Hirata Tosuke

Japanese: 平田東助 - ひらた・とうすけ

Year of death: April 14, 1925
Year of birth: 1849.3.26
A bureaucrat and politician of the Meiji and Taisho periods. Born in Yonezawa Shinobu-cho, Uzen (Yamagata Prefecture), Ito Shotoku, a doctor of the Yonezawa domain, and Karu, he was later adopted by Hirata Ryohaku, a doctor of the domain. He studied at the domain school, Kojokan. Although he was an excellent student, he was sickly from an early age, which influenced his life as an adult. During the Boshin War (1868-69), the Yonezawa domain fought alongside the "rebel" Aizu domain, and Hirata went to war as a doctor. After the Meiji Restoration, he moved to Tokyo and enrolled in Daigaku Nankou in order to develop the domain's industry through Western learning, and was soon ordered to work at the Osaka Kaiseisho along with Ogura Shohei. In 1871, he left with the Iwakura Mission to Japan to study abroad, and studied political science and law at a university in Prussia, obtaining a doctorate before returning to Japan. He immediately became a civil servant, and was favored by Kido Takayoshi and Shinagawa Yajiro, among others, and gained the favor of Yamagata Aritomo. He married Shinagawa's adopted daughter, and together with Shinagawa and others, he founded the German Society. As a civil servant, he was mainly active in the Legislative Bureau, and was involved in the establishment of the Constitution and many other laws. He later served as Chief Secretary of the Provisional Cabinet and Chief Secretary of the Privy Council, and at the same time was appointed as a member of the House of Peers in 1890. In the House of Peers, he led tea parties and formed a study group, making the House a stronghold of Yamagata Aritomo's faction. In 1901, he became Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in the Katsura Taro Cabinet, and was particularly devoted to the development of industrial associations, the precursors of today's agricultural cooperatives. He led Japan, with its many small farmers and merchants and manufacturers, from the belief that the people must work together to promote industry and commerce. Furthermore, in 1908, he was appointed Minister of the Interior in the second Katsura Cabinet, and from a similar perspective, he worked hard to issue the Boshin Imperial Rescript (1908) and launched a local improvement movement. During the Taisho Political Crisis (1912), he himself was named as a candidate for Prime Minister, but declined. He also worked to stop the Yamagata faction of the House of Peers from joining the new party organized by Katsura Taro, and after this he supported Terauchi Masatake, and after the Terauchi Cabinet was formed, he became a member of the Foreign Affairs Research Council and president of the Provisional Education Council. After Yamagata's death in 1922, he became Minister of the Interior and assisted elder statesman Saionji Kinmochi. As a legal bureaucrat and as an Interior bureaucrat who guided the lifestyles and careers of the middle class and below, he worked hard to build a modern Japan. <References> Kato Fusazo, "The Life of Count Hirata Tosuke"

(Kitake Yoshiya)

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

Japanese:

没年：大正14.4.14(1925)
生年：嘉永2.3.3(1849.3.26)
明治大正期の官僚政治家。羽前(山形県)米沢信夫町に,米沢藩医師伊東昇迪,かるの子として生まれる。のち,藩医平田亮伯の養子となる。藩校興譲館に学ぶ。優秀ではあったが幼時より病弱で,このことは成人したのちの彼の人生にも影響を与えた。戊辰戦争(1868～69)で米沢藩は「賊軍」の会津藩と行動を共にし,平田も医者として出征した。維新後,洋学によって藩の産業を興すべく,上京し大学南校に入学,ほどなく小倉処平と共に大阪開成所勤務を命じられる。明治4(1871)年岩倉遣外使節団と共に出発し留学,プロイセンの大学で政治学,法学を学び博士号を取得して帰国,直ちに官吏となり,特に木戸孝允,品川弥二郎らに引き立てられ,山県有朋の知遇を得た。品川の養女と結婚,品川らと独逸協会を設立する。官吏としては主に法制局で活動,憲法制定その他多くの法律の制定にも関与する。その後,臨時内閣書記官長,枢密院書記官長を歴任,同時に23年には貴族院議員にも就任した。貴族院では茶話会を指導し,研究会とも結んで同院を山県有朋閥勢力の牙城となす。34年桂太郎内閣で農商務大臣となり,特に現在の農業協同組合の前身である産業組合の発展に尽くす。小農,小商工業者が多い日本では,「衆人共同」させ殖産興業を行わせなければならないとの信念から,指導した。さらに,41年第2次桂内閣の内務大臣に就任,ここでも同様の観点から戊申詔書の発布(1908)に尽力し地方改良運動を展開した。大正政変(1912)に際しては,彼自身も首相候補に挙げられたが辞退している。また桂太郎の新党組織に対しては貴族院山県閥の新党参加を取りやめさせる方向で活動し,こののちは寺内正毅を擁立し,寺内内閣成立後は外交調査会委員,臨時教育会議総裁に就任した。山県死後の大正11(1922)年に内大臣に就任し西園寺公望元老を補佐した。法制官僚として,また中産階層以下の生活,職業を指導する内務官僚として,近代日本の建設に力を尽した。<参考文献>加藤房蔵『伯爵平田東助伝』

(季武嘉也)

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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