Katsu Kaishu
Encyclopedia : K : KA : KAT : Katsu Kaishu
Katsu Kaishu (勝 海舟 Katsu Kaishū, 1823-99) was a navy officer and statesman in Japan during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji period. Kaishu was a nickname which he took from a piece of calligraphy (Kaishu Shooku 海舟書屋) by Sakuma Shozan. His actual name was Yoshikuni.
His father was Katsu Kokichi, the head of a minor samurai family, and he rose to occupy the position of commissioner (Gunkan-bugyo) in the Tokugawa navy. He is particularly known for his role in the surrender of Edo.
Born in Edo (present day Tokyo) to a low-ranking retainer of the Tokugawa shogun, as a youth Katsu would study Dutch and other aspects of European military science and eventually appointed by the Tokugawa shogunate as a translator when Europeans opened contact with Japan. Katsu, under the advisement of Dutch advisors, served as director of training for the Nagasaki naval center between 1855 until 1859 when he was commissioned an officer in the shogun's navy the following year.
Commanding the Kanrin-maru, with assistance from US naval officer Lt. John M. Brooke, Katsu escorted the fist Japanese delegation to San Francisco, California en route to Washington, DC the same year. The Kanrin Maru was Japan's first steam-powered warship, and its voyage across the Pacific Ocean was meant to signal that Japan had mastered modern sailing and shipbuilding technology. Following his return, Katsu held a series of high ranking posts in the Tokugawa's navy, arguing before government councils in favor of a unified Japanese naval force disregarding traditional hereditary domains and professionally trained officers. During his command as director of the Kobe naval school, the institute would become a major source of activity for progressive thinking and reformists between 1863 and 1864.
Although sympathetic to the anti-Tokugawa cause, Katsu remained loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate during the Restoration War and after its capture by Takamori Saigo, would negotiate the surrender of the capital of Edo to anti-Tokugawa forces of Choshu and Satsuma in March 1868.
Following the establishment of the Imperial government, Katsu would briefly serve as Vice Minister of the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1872 before his appointment the first Minister of the Navy, a post which he would serve from 1873 until 1878. Although having minimal influence within the navy, with internal affairs largely being controlled by a large faction of Satsuma's officers, Katsu would instead serve in a senior advisory capacity on national policy. During the next two decades, Katsu would serve on the Privy Council and would write extensively on naval issues before his death in 1899.
External link
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.