Background
Takayoshi Kido was born on 11 August 1833 in the domain of Chosliu. He was originally named Katsura Kogoro, but was later adopted into the Kido family; he used the given name Jun’ichiro, and the name Taka- yoshi is sometimes read Koin.
木戸 孝允
Takayoshi Kido was born on 11 August 1833 in the domain of Chosliu. He was originally named Katsura Kogoro, but was later adopted into the Kido family; he used the given name Jun’ichiro, and the name Taka- yoshi is sometimes read Koin.
He studied Chinese, swordsmanship, and horsemanship, and in 1849 entered a private school in the domain run by the Confucian scholar Yoshida Shoin.
In 1852 he went to Edo and perfected his study of swordsmanship under Saito Yakuro, later becoming director of Saito’s school. He made friends among the samurai of the domain of Mito, many of whom supported the sonno-joi movement, which called for restoration of power to the emperor and expulsion of the foreigners. He studied Western style military science under Egawa Tarozaemon and came in contact with Katsu Kaishu.
Beginning in 1858, he served in the Yubikan, a school for the civil and military training of samurai of the domain of Choshu who were stationed in Edo, helping to develop a group of young men who were ardent supporters of the throne. In 1862 he accompanied his lord, Mori Takachika, daimyo of the domain of Choshu, on a journey to Kyoto, working to drum up support for the sonno-joi movement and to make it the official policy of the Choshu domain. In 1863, however, a coup d'etat was carried out in Kyoto by his rivals of the kobu-gattai faction, which favored a strengthening of relations between the court and the shogunate through a marriage alliance. As a result, the ChSshu forces were expelled from the capital. Kido remained in Kyoto in order to devote himself to the interests of the state, though his life was endangered any number of times.
In 1865 he returned to Shiinonoseki in Choshu. When the shogunate sent a punitive expedition against Choshu, Kido worked with Omura Masujiro, the commander of the Choshu forces, to employ Dutch military techniques, which contributed to the defeat of the shogunate army. Meanwhile, in 1866, Kido and others of Choshu, through the intervention of Sakamoto Ryoma, made peace with the fief's former enemy, the domain of Satsuma, and joined the Satsuma leaders Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi in concluding a secret alliance to overthrow the shogunate.
In 1868 he became a chbshi (domain representative) in the Dajokan, or Council of State, and advisor to the office of the governor (sosai), taking a place beside Okubo as one of the key figures in the central government and working to promote the modernization of Japan through the abolition of the feudal system and the opening of the country. In 1869 he persuaded the lords of several of the most powerful domains to voluntarily return their fiefs to the emperor and in 1871 he laid the theoretical foundation for the abolishment of the feudal land system and the establishment of prefectures and worked to carry out these measures.
Earlier, in 1869, he had become a member of the Taishoin, an office for handling suggestions from the public, and had advocated an expedition against Korea as a means of unifying public sentiment in Japan. In 1870 he became a councilor of state and the following year accompanied Ivvakura Tomomi on his mission to Europe and the United States as vice-minister plenipotentiary. The mission spent two years abroad, conducting preliminary negotiations for revision of Japan’s treaties with the foreign powers. After returning to Japan in 1873, he urged, on the basis of his experience in Europe and America, that the government draw up detailed rules and regulations for its procedures. He also advised that priority be given to domestic problems and dismissed Saigo Takamori’s proposal for an expedition against Korea as rash. In 1874 he was simultaneously appointed minister of education and minister of the interior, but resigned four months later because he opposed Okubo Toshimichi’s action in sending troops to Taiwan. He was later appointed to a position in the Imperial Household Ministry.
For a time, Kido returned to his home in the former domain of Choshu. In 1875, he attended the so-called Osaka Conference, a meeting between government leaders and men like Kido who had resigned from government positions hi dissatisfaction. The aim was to overcome the unease and ill feeling that had arisen over the controversies concerning Korea, Taiw'an, the establishment of a national assembly, and other rapid changes that had taken place on the political scene. The government leaders agreed to establish a system whereby the executive, legislative, and judiciary powers would be clearly separated, setting up a Senate (Genroin) and Supreme Court (Daishin-in) in addition to the Council of State, and establishing an assembly of provincial officials. On these conditions, Kido, Itagaki Taisuke, and the others agreed to return to government service, Kido resuming his position as councilor of state. Later the emperor duly handed down an edict instructing that the changes in government be carried out. The same year, Kido became head of the Assembly of Provincial Officials, but he found himself in opposition to Okubo and Okuma over the question of land tax reform, and in 1876 he resigned his post as councilor of state. He later became a cabinet advisor and an official in the Imperial Household Ministry, devoting himself to the study of such questions as providing financial support for the imperial family and stipends for the aristocracy and setting up a system of noble ranks. He died of illness in 1877, in the midst of the Seinan civil war.
He was one of the most important theorists among the founders of the Meiji government, and, in contrast to the bureaucratic attitude of Okubo Toshimichi, was of an open and liberal mind. In spite of poor health, he was active in many fields of endeavor, and the progressive political approach he displayed in arguing for the early establishment of a national assembly has won him high esteem among scholars of political science.
A year after his death, his son was made a member of the nobility and in 1884 received the title of marquis.