Shimazu Hisamitsu
Encyclopedia
Prince , also known as , was a Japanese samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 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 Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

. 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 Western learning and technology...

, Hisamitsu served as regent for his underage son Tadayoshi (島津 忠義), who became the 12th and last lord. Hisamitsu was instrumental in the efforts of the southern Satsuma, Chōshū, 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 feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

. Hisamitsu held the court title of Ōsumi no Kami 大隈守. 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.-Origins:Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the ancient court nobility of Kyoto regained some of its lost status...

nobility.

Biography

Hisamitsu was born in Kagoshima Castle
Kagoshima Castle
is a Japanese castle in Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The other name of this castle is Tsurumarujo.-History:This castle was constructed by Shimazu Iehisa in 1601. In 1600 Shimazu Yoshihiro, the father of Iehisa, was defeated at the Battle of Sekigahara as a daimyo of the western...

 in 1817, the son of Shimazu Narioki
Shimazu Narioki
was a Japanese feudal lord of the Edo period, the 27th in the line of Shimazu clan lords of Satsuma Domain 1809-1851. He was the father of Shimazu Nariakira and Shimazu Hisamitsu....

, 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 Matajirō, 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 Western learning 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. Tadayuki gained a position of primacy in Satsuma, due to his status as the lord's father. He 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 kōbu-gattai
Kōbu Gattai
Kōbu gattai was a policy in Bakumatsu Japan aiming at obtaining a political coordination between the Bakufu and the Imperial Court....

political faction. It was during Hisamitsu's return from a stay in Edo
Edo
, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital 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 kōbu-gattai movement in Kyoto, until Satsuma's secret alliance with men of the Chōshū 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 imperial court....

, and retired soon after the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

. 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 prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. The capital is the city of Kagoshima.- Geography :Kagoshima Prefecture is located at the southwest tip of Kyushu and includes a chain of islands stretching further to the southwest for a few hundred kilometers...

.

Published works

  • Shimazu Hisamitsu rireki 島津久光履歴.
  • Shimazu Hisamitsu-kō jikki 島津久光公実紀 (1977). Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai 東京大学出版会. (published posthumously)

Further reading

  • Kanbashi Norimasa 芳即正 (2002). Shimazu Hisamitsu to Meiji ishin: Hisamitsu wa naze, tōbaku wo ketsui shita ka 島津久光と明治維新 : 久光はなぜ, 討幕を決意したか. Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha 新人物往来社.

See also

  • Shimazu family
    Shimazu family
    The were the daimyō of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan.The Shimazu were identified as one of the tozama or outsider daimyō clans in contrast with the fudai or insider clans which were hereditary vassals or allies of the Tokugawa clan,The Shimazu were...

  • 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...

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