Otsuki Bankei

Japanese: 大槻磐渓 - おおつき・ばんけい

Year of death: June 13, 1878
Year of birth: May 15, 1801 (June 25, 1801)
Dutch scholar and gunnery expert from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji period. Iwankei was his pen name, and his given name was Kiyotaka, commonly known as Heiji, and his pen name was Shihiro. He was the second son of Otsuki Gensai, a doctor of the Sendai domain and Dutch scholar. His son was Otsuki Fumihiko, a Japanese language scholar. Born in Kobiki-cho, Edo, he entered the Shoheizaka Gakumonjo at the age of 16, where he studied Confucianism under Matsuzaki Keido. In 1841 (Tempo 12), he became interested in Western gunnery after seeing his old friend Takashima Shuho's gunnery drills at Tokumaru-hara, and resolved to "become both an academy and a martial artist, with Chinese studies as his main profession and Western gunnery as his side job," and entered the school under Takashima's student Otsuka Maho, and later moved to Egawa Tarozaemon as head of the school. After losing his eldest son Junnosuke to smallpox, he vaccinated all of his remaining four children, and from this time onwards he gradually leaned towards Dutch studies. He wrote "Dedication to the Emperor," in which he advocated a pro-Russian and anti-British stance, and when Perry arrived he proposed opening the country to the shogunate, developing his own views on diplomacy. In 1862 he returned to his domain and became head of the domain school, Yoken-do. During the Boshin War he supported regent Tadaki Tosa, advocating a fight to the death, and became the spiritual leader of the Oshu-Uetsu Alliance, but was arrested and imprisoned. He was later pardoned and spent his days in Hongo, Tokyo, devoted to the pursuit of literary excellence. <Works> "A Concise Analysis of Mencius," "A View of the Ancient Classics," <References> "Iwake Ninpu," "Iwake Shiryu"

(Yamazaki Aritsune)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治11.6.13(1878)
生年：享和1.5.15(1801.6.25)
幕末明治期の蘭学者,砲術家。磐渓は号で,名は清崇,通称平次,字は士広。仙台藩医で蘭学者大槻玄沢の次男。国語学者大槻文彦は子。江戸木挽町に生まれ,16歳で昌平坂学問所へ入学,松崎慊堂について儒学を学んだ。天保12(1841)年,旧友高島秋帆の徳丸原砲術演習を見て西洋砲術に興味を持ち「漢学を本業,西洋砲術を副業として文武両刀たらん」と決意,高島の門人大塚瑪蜂に入門,その後江川太郎左衛門下に転じ学頭となった。また天然痘で長男順之助を失った痛手から,残る4人の子供には皆種痘を施すなど,この時期から次第に蘭学へ傾斜。「献芹微衷」を記して親露排英説を唱え,ペリー来航時には幕府に開国論を建議するなど独自の外交論を展開,文久2(1862)年帰藩して藩校養賢堂の学頭となる。戊辰戦争では執政但木土佐を助けて徹底抗戦を主張,奥羽越列藩同盟の精神的主柱となったが,逮捕され投獄。のち許されて東京本郷で文筆風流の日々を過ごした。<著作>『孟子約解』『古経文視』<参考文献>「磐渓年譜」「磐渓事略」

(山崎有恒)

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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