[Count]. Japanese statesman, born in Wakayama. A vehement opponent of “clan government”—that is, usurpation of administrative posts by men of two or three fiefs, an abuse which threatened to follow the overthrow of the Tokugawa shōgunate—he conspired to assist Saigō’s rebellion and was imprisoned from 1878 until 1883. While in prison he translated Bentham’s Utilitarianism. In 1886, after a visit to Europe, he received a diplomatic appointment, and held the portfolio of foreign affairs during the China-Japan War (1894–95), being associated with Prince (then Count) Itō as peace plenipotentiary. He negotiated the first of the revised treaties (that with Great Britain), and for these various services he received the title of count. He died in Tōkyō. His statue in bronze stands before the foreign office in Tōkyō.
