EndÅ Kinsuke
| EndÅ Kinsuke é è—¤ 謹助 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
31 March 1836 KÅchi, Japan |
| Died | 13 September 1893 (aged 57) |
| Nationality | Japanese |
EndÅ Kinsuke (é è—¤ 謹助, March 31, 1836 – September 13, 1893) was a Japanese statesman in the early Meiji period.
EndÅ was born to a samurai family in Hagi, ChÅshÅ« Domain (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture. He was selected by the domain to be a member of the ChÅshÅ« Five who were smuggled out of Japan in defiance of the Tokugawa bakufu's policy of national seclusion to Great Britain in 1863. ChÅshÅ« was desperate to acquire better knowledge of the western nations in order to strengthen the domain in its struggle to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. EndÅ returned from England in 1866, just before the start of the Boshin War.
When Sir Harry Parkes, the British minister in Japan between 1865 and 1883, visited ChÅshÅ« in 1866, EndÅ served as an interpreter, together with Inoue Kaoru, another member of the ChÅshÅ« Five.
After the Meiji Restoration and the establishment of the new Meiji government, EndÅ served as the head of the new National Mint (é€ å¹£å±€ ZÅheikyoku) in Osaka, from 1881-1883. He is remembered less for his efforts in establishing a unified national currency and more for his policy that the grounds of the Mint should be open for all the people of Osaka in spring, when the sakura trees planted there come into bloom.
See also
Reference and further reading
- Beasley, W. G. The Meiji Restoration. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972.
- Cobbing, Andrew. The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain. RoutledgeCurzon, London, 1998. ISBN 1-873410-81-6
- Craig, Albert M. ChÅshÅ« in the Meiji Restoration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961