BOOKS

Mutsu Munemitsu and His Time

Mutsu Munemitsu and His Time

Okazaki Hisahiko
Translated by Noda Makito

Japan Library series
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Biography

¥3,000 + tax

ISBN 9784866580258
220 mm x 148 mm / 352 pp. / March 2018

Toward the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, Mutsu Munemitsu was ousted from his home Kishu-han as a result of his father’s defeat in a power struggle. To avenge this, Mutsu bolstered his talent to become a man of “genius and learning in equal measure.” He joined the Kobe Naval Training Center founded by Katsu Kaishu and, later, Kaientai, a trading and shipping company and private navy founded and managed by Sakamoto Ryoma before the Meiji Restoration was accomplished.

During the Meiji era, Mutsu fully exercised his extraordinary ability, including working to revise unequal treaties with Western powers as foreign minister. In his last days, he scrambled to end the First Sino-Japanese War; his efforts resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki with favorable terms for Japan. Mutsu also helped Japan ride out the subsequent wave of the Tripartite Intervention from Russia, France, and Germany.

This book’s author, a career diplomat himself, traces the footsteps of modern Japan’s diplomacy by reviewing the philosophical and political journey of this extraordinary diplomat who protected the dignity of Japan as a modern nation throughout his professional life.

 

OKAZAKI Hisahiko
Okazaki Hisahiko entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1952. He was appointed the first director-general of the Information Analysis, Research and Planning Bureau in 1984 and served as ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Thailand before retiring in 1992. He was the director of the Okazaki Institute until his death in 2014.

*information as of time of publication

Japan Library series
Biography

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥3,000 + tax
ISBN 9784866580258
220 mm x 148 mm / 352 pp. / March 2018

eBook
ISBN 9784866580470 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866580371 (PDF)

Foreword / 1. Father and Son: At the Apex of Eighteenth-Century Culture / 2. Date Munehiro in Exile (Jitoku-Ō): Intellectual Pilgrimage of an Edo Dignitary / 3. Meiji Restoration: Into the Age of Revolution and Gun Smoke / 4. Giant Wings Broken: The Rise and Fall of a Prussian-style Military State / 5. A Bush Warbler in Winter: Involved in Tosa’s Adventure / 6. Burning the Midnight Oil Again: Study during Imprisonment / 7. Burning the Midnight Oil a Third Time: Is a Prussian-style Constitution Appropriate? / 8. The Origins of Japanese Democracy: Building a Modern Nation-State / 9. The Dawn of Constitutional Government: A Samurai Democracy to Be Proud of / 10. First Setback for the Parliamentary Democracy: Bloody Intervention in the Election / 11. Revision of Treaties: Freedom from Half a Century of Humiliation / 12. Rivalry on the Korean Peninsula: One Imperialism vs. Another / 13. The Donghak Peasant Rebellion: Is Korea a Tributary to Qing China? / 14. The Eve of the First Sino-Japanese War: Tenacity / 15. A War of Diplomacy: Keeping the Western Powers at Bay / 16. The Battle of Pungdo: Dawn of an Empire / 17. Japan Sails to Victory: China’s Strategic Dilemma / 18. The Final Phase of the War: A Race Against Time / 19. The Treaty of Shimonoseki: Li Hongzhang in Japan / 20. The Tripartite Intervention: An Unavoidable Concession / 21. Mutsu’s Death: Fighting for Democracy to the Last / References / Appendix— Chronological Table of Mutsu Munemitsu’s Life and Accomplishments

若き日の坂本竜馬らとの交流から、欧米留学後に外務省に入省し、明治日本の生存と尊厳に命を賭した外交官の波乱の生涯を描く力作評伝。日本における近代の意味ついて、客観的な論考を試みる。

岡崎久彦
1952年に外務省へ入省。1984年、初代の外務省情報調査局長に任命された。また、1992年に外務省を退官するまで、サウジアラビアとタイで特命全権大使を歴任。2014年に亡くなるまで岡崎研究所の理事長・所長を務めた。

*著者略歴は書籍刊行時のものを表示しています。

Original Japanese Edition

陸奥宗光とその時代

岡崎久彦 著

PHP研究所 刊

2009/11/27

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