Kuroda Kiyotaka

Kuroda Kiyotaka
黑田 清隆
2nd Prime Minister of Japan
In office 31 August 1896 – 18 September 1896 Acting
Monarch	Meiji
Preceded by	Itō Hirobumi
Succeeded by	Matsukata Masayoshi
In office 30 April 1888 – 25 October 1889
Monarch	Meiji
Preceded by	Itō Hirobumi
Succeeded by	Sanjō Sanetomi (Acting)
Personal details
Born	(1840-11-09)9 November 1840 Shinyashiki tōri-Chō, Japan
Died	23 August 1900(1900-08-23) (aged 59) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Independent
Signature

Kuroda as a young man

Count Kuroda Kiyotaka (黑田 清隆, November 9, 1840 – August 23, 1900), also known as Kuroda Ryōsuke (黑田 了介), was a Japanese politician of the Meiji era.^[1] He was the second Prime Minister of Japan from April 30, 1888 to October 25, 1889.

Biography

As a Satsuma samurai

Kuroda was born to a samurai-class family serving the Shimazu daimyo of Kagoshima, Satsuma domain in Kyūshū.

In 1862, Kuroda was involved in the Namamugi Incident, in which Satsuma retainers killed a British national who refused to bow down to the daimyo's procession. This led to the Anglo-Satsuma War in 1863, in which Kuroda played an active role. Immediately after the war, he went to Edo where he studied gunnery.

Returning to Satsuma, Kuroda became an active member of the Satsuma-Chōshū joint effort to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. Later, as a military leader in the Boshin War, he became famous for sparing the life of Enomoto Takeaki, who had stood against Kuroda's army at the Battle of Hakodate.

Political and Diplomatic Career

Under the new Meiji government, Kuroda became a pioneer-diplomat to Karafuto, claimed by both Japan and the Russian Empire in 1870. Terrified of Russia's push eastward, Kuroda returned to Tokyo and advocated quick development and settlement of Japan's northern frontier. In 1871 he traveled to Europe and the United States for five months, and upon returning to Japan in 1872, he was put in charge of colonization efforts in Hokkaidō.

In 1874, Kuroda was named director of the Hokkaidō Colonization Office, and organized a colonist-militia scheme to settle the island with unemployed ex-samurai and retired soldiers who would serve as both farmers and as a local militia. He was also promoted to lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army. Kuroda invited agricultural experts from overseas countries with a similar climate to visit Hokkaidō, and to provide advice on what crops and production methods might be successful.

Kuroda was dispatched as an envoy to Korea in 1875, and negotiated the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876. In 1877, he was sent as part of the force to suppress the Satsuma Rebellion. In 1878, he became de facto leader of Satsuma domain following the assassination of Ōkubo Toshimichi.

Shortly before he left office in Hokkaidō, Kuroda became the central figure in the Hokkaidō Colonization Office Scandal of 1881. As part of the government's privatization program, Kuroda attempted to sell the assets of the Hokkaidō Colonization Office to a trading consortium created by some of his former Satsuma colleagues for a nominal price. When the terms of the sale were leaked to the press, the resultant public outrage caused the sale to fall through. Also in 1881, Kuroda's wife died of a lung disease, but on rumors that Kuroda had killed her in a drunken rage, the body was exhumed and examined. Kuroda was cleared of charges, but rumors of his problems with alcohol abuse persisted.

The embassy of Kuroda Kiyotaka, in Pusan, on its way to Ganghwa Island (江華島), Korea, January 16, 1876. There were 2 warships ( Nisshin, Moshun and 3 troop transports of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and one liner for the embassy led by Kuroda.

Kuroda Kiyotaka signed the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, opening Korea to Japanese trade, in 1876.

In 1887, Kuroda was appointed to the cabinet post of Minister of Agriculture and Commerce.

Prime minister

Kuroda Kiyotaka became the 2nd Prime Minister of Japan, after Itō Hirobumi in 1888. During his term, he oversaw the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution. However, the vexing issue of Japan's inability to secure revision of the unequal treaties created considerable controversy. After drafts of proposed revisions drawn up his foreign minister Ōkuma Shigenobu became public in 1889, Kuroda was forced to resign.

Later life

Kuroda served as Minister of Communications in 1892 under the 2nd Ito Cabinet. In 1895 he became a genrō, and chairman of the Privy Council. Kuroda died of a brain hemorrhage in 1900 and Enomoto Takeaki presided over his funeral ceremonies. His grave is at the Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.

Honours

From the corresponding Japanese Wikipedia article

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (May 11, 1877)
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers (August 1895)
• Count (July 1884)
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (August 1900; posthumous)

See also

• List of Ambassadors from Japan to South Korea

References

Further reading

• Auslin, Michael R. (2006). Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01521-0; OCLC 56493769
• Jansen, Marius B. (2000). The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674003347; OCLC 44090600
• Keene, Donald. (2002). Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-12340-2; OCLC 46731178
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
• Sims, Richard L. (2001). Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868–2000. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780312239145; ISBN 9780312239152; OCLC 45172740

External links

Media related to Kiyotaka Kuroda at Wikimedia Commons

Prime Ministers of Japan (List)
Empire of Japan, 1868-1947	Meiji Period, 1868-1912 H. Itō Kuroda Sanjō Yamagata Matsukata H. Itō Kuroda Matsukata H. Itō Ōkuma Yamagata H. Itō Saionji Katsura Saionji Taishō Period, 1912-26 Katsura Saionji Katsura Yamamoto Ōkuma Terauchi Hara Uchida Takahashi To. Katō Uchida Yamamoto Kiyoura Ta. Katō Wakatsuki Shōwa Period, 1926-47 G. Tanaka Hamaguchi Shidehara Hamaguchi Wakatsuki Inukai Takahashi Saitō Okada Gotō Okada Hirota Hayashi Konoe Hiranuma N. Abe Yonai Konoe Tōjō Koiso K. Suzuki Higashikuni Shidehara Yoshida
State of Japan, 1947-present	Shōwa Period, 1947-89 Katayama Ashida Yoshida I. Hatoyama Ishibashi Kishi Ikeda Satō K. Tanaka Miki T. Fukuda Ōhira M. Itō Z. Suzuki Nakasone Takeshita Heisei Period, 1989- Uno Kaifu Miyazawa Hosokawa Hata Murayama Hashimoto Obuchi Aoki Mori Koizumi S. Abe Y. Fukuda Asō Y. Hatoyama Kan Noda S. Abe
Italics denote acting Prime Ministers