Mutsu Munemitsu

Mutsu Munemitsu 陸奥 宗光
Mutsu Munemitsu
Born	August 20, 1844(1844-08-20) Kii Province, Japan
Died	August 24, 1897(1897-08-24) (aged 53) Takinogawa, Japan
Nationality	Japan
Other names	Mutsu Yonosuke
Occupation	Diplomat, Cabinet Minister

In this Japanese name, the family name is "Mutsu".

Count Mutsu Munemitsu (陸奥 宗光^?, August 20, 1844 – August 24, 1897) was a statesman and diplomat in Meiji period Japan.

Early life

Mutsu Munemitsu was born in Wakayama domain, Kii Province as the sixth son of Date Munehiro, a samurai retainer of the Kii Tokugawa clan. His father was active in the Sonnō jōi movement, and Mutsu Munemitsu joined forces with Sakamoto Ryōma and Itō Hirobumi in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.

Meiji bureaucrat

After the Meiji restoration, Mutsu held a number of posts in the new Meiji government, including that of governor of Hyōgo Prefecture and later governor of Kanagawa Prefecture, both of which were host to foreign settlements. He was head of the Land Tax Reform of 1873-1881, and served on the Genrōin. He conspired to assist Saigō Takamori in the Satsuma Rebellion and was imprisoned from 1878 until 1883. While in prison he translated Jeremy Bentham's Utilitarianism in Japanese.

After he left prison, he rejoined the government as an official of the Foreign Ministry, and in 1884 was sent to Europe for studies. Later he became Japanese Minister to Washington D.C. (1888-1890), during which time he established formal diplomatic relations between Japan and Mexico, and partially revised the unequal treaties between Japan and the United States.

On his return to Japan in 1890, he became Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. He was also elected to the House of Representatives of Japan from the 1st Wakayama District for a single term in the 1890 General Election. In 1892, he became Foreign Minister in the Itō Hirobumi cabinet. In 1894, he concluded the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation of 1894, which finally ended the unequal treaty status between Japan and Great Britain.

Mutsu was the lead Japanese negotiator in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the First Sino-Japanese War on 1894-1895. The Triple Intervention by France, Germany and Russia reversed the gains that he had negotiated from China in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and the Japanese public blamed Mutsu for the national humiliation. He resigned all government posts in May 1896 and moved to Ōiso, Kanagawa, where he wrote his personal diplomatic memoirs Kenkenroku (蹇蹇録) after the treaty was signed to explain his views and actions. However, his memoirs could not be published until 1923 due to the diplomatic secrets they contained.

Statues of Mutsu and Itō Hirobumi at Shimonoseki

Mutsu lived in what is now Kyu-Furukawa Gardens. Mutsu died of tuberculosis in Takinogawa, Tokyo Prefecture in 1897.

Mutsu was ennobled with the title of hakushaku (count) under the kazoku peerage system at the end of the Sino-Japanese War.

See also

• Mutsu Ryōko

References

• Cortazzi, Hugh. Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume V. Global Oriental (2004) ISBN 1-901903-48-6
• Mutsu, Munemitsu. (1982). Kenkenroku (trans. Gordon Mark Berger). Tokyo: University of Toyko Press. 10-ISBN 0860083063/13-ISBN 9780860083061; OCLC 252084846
• Perez, Louis. Japan Comes of Age: Mutsu Munemitsu and the Revision of the Unequal Treaties. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (1999). ISBN 0-8386-3804-X
• Perez, Louis. Mutsu Munemitsu and Identity Formation of the Individual and the State in Modern Japan. Edwin Mellen Press (2001). ISBN 0-7734-7366-1

External links

• National Diet Library photos and biography
• Yomiuri Shimbun: >15% of primary school students in Japan confused Takayoshi Kido with Mutsu or Toshimichi Ōkubo, 2008.
• Hisahiko Okazaki, Mutsu Munemitsu and His Age, 2010 (e-book)

Political offices
Preceded by Enomoto Takeaki	Minister of Foreign Affairs Aug 1892 - May 1896	Succeeded by Saionji Kinmochi
Preceded by Iwamura Michitoshi	Minister of Agriculture & Commerce May 1890 - Mar 1897	Succeeded by Kōno Togama

Persondata
Name	Mutsu Munemitsu
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 20, 1844
Place of birth	Wakayama prefecture, Japan
Date of death	August 24, 1897
Place of death	Hawaii