Background
Godai Tomoatsu was born on February 12, 1835 in Kagoshima, Satsuma Domain, Japan. He was called Saisuke in his youth. Godai Tomoatsu was the second son of Naozaeinon, a Confucian scholar of the Satsuma Clan (Kagoshima Prefecture).
Godai Tomoatsu was born on February 12, 1835 in Kagoshima, Satsuma Domain, Japan. He was called Saisuke in his youth. Godai Tomoatsu was the second son of Naozaeinon, a Confucian scholar of the Satsuma Clan (Kagoshima Prefecture).
In 1857, Godai Tomoatsu went to Nagasaki to study the Dutch language at the order of his lord.
He was also one of the Satsuma students of 1865 who were smuggled out of Bakumatsu period Japan to study in Great Britain.
Godai Tomoatsu wrote to his lord urging him to buy ships and weapons in view of the world developments. When the Tokugawa Shogunate bought a British ship and put it on the Shanghai-Nagasaki service, Tomoafau bought another from Germany in Shanghai and contracted to buy seven more from Britain. He was appointed secretary of the Marine Commissioner of the Satsuma Clan. When a British fleet bombarded Kagoshima, he took the ships of his clan to Uratomi.
In 1865, Godai Tomoatsu went to England together with elder clansmen to arrange for the training of young men of the clan in that country. He returned to Japan the following year and was appointed at the Meiji Restoration a Councillor, then a judge handling international affairs. He ably assisted Meiji statesmen including Hirobumi ltd, Kaoru Inoue and Shigenobu Okuma in the chaotic early Meiji years.
Godai Tomoatsu was responsible for the opening of the Osaka port. After retiring from Government service, he engaged in shipbuilding, spinning, mining and other enterprises and contributed to the establishment of the Osaka Stock Exchange, Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other institutions.