Background
Hotta Masayoshi was born on August 30, 1810, in Ego, Japan. He was adopted as heir by his elder brother Hotta Masachika and in 1825 became lord of the domain of Sakura in Shimosa with an annual stipend of 110,000 koku of rice.
堀田 正睦
Hotta Masayoshi was born on August 30, 1810, in Ego, Japan. He was adopted as heir by his elder brother Hotta Masachika and in 1825 became lord of the domain of Sakura in Shimosa with an annual stipend of 110,000 koku of rice.
In 1835 he was assigned to the post of jisha-bvgyo (official in charge of temples and shrines),in 1837 became Osaka jodai (governor of Osaka Castle), and in 1841 advanced to the position of rojii (councilor of state). He resigned in 1843, but in 1855 was made rojii shuseki, or head councilor of state. He placed particular trust in the kanjo-bugyo (superintendent of the treasury) Kawaji Toshiakira and the metsuke (overseer) Iwase Tadanari, and did his best to promote the opening of the country.
In 1858, when a trade and navigation treaty was signed between Japan and the United States, he journeyed in person to Kyoto in an attempt to receive imperial ratification of it, but the highly complex nature of relations between the court and the shogunate at this time caused his mission to fail. Meanwhile a dispute over the succession to the shogunate developed. Hotta supported Hitotsubashi Yoshinobu for the post, but Yoshinobu’s rival of the Kii branch of the Tokugawa family, Tokugawa Iemochi, won the position and appointed Ii Naosuke as tairo (senior councilor). As a result, Hotta was dismissed from the office of councilor of state and went into retirement. In 1862 he was accused of committing errors of foreign policy while serving as a councilor of state and was placed under house arrest for an indefinite period and his fief reduced.
He had great enthusiasm for Dutch studies, encouraging his retainers to study Dutch and Western medicine and military affairs with such persistence that he came to be referred to as the Rampeki, or "Dutch maniac.”