry. In 1862, at the age of 33, he became a professor at the Bansho Shirabesho Institute, where he was in charge of the first mathematics course established there. He was subsequently promoted to the position of professor at the Kaisei Institute, and its president. In September 1868, he entered the service of the Meiji government, becoming a conscripted official and working as an investigator on parliamentary procedure. He subsequently served in various positions, including as a judge with the official accounting authority, a junior inspector of the Institutional Bureau and vice-chairman of the Public Assembly, Daigaku Daisho, and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1871, he became governor of Hyogo Prefecture, and worked hard to lay the foundations for the prefecture's administration until he was transferred to the position of member of the House of Councillors in 1876. In 1878, he was appointed junior assistant to the Ministry of Education and then reappointed to the position of member of the House of Councillors, and became an associate judge of the High Court. In 1890, he became a member of the House of Peers, but resigned the following year. He was a baron. He did not write a comprehensive number of books, and most of his writings were translations, suggestions, and reform opinions related to his official duties. He was active in many fields, including the Meirokusha and the Tokyo Academy of Sciences. In academic circles, he served as president of the Tokyo Mathematical Company and the first president of the Tokyo Anthropological Society. He influenced the land tax reform and the parliamentary system, and was also known as a man of great knowledge of Western political and social systems, based on his extensive knowledge of these systems, which he had accumulated since the end of the Edo period, such as transplanting Western economics and pioneering Western mathematics. <References> Kanda Yoshitake (ed.), "Kanda Kohei Brief Biography" and "Tangai Ikou"; Okubo Toshiaki (ed.), "Collection of Meiji Enlightenment Thoughts" ("Complete Works of Meiji Literature", Vol. 3)

(Minoru Nakano)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治31.7.5(1898)
生年：天保1.9.15(1830.10.31)
幕末明治期の洋学者,啓蒙思想家,開明的官僚。美濃国不破郡岩手村(岐阜県垂井町)に神田孟明の子として生まれる。はじめ名は孟恪のち孝平,号は淡崖,唐華陽。17歳から出郷し京都,江戸にて漢学,儒学を学び一時帰郷し,再び上京しペリー来航を機に杉田成卿,伊東玄朴の象先堂,手塚律蔵の又新堂などにて蘭学を学ぶ。文久2(1862)年33歳で蕃書調所教授方出役となり同所にはじめて設けられた数学を担当した。こののち累進し開成所教授職並,同頭取になる。明治1(1868)年9月明治政府に出仕して徴士となり議事体裁取調御用となり,以後会計官権判事,制度寮准撰修兼公議所副議長,大学大丞,外務省などに勤務する。4年には兵庫県令となり,9年元老院議官に転出するまで同県政の基礎作りに尽力した。10年文部少輔さらに元老院議官に再任し高等法院陪席判事となる。23年貴族院議員となるが翌年辞任する。男爵。まとまった著書はなく,職責上にかかわる翻訳書,建議,改革意見などが多くを占める。明六社,東京学士会院をはじめとして多くの分野で活躍した。学会では東京数学会社社長,東京人類学会の初代会長を務めた。地租改正や議会制度のあり方に影響を与え,さらに西洋経済学の移植者,西洋数学の先駆者など,幕末以来蓄積してきた西洋の政治・社会制度の豊富な知識を基礎にした制度通として知られていた。<参考文献>神田乃武編『神田孝平略伝』『淡崖遺稿』,大久保利謙編「明治啓蒙思想集」(『明治文学全集』3巻)

(中野実)

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

<<: Kanda Hakusan

>>: Cantata - Cantata (English spelling) Italian