Takeda Ayasaburō

, was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Rangaku ''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: /Shinjitai: , literally "Dutch learning", and by extension "Western learning") is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Wester ...

scholar, and the architect of the fortress of

Goryōkaku (literally, "five-point fort") is a star fort in the Japanese city of Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido. The fortress was completed in 1866. It was the main fortress of the short-lived Republic of Ezo. History ''Goryōkaku'' was designed in ...

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

. Takeda was born in the

Ōzu Domain 270px, Katō Yasuaki, final daimyō of Ōzu Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now western Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Ōzu Castle, and was ruled thr ...

(modern-day

Ōzu, Ehime is a Japanese city located in Nanyo, the region occupying the southern half of Ehime Prefecture. As of January 31, 2020, the city had an estimated population of 42,655. History Ōzu emerged as a medieval castle-town along the Hiji River. ...

) in 1827. He studied medicine, Western sciences (rangaku), navigation, military architecture. He was a student of

Ogata Kōan was a Japanese physician and rangaku scholar in late Edo period Japan, noted for establishing an academy which later developed into Osaka University. Many of his students subsequently played important roles in the Meiji Restoration and the weste ...

and

Sakuma Shōzan sometimes called Sakuma Zōzan, was a Japanese politician and scholar of the Edo period. Biography Born Sakuma Kunitada, he was the son of a samurai and scholar and his wife , and a native of (or Shinano Province) in present day's Nagano Pref ...

. In 1854 he was ordered to the island of

to reinforce the military infrastructure. He built the fortresses of

and

Benten Daiba was a key fortress of the Republic of Ezo in 1868–1869. It was located at the entrance of the bay of Hakodate, in the northern island of Hokkaidō, Japan. Benten Daiba was built by the Japanese architect Takeda Ayasaburō on the site former ...

between 1854 and 1866, using Dutch books on military architecture describing the defensive principles which Vauban had developed more than a century before, and also established a school. He also practiced sailing with the ''Hakodate Maru'', one of Japan's first Western-style sailing ship, together with his students. He sailed to Russia with the ship, and engaged in some exchanges. Takeda clan People from Ōzu, Ehime Boshin War People of Meiji-period Japan 19th-century Japanese architects People of the Boshin War 1827 births 1880 deaths {{Japan-architect-stub