INOUYE, KAORU, MARQUESS (1835 )

This article appears in Volume V14, Page 587 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: I27-INV

INOUYE, KAORU, MARQUESS (1835 ) , Japanese states-man, was born in 1835, a samurai of the Choshu fief. He was a bosom friend of his fellow-clansman Prince Ito, and the two youths visited England in 1863, serving as common sailors during the voyage. At that time all travel abroad was forbidden on pain of death, but the veto did not prove deterrent in the face of a rapidly growing conviction that, as a matter of self-

protection

PROTECTION

, Japan must assimilate the essentials of Western civilization. Shortly after the departure of Inouye and Ito, the Choshu fief, having fired upon foreign vessels passing the strait of Shimonoseki, was menaced by war with the Yedo government or with the insulted powers, and Inouye and Ito, on receipt of this news, hastened

home

hoping to avert the catastrophe. They repaired to the British legation in Yedo and begged that the allied

squadron

SQUADRON

, then about to sail for Shimonoseki to

call

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

Choshu to account, should be delayed that they might have an opportunity of advising the fief to make timely submission. Not only was this request complied with, but a British frigate was detailed to carry the two men to Shimonoseki, and, pending her departure, the British legation assisted them to lie perdu. Their mission proved futile, however, and Inouye was subsequently waylaid by a party of conservative samurai, who left him covered with wounds. This experience did not modify his liberal views, and, by the time of the Restoration in 1867, he had earned a high reputation as a leader of progress and an able statesman. Finance and foreign affairs were supposed to be the

spheres

SPHERES, MUSIC OF THE

specially suited to his genius, but his name is not associated with any

signal

SIGNAL

practical

PRACTICAL

success in either, though his counsels were always highly valued by his sovereign and his country alike. As minister of foreign affairs he conducted the

long

LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

and abortive negotiations for treaty revision between 1883 and 1886, and in 1885 he was raised to the peerage with the title of

count

COUNT (Lat. comes, gen. comitis, Fr. comte, Ital. conte, Span. conde)

, being one of the first group of Meiji statesmen whose services were thus rewarded. Prior to his permanent retirement from office in 1898, he held the portfolios of foreign affairs, finance,

home

affairs, and agriculture and commerce, and throughout the war with Russia he attended all important state councils, by order of the emperor, being also specially designated adviser to the minister of finance. In 1907 he was raised to the rank of marquess. His name will go down in his country's history as one of the five Meiji statesmen, namely, Princes Ito and Yamagata, Marquesses Inouye and Matsukata and

Count

COUNT (Lat. comes, gen. comitis, Fr. comte, Ital. conte, Span. conde)

Okuma.

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