Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

was a Japanese

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

during the

Bakumatsu were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate Meiji Restoration, ended. Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a Feudali ...

and early

Meiji period The was 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 colonizatio ...

of Japanese history.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Gotō Shōjirō" in He was a leader of which would evolve into a political party.

Early life

Gotō was born in

Tosa Domain The was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Kōchi Castle, and was ruled throughout its ...

(present day

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 669,516 (1 April 2023) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and Tok ...

). Together with fellow Tosa ''

'' Sakamoto Ryōma, he was attracted by the radical pro-Imperial ''

Sonnō jōi was a '' yojijukugo'' (four-character compound) phrase used as the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s, during the Bakumatsu period. Based on Neo-Confucianism and Japanese nativism, the movement sou ...

'' movement. After being promoted, he essentially seized power within the Tosa Domain's politics and exerted influence on Tosa ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' Yamauchi Toyoshige to call on ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

Tokugawa Yoshinobu Kazoku, Prince was the 15th and last ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned his position as shogun in late 1867, while ai ...

to return power peacefully to the Emperor.

Meiji statesman and liberal agitator

After 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, Gotō was appointed to a number of posts, including that of Governor of

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, and ''sangi'' (councillor), but later left the

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 ...

in 1873 over disagreement with the government's policy of restraint toward

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

(i.e. the '' Seikanron'' debate) and, more generally, in opposition to the Chōshū- Satsuma domination of the new government. Jointly with

Itagaki Taisuke Kazoku, Count Itagaki Taisuke (板垣退助, 21 May 1837 – 16 July 1919) was a Japanese samurai, politician, and leader of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement (自由民権運動, ''Jiyū Minken Undō''), which evolved into Japan's firs ...

, he submitted a memorandum calling for the establishment of a popularly elected

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. In 1874, together with Itagaki Taisuke, and Etō Shinpei and Soejima Taneomi of

Hizen Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of the Saga Prefecture, Saga and Nagasaki Prefecture, Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen Province, Ch ...

, he formed the '' Aikoku Kōtō'' (Public Party of Patriots), declaring, "We, the thirty millions of people in Japan are all equally endowed with certain definite rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring and possessing property, and obtaining a livelihood and pursuing happiness. These rights are by Nature bestowed upon all men, and, therefore, cannot be taken away by the power of any man." This anti-government stance appealed to the discontented remnants of the ''samurai'' class and the rural aristocracy (who resented centralized taxation) and peasants (who were discontented with high prices and low wages). After the Osaka Conference of 1875, he returned briefly to the government, participating in the ''

Genrōin The was a Government of Meiji Japan#Establishment of a national assembly, national assembly in early Meiji period, Meiji Japan, established after the Osaka Conference of 1875. It is also referred to as the Senate of Japan, being the word used ...

''. He also managed a coal mine in

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

(the Takashima Coal Mine), but finding it to be losing money, sold his interest to Iwasaki Yatarō. In 1881, he returned to politics, assisting Itagaki Taisuke found the Jiyūto (Liberal Party) which developed the ''daidō danketsu'' (coalition) movement in 1887.

Meiji bureaucrat

In 1889, Gotō joined the Kuroda administration as Communications Minister, remaining in that post under the first Yamagata cabinet and first Matsukata cabinet. Under the new ''

kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. It was formed by merging the feudal lords (''Daimyo, daimyō'') and court nobles (''kuge'') into one system modelled after the British peerage. Distin ...

'' peerage system, he was elevated to ''hakushaku'' (count). In the second Itō cabinet he became Agriculture and Commerce minister. He was implicated in a scandal involving futures trading, and was forced to retire. After a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

, he retired to his summer home in Hakone, Kanagawa, where he died in 1896. His grave is at the Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.

Notes

References

* Beasley, William G. (1995). ''The Rise of Modern Japan: Political, Economic and Social Change Since 1850.'' New York: St. Martin's Press. ;
OCLC 20722016
* Hane, Mikiso. (2001). ''Modern Japan: A Historical Survey.'' Westview Press. * Hillsborough, Romulus. (2005). ''Shinsengumi: The Shogun's Last Samurai Corps''. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing. * Jansen, Marius B. and Gilbert Rozman, eds. (1986). ''Japan in Transition: from Tokugawa to Meiji.'' Princeton:

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

.
OCLC 12311985
* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia.''
Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

.
OCLC 58053128
* Totten, George O. (1966). ''Democracy in Prewar Japan: Groundwork or Facade?''. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company.

External links

National Diet Library biography & photo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goto, Shojiro 1838 births 1897 deaths Meiji Restoration Samurai People from Tosa Domain Kazoku People of the Meiji era Governors of Osaka Government ministers of Japan Aikoku Kōtō politicians Liberal Party (Japan, 1881) politicians Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun Politicians from Kōchi Prefecture Burials at Aoyama Cemetery