Jean Francisque Coignet (1835 – 18 June 1902) was a French

mining engineer Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from underneath, open pit, above or on the ground. Mining engineering is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, and ...

and government advisor in

Bakumatsu was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji governm ...

and

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

Japan noted for his modernization of the Ikuno Silver Mine at Ikuno, Hyōgo Prefecture, near Kobe.

Biography

Coignet was a graduate of the technical school of Saint-Étienne. During the California Gold Rush he travelled to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. In 1867, he was hired by the

Shimazu clan 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'' familiesAppert, Georges ''et al.'' (1888). in cont ...

of Satsuma Domain to develop the mines and mineral resources of that domain. In 1868, his services were transferred to the control of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

, who requested that he re-develop the Ikuno Silver Mine through the introduction of western tunneling techniques and blasting technology. With the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, his services were transferred to the new

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

, which quickly recognized the need to develop new mines and to upgrade existing mines for greater productivity. In 1874, he published ''Note sur la richesse minerale du Japon'' (Memorandum on the mineral resources of Japan). Coignet departed Japan in January 1877. He died at his hometown Saint-Étienne in 1902.

References

* Cobbing, Andrew. ''The Satsuma Students in Britain: Japan's Early Search for the essence of the West''. Routledge (2000). * Tsunashiro, Louis. ''Japan Mining industry of Japan during the last twenty five years: 1867-1892''. Tokyo Tsukiji Type Foundry (1898). {{DEFAULTSORT:Coignet, Jean Francisque 1835 births 1902 deaths French expatriates in Japan Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-period Japan French mining engineers French expatriates in the United States