(1836–1908), Japanese government official. Enomoto Takeaki was a naval officer and diplomat who served the Tokugawa shogunate (known then by the name of Kamajiro) and later the Meiji government. Born in Shitaya, Edo prefecture, he studied at the Shoheiko (Shogunal College) and learned navigation from the Dutch in Nagasaki. Appointed director of the Shogunate naval school, in 1862 he went to Rotterdam to study military services and to supervise construction of the warship Kaiyo Maru, which was commissioned by the shogunate. After six years in Europe, he became vice commanderin-chief of the shogunate navy. When the rule of the house of Tokugawa was overthrown and power was restored to the Meiji emperor, Enomoto, with a small army of supporters, took eight ships of the Tokugawa navy to the northern island of Hokkaido to establish an independent republic. He surrendered to imperial forces in 1869, spent three years under house arrest, and was pardoned in 1872. Restored to favor, he later received many important ministerial appointments within the Meiji government, including envoy to Russia (1873–1876). He concluded the Treaty of St. Petersburg (1875), by which Japan abandoned its claim to Sakhalin Island in exchange for the northern Kuril Islands. Enomoto was subsequently appointed navy minister (1876–1882), minister to China (1882–1884), and he held cabinet posts in communications, education, foreign affairs, agriculture, and commerce He was made a viscount in 1887 and named adviser to the Privy Council in 1890.
Further Reading
Morris, J. (1906) Makers of Japan. London: Methuen.
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