Toshiakira Kawaji

Background

Toshiakira Kawaji was born on 25 April 1801 in Japan. His father was a samurai named Naito, but he became the adopted son of Kawaji Sanzaemon; his younger brother was Inoue Naokiyo, who held the title of Shinano-no-kami.

Career

He was first appointed to office in the shogunate in 1818 and thereafter held a series of posts having to do at various times with the treasury, the local administrations of the island of Sado and the cities of Nara and Osaka, coastal defense, and foreign relations. As official in charge of coastal defense, he was obliged to deal with the arrival of Commodore Perry and his squadron of American ships at the harbor of Uraga in 1853.

In the dispute over the succession to the shogunate, he opposed the opin¬ion of the high official Ii Naosuke and in 1859 was deprived of his post as minister of foreign affairs; it was restored to him in 1863, but at that time he declined it because of ill health.

On April 12, 1868, the day after the shogun handed over Edo Castle to the imperial forces, he committed suicide in his sickbed.

Achievements

• When the Russian envoy Putiatin arrived at Nagasaki the same year, Toshiakira was put in charge of receiving him, exchanging memoranda with him concerning preferential rights and most favored nation treatment at such a time as trade relations should be established, and persuading him that in order to establish Russo-Japanese boundaries in the Kurile Islands and Kamchatka it was preferable that both countries send inspection parties to the area. The following year, when Putiatin returned to Japan, this time arriving at Shimoda, Toshiakira concluded a treaty of Russo- Japanese friendship with him.

Works

• Other Work

  • He published a work entitled Kaikaku zushi (“Illustrated Gazetteer of the Maritime Nations”), set up an office for the handling of books from abroad, and made other contributions to the culture
    
    of the time.

    (He published a work entitled Kaikaku zushi (“Illustrated ...)