Munenori Terashima

Japanese: 寺島宗則 - てらしま・むねのり

Year of death: June 6, 1893 (Meiji 26)
Year of birth: Tempo 3.5.23 (1832.6.21)
A Dutch scholar in the late Edo period, and a politician and diplomat in the early Meiji period. He was the second son of Nagano Yusho and Akino, a couple of samurai from Izumi-go Wakimoto in Satsuma Province (Akune City, Kagoshima Prefecture). At a young age, he was adopted by his uncle, Matsuki Muneyasu, a Dutch medicine doctor, and took the name Matsuki Koan. He began studying Dutch at the age of 10, and at 15 traveled to Edo to study Dutch under Kawamoto Yukimin and others. After serving as head of Ito Genpaku's Zosendo School, he became an assistant professor at the shogunate's Bansho Shirabesho in 1856 (Ansei 3), but returned to his domain the following year at the request of Shimazu Nariakira, lord of the Satsuma (Kagoshima) domain, where he was involved in projects to modernize the domain, including ironmaking, shipbuilding, gas, photography, and telegraphy, and gained a grasp of the practicalities of Western civilization and technology. After returning to his post as an assistant professor at the Bansho Shirabesho, he accompanied the first Shogunate mission to Europe in December 1861 as a hired doctor and translator, and in March 1865, he traveled to England under the pseudonym Izumi Izumizo as a member of the Satsuma Domain mission to England, leading a group of students. From his two experiences in Western Europe, he advocated the idea of a unified nation based on a coalition government of powerful domains. After the Meiji Restoration, he served as a foreign affairs judge and foreign affairs minister, and made an effort to improve the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its early days, and made great contributions to the telegraph and minting businesses. After serving as a Japanese envoy to England, he was appointed councilor and foreign affairs minister in October 1873, when he began work on the pending issue of treaty revision, and succeeded in signing the Japan-US Agreement on the restoration of taxation rights in 1888, but the treaty was invalidated due to opposition from Britain and Germany. His diplomatic stance, backed by the logic of mutual equality, is evaluated as an independent diplomacy with Europe and America, and a reasoned diplomacy with Asia. He subsequently held important positions such as President of the Senate and Vice President of the Privy Council, and was made a count in 1790. As a person, he was a quiet and reserved person, and an excellent political debater who also had some knowledge of economics. <References> Terashima Munenori Research Group, ed., "Collection of Materials Related to Terashima Munenori," 2 volumes, Inuzuka Takaaki, "Terashima Munenori"

(Takaaki Inuzuka)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治26.6.6(1893)
生年：天保3.5.23(1832.6.21)
幕末の蘭学者,明治前期の政治家,外交官。薩摩国出水郷脇本(鹿児島県阿久根市)の郷士長野祐照,秋野夫婦の次男。幼くして伯父で蘭方医の松木宗保の養嗣子となり松木弘安と称した。10歳より蘭語学習を始め,15歳で江戸に遊学し川本幸民らに蘭学を学ぶ。伊東玄朴の象先堂塾頭を経て,安政3(1856)年幕府の蕃書調所教授手伝となるが,薩摩(鹿児島)藩主島津斉彬の要請で翌年帰藩,製鉄,造船,ガス,写真,電信などの藩近代化事業に携わり,西洋文明技術の実際を会得する。蕃書調所教授手伝に復職後の文久1(1861)年12月,第1回幕府遣欧使節に傭医師兼翻訳方の資格で随行,慶応1(1865)年3月には薩摩藩遣英使節の一員として出水泉蔵の変名で留学生を率いて渡英。2度にわたる西欧体験から雄藩連合政権を主体とする統一国家構想を説く。維新後は外国官判事,外務大輔などを歴任,創業期の外務省の整備充実に尽力,電信事業や造幣事業にも大きな功績を残した。駐英公使を経て明治6(1873)年10月参議兼外務卿に就任すると懸案の条約改正問題に着手,11年税権回復に関する日米約書の調印に成功したが,英独の反対で条約は無効となった。相互対等の論理に裏打ちされた外交姿勢は,欧米に対する自主外交,アジアに対する条理外交として評価される。その後元老院議長,枢密院副議長などの要職を歴任,17年伯爵。人となり深沈寡黙,経済にも一見識をもつ優れた政論家であった。<参考文献>寺島宗則研究会編『寺島宗則関係資料集』全2巻,犬塚孝明『寺島宗則』

(犬塚孝明)

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