Shojiro Goto

Japanese: 後藤象二郎 - ごとう・しょうじろう

Year of death: August 4, 1897
Year of birth: Tempo 9.3.19 (1838.4.13)
A Tosa (Kochi) feudal lord and politician during the late Edo period. His given name was Motoyo, his childhood name Yasuyata, and his common name was Ryosuke. He went by the pen name Yotani. He was born in the castle town of Kochi and was raised by his uncle-in-law, Yoshida Toyo. He was a childhood friend of Inui (Itagaki) Taisuke. In 1858 (Ansei 5), he was selected by councilor (punisher) Yoshida Toyo and was appointed as county magistrate and construction magistrate. After the assassination of Toyo by Takechi Zuizan's group in 1862 (Bunkyu 2), he went to Edo as a navigation apprentice for the domain and stayed in hiding, learning navigation, Dutch studies, English studies, and other subjects. The following year, when the former domain lord Yamauchi Toyoshige (Toyonobu) returned to the domain after a seven-year hiatus, he restored the domain's views and carried out a purge of the Imperial Loyalist Party, and Shojiro was appointed as the Grand Inspector, and in 1865 (Keio 1), he was responsible for determining the crimes of Takechi Zuizan and other Imperial Loyalists. He inherited Yoshida Toyo's policy of enriching the country and strengthening the military, opened Kaiseikan as a promotion agency, set up a branch office in Nagasaki, an open port, and planned to export camphor, a Tosa specialty, and went on a business trip to Nagasaki himself. During this time, he met Sakamoto Ryoma, a samurai who had run the Kameyama Shachu, and agreed with Sakamoto's ideas of public deliberation government and the restoration of imperial rule. He gained strong support from Yodo, and fought a fierce battle with the anti-shogunate faction as a supporter of public deliberation government, but was preempted by the anti-shogunate faction after the Imperial Restoration Coup and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi. In the new government, he served as counselor, foreign affairs officer, advisor to the General Affairs Bureau, military inspector during the Imperial Expedition, governor of Osaka Prefecture, assistant minister of the Ministry of Engineering in 1871, president of the House of Representatives, and councilor in April 1873, but was defeated in the Seikanron Coup and resigned from office. In January 1874, together with Itagaki Taisuke and others, he submitted a petition to the Left House for the establishment of a popularly elected parliament, but it was rejected. Around this time, he founded the Horaisha, and operated the Takashima coal mine, which he had received from the government, but he was left with huge debts and transferred it to Iwasaki Yataro in 1881. During the Satsuma Rebellion (1877), he was caught between the government and the Tosa Risshisha, and played a complicated role. In 1881, following the political upheaval and the issuance of the Imperial Decree to Establish the National Diet, civil rights factions affiliated with the National Diet Promotion Alliance founded the Liberal Party, and Goto was recommended for Prime Minister, but handed the position over to Itagaki. In 1882, suspicions arose over the source of funds for a trip abroad with Itagaki, causing confusion within the Liberal Party. After returning to Japan, he secretly planned a movement aimed at political reform in Korea, but failed. In 1887, he became a count. In the same year, he started the Great Unity Movement, which aimed to unite all anti-government forces, and published the journal Seiron, but in 1889, he was invited by Prime Minister Kuroda Kiyotaka to become Minister of Communications. He remained in office through the Aritomo Yamagata Cabinet and the Masayoshi Matsukata Cabinet, and was Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in the second Hirobumi Ito Cabinet. He resigned in January 1892, taking responsibility for a bribery scandal surrounding the opening of a commodity exchange. In his later years, he suffered from illness and was in despondency. <References> Hideshige Iwasaki, "Goto Shojiro," Keigetsu Omachi, "The Life of Count Shojiro Goto"

(Atsushi Fukuchi)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治30.8.4(1897)
生年：天保9.3.19(1838.4.13)
幕末の土佐(高知)藩士,政治家。名は元曄,幼名保弥太,通称良輔。暘谷と号した。高知城下に生まれ,義叔父吉田東洋に訓育された。乾(板垣)退助とは竹馬の友。安政5(1858)年,参政(仕置役)吉田東洋に抜擢され郡奉行,普請奉行に任じた。文久2(1862)年武市瑞山一派による東洋暗殺事件後は藩の航海見習生として江戸に出て航海術,蘭学,英学などを学ぶなどして雌伏。翌3年,前藩主山内容堂(豊信)が7年ぶりに帰藩,藩論を元に復して勤王党粛清を実行すると,象二郎は大監察に就任,慶応1(1865)年,武市瑞山ら勤王党の罪状裁断の衝に当たった。吉田東洋の富国強兵路線を継承し,推進機関たる開成館を開設,開港場長崎に出張所を置き土佐の特産品樟脳の輸出を企て,自ら長崎に出張。このとき亀山社中を経営する脱藩浪士坂本竜馬と邂逅,坂本の論策である公議政体論・大政奉還論に賛同,容堂の強い支持を得,公議政体派として討幕派との鍔ぜり合いを演じたが,王政復古政変から鳥羽・伏見の戦に至り,討幕派に機先を制せられた。新政府では参与,外国事務掛,総裁局顧問,御親征中軍監,大阪府知事,明治4(1871)年工部大輔,左院議長,6年4月参議を歴任したが,征韓論政変に敗れて下野した。7年1月,板垣退助らと民選議院設立建白を左院に提出するが却下された。このころ,蓬莱社を設立,政府からもらいうけた高島炭鉱を経営したが膨大な負債を抱えて,14年岩崎弥太郎に譲渡。西南戦争(1877)の際は政府と土佐立志社の間にあって複雑な行動をした。14年政変と国会開設の詔の煥発を契機に国会期成同盟系の民権諸派は自由党を創設,後藤は総理に推されたが板垣に譲った。15年板垣との外遊資金の出所をめぐる疑惑が起こり自由党の混乱を醸した。帰国後,朝鮮の政治改革を目指す運動を密かに企図したが失敗した。20年伯爵。同年反政府勢力の総結集を目指した大同団結運動を巻き起こし,機関誌『政論』を刊行するなどしたが,22年黒田清隆首相に誘われると逓信大臣に就任。以後山県有朋内閣,松方正義内閣と留任,第2次伊藤博文内閣では農商務大臣。商品取引所の開設にまつわる収賄事件の責任をとって27年1月辞職。晩年は病苦,失意のうちにあった。<参考文献>岩崎英重『後藤象二郎』,大町桂月『伯爵後藤象二郎伝』

(福地惇)

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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