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Shimazu Hisamitsu
 
 
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Prince (November 28, 1817 – December 6, 1887), also known as , was a Japanese samurai
Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of Pre-industrial society Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character ? was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau....
 of the late Edo period
Edo period

The , or , is a division of History of Japan running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu....
. The younger brother of Shimazu Nariakira
Shimazu Nariakira

was a Japanese feudal lord of the Edo period, the 28th in the line of Shimazu clan lords of Satsuma Domain. He was renowned as an intelligent and wise lord, and was greatly interested in Rangaku and technology....
, Hisamitsu served as regent for his underage son Tadayoshi, who became the 12th and last lord. Hisamitsu was instrumental in the efforts of the southern Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa
Tosa Domain

The was a feudal domain in Tosa Province of Japan during the Edo period. Its official name is . Some from the domain played important roles in events in the late Tokugawa shogunate....
 clans to bring down the Tokugawa Shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the , and the , was a feudalism regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family....
. Hisamitsu held the court title of Osumi no Kami ???.






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Prince (November 28, 1817 – December 6, 1887), also known as , was a Japanese samurai
Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of Pre-industrial society Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character ? was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau....
 of the late Edo period
Edo period

The , or , is a division of History of Japan running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu....
. The younger brother of Shimazu Nariakira
Shimazu Nariakira

was a Japanese feudal lord of the Edo period, the 28th in the line of Shimazu clan lords of Satsuma Domain. He was renowned as an intelligent and wise lord, and was greatly interested in Rangaku and technology....
, Hisamitsu served as regent for his underage son Tadayoshi, who became the 12th and last lord. Hisamitsu was instrumental in the efforts of the southern Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa
Tosa Domain

The was a feudal domain in Tosa Province of Japan during the Edo period. Its official name is . Some from the domain played important roles in events in the late Tokugawa shogunate....
 clans to bring down the Tokugawa Shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the , and the , was a feudalism regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family....
. Hisamitsu held the court title of Osumi no Kami ???. In the Meiji Era, he was created prince in the Meiji-era kazoku
Kazoku

The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan that existed between 1869 and 1947....
 nobility.

Biography


Hisamitsu was born in Kagoshima Castle
Kagoshima Castle

is a Japanese castle in Kagoshima, Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The other name of this castle is Tsurumarujo....
 in 1817, the son of Shimazu Narioki, the 10th lord of the Satsuma domain; Hisamitsu's name at birth was Kanenoshin; his mother was Yura, Narioki's concubine. He was briefly adopted by the Tanegashima family as an heir, but was returned to the Shimazu family while still a child. At age eight, he was adopted into the Shigetomi-Shimazu, a branch family of the main Shimazu house. Kanenoshin, now named Matajiro, came of age in 1828, and took the adult name . At age 22, following his marriage to the daughter of the previous Shigetomi lord, Tadakimi, he inherited family headship. He was supported as a candidate for succession to the main Shimazu house during the . His half-brother Nariakira
Shimazu Nariakira

was a Japanese feudal lord of the Edo period, the 28th in the line of Shimazu clan lords of Satsuma Domain. He was renowned as an intelligent and wise lord, and was greatly interested in Rangaku and technology....
 won the dispute and succeeded their father as lord of Satsuma; however, following Nariakira's death in 1858, Tadayuki's young son Mochihisa (later known as ) was chosen as the next lord of Satsuma. After Narioki's death the following year, Tadayuki was left in a position of primacy in Satsuma, due to his status as the lord's father. Tadayuki returned to the main Shimazu house in 1861, and it was then that he changed his name to Hisamitsu.

In 1862, Hisamitsu went to Kyoto, and took part in the increasingly Kyoto-centered politics of the 1860s; he was a part of the kobu-gattai political faction. It was during Hisamitsu's return from a stay in Edo
Edo

, literally: Headlands and bays-door, "estuary", ), also Romanization of Japanese as Yedo or Yeddo, is the Geographical renaming of the Capital of Japan Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868....
 that a group of his retainers attacked a riding party of Englishmen, precipitating the Namamugi Incident
Namamugi Incident

The was a samurai assault on foreign nationals in Japan on September 14, 1862, which resulted in the August 1863 bombardment of Kagoshima, during the Late Tokugawa shogunate....
. Hisamitsu remained at the core of the kobu-gattai movement in Kyoto, until Satsuma's secret alliance with men of the Choshu Domain. He supported the Satsuma domain's military actions in the Boshin War
Boshin War

The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the Emperor of Japan....
, and retired soon after the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure....
. In the Meiji era, he was given the rank of prince . Hisamitsu died in 1887, at age 70; he is buried in Kagoshima Prefecture
Kagoshima Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan of Japan located on Kyushu island. The capital is the city of Kagoshima, Kagoshima....
.

Published Works


  • Shimazu Hisamitsu rireki ??????.
  • Shimazu Hisamitsu-ko jikki ??????? (1977). Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai ???????. (published posthumously)


Further reading

  • Kanbashi Norimasa ??? (2002). Shimazu Hisamitsu to Meiji ishin: Hisamitsu wa naze, tobaku wo ketsui shita ka ????????? : ?????, ????????. Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Oraisha ??????.


See also

  • Shimazu family
    Shimazu family

    The were the daimyo of the Satsuma Domain Han , which spread over Satsuma Province, Osumi Province and Hyuga Province provinces in Japan.The Shimazu were descendants of the Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto clan....
  • Namamugi Incident
    Namamugi Incident

    The was a samurai assault on foreign nationals in Japan on September 14, 1862, which resulted in the August 1863 bombardment of Kagoshima, during the Late Tokugawa shogunate....