Naoshi Nagai - Naoshi Nagai

Japanese: 永井尚志 - ながい・なおむね

Year of death: July 1, 1891
Year of birth: Bunka 13.11.3 (1816.12.21)
A shogunate official in the late Edo period. Born as the second son of Matsudaira Noritada, lord of Mikawa Okudono Domain (Aichi Prefecture), he lost both his parents at the age of three. At the age of 25, he was adopted into the bannerman Nagai family, and became a guard in 1847. After Commodore Perry's arrival, he was appointed as a metsuke in October 1853, and in July 1854, he was ordered to be the superintendent of the Nagasaki Naval Training School and took up his post. In March 1854, he returned to Edo by sea at the head of the training school, and in December he became the treasurer. He was appointed as the newly established foreign magistrate along with Iwase Tadaharu and others, and signed commercial treaties with Russia, Britain, and France. In February 1853, he was transferred to the position of warship magistrate, but in August of the same year, he was dismissed and suspended for attempting to support Tokugawa Yoshinobu. He witnessed Iwase's death in misfortune. In August 1862, he returned to his position as Kyoto magistrate, and in February of the following year, 1864, he was promoted to ometsuke. During this time, he was involved in the assassination of Anenokoji Kintomo, the August 18th Coup, and the Kinmon Incident, and during the First Choshu Expedition he accompanied Tokugawa Yoshikatsu, the commander-in-chief of the Expedition to Choshu, to Hiroshima, where he received visitors from the Choshu domain office. In May 1865, he resigned from his post after disagreeing with the elders on the policy for dealing with Choshu, but was reinstated in October and traveled to Kyoto. He traveled to Hiroshima, questioned envoys from the Choshu domain, and reported the results to the shogunate. In February of the same year, he became a wakadoshiyori. This was the first time that a hatamoto had been appointed to this position, which was traditionally filled by a daimyo, and he was given such a promotion. He was a close aide to Yoshinobu, and paid close attention to the movements of the Tosa domain. He led the restoration of imperial rule to the emperor, and attempted to create a feudal lords' conference and a publicly-agreed form of government. After the political upheaval of the Restoration of Imperial Rule, he attempted to negotiate a compromise with the new government, but failed. After the Battle of Toba-Fushimi in January 1868, he collected the defeated Tokugawa forces and returned to Edo. In February of the same year, he was dismissed from his post and banned from entering the castle by Yoshinobu, who resolved to offer a submissive apology. In August, he traveled to Hakodate, Hokkaido, with Enomoto Takeaki's fleet, and was promoted to Hakodate Magistrate of the Ezo local government. In May of the following year, Goryokaku, his headquarters, fell and he surrendered, and he was sent to Tokyo and detained. In January of the following year, he was pardoned, and served as a pioneering official and a junior councilor in the House of Representatives, before becoming a deputy chief secretary of the Senate in July of the following year, and resigned in October of the following year, retiring to Mukojima in Sumida East. In April of the same year, he invited former shogunate officials to the banks of the Sumida River to hold a banquet in memory of Iwase, and died of illness shortly thereafter.

(Inoue Isao)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治24.7.1(1891)
生年：文化13.11.3(1816.12.21)
幕末の幕府官僚。三河奥殿藩(愛知県)藩主松平乗尹の2子に生まれ,3歳で父母と死別。25歳の年旗本永井家に養子に入り,弘化4(1847)年番士となる。ペリー来航後の嘉永6(1853)年10月目付に登用され,安政1(1854)年7月,長崎海軍伝習所総監理を命ぜられ任地に赴く。同4年3月伝習修業生を率いて海路江戸に帰り,12月勘定奉行。岩瀬忠震らと共に新設の外国奉行に任命され,露・英・仏との間に通商条約を調印した。同6年2月軍艦奉行に転じたが,同年8月徳川慶喜擁立を図ったとして罷職・差控に処せられた。不遇のうちに岩瀬の死を見送る。文久2(1862)年8月京都町奉行として復帰,翌元治1(1864)年2月大目付に昇進。この間,姉小路公知暗殺事件,8月18日の政変,禁門の変にかかわり,第1次長州征討では征長総督徳川慶勝に随行して広島に出張し,長州藩庁との応接に当たる。慶応1(1865)年5月長州処分方針について老中と意見が合わず辞職,10月復職し上洛。広島に出張し長州藩使節を訊問して幕府にこれを報じる。同3年2月若年寄。大名が補任される慣行のこの職に旗本が任命されるのはほかに例をみない,それほどの抜擢であった。慶喜の側近にあり,土佐藩の運動に注目。大政奉還を実現に導き諸侯会議,公議政体の創出を図る。王政復古の政変ののち,新政府との妥協交渉に当たるが失敗。明治1(1868)年1月の鳥羽・伏見の戦ののち,敗北した徳川軍を収拾し江戸に帰る。同年2月,恭順謝罪を決意した慶喜により免職・登城禁止に処せられる。8月榎本武揚の艦隊により北海道箱館に赴き,いわば蝦夷地方政権の箱館奉行に推された。翌年5月本営の五稜郭が落城し降伏,東京に送られ拘留。同5年1月赦免され開拓使用掛,左院少議官を経て同8年7月元老院権大書記官,翌年10月辞職し墨東向島に隠棲。同24年4月墨田河畔に旧幕臣を招き岩瀬追懐の宴を開き,程なく病没。

(井上勲)

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