Born into a low-ranking samurai family of Satsuma domain (Kagoshima). Though the family was poor, he trained hard in swordsmanship and gunnery, and later rose as one of the domain's young talents under Saigō Takamori and Ōkubo Toshimichi.
He fought in the Anglo-Satsuma War, which grew out of the Namamugi Incident, and learned the hard way how powerful the British fleet's guns were. Afterwards he is believed to have studied gunnery in Edo, keenly aware of the importance of Western military technology.
To bring Satsuma and Chōshū together, he went to Chōshū as an envoy and persuaded Kido Takayoshi to come to Kyoto. The Satchō Alliance thus concluded became a great force for overthrowing the shogunate.
In the Battle of Hakodate, the last of the Boshin War, he was a staff officer of the government army and brought the former shogunate forces at Goryōkaku to surrender. Valuing the talent of their leader Enomoto Takeaki, he is said to have shaved his head in pleading for Enomoto's life.
He became deputy head of the Colonization Office, in charge of developing Hokkaidō and Sakhalin. The following year he toured the United States and invited Horace Capron, the American Commissioner of Agriculture, to Japan as an adviser.
Now head of the Colonization Office, he pushed the development of Hokkaidō in earnest. He created the system of tondenhei, farmer-soldiers who tilled the land but took up arms when needed, aiming to defend and develop Hokkaidō at the same time.
As plenipotentiary in talks with Korea, he concluded the Japan–Korea Treaty of Amity. The same year he invited Dr. William Clark from America and opened the Sapporo Agricultural College to train people to build Hokkaidō.
In the Satsuma Rebellion he led government troops as a staff commander to relieve Kumamoto Castle. It was a painful position, fighting against Saigō Takamori, his senior from home.
His plan to sell the Colonization Office's factories, ships and other assets cheaply to merchants from his own Satsuma caused an uproar (the Hokkaidō Colonization Office scandal). Fierce public criticism forced the sale to be cancelled, leading to the crisis of 1881.
Succeeding Itō Hirobumi, he became the second prime minister of Japan. A native of Satsuma, he headed the cabinet under which the Meiji Constitution would be promulgated the following year.
The Meiji Constitution was promulgated under the Kuroda cabinet. In a speech Kuroda declared transcendentalism, the view that the government should stand above the political parties. But opposition grew to Ōkuma Shigenobu's plan for treaty revision, and after Ōkuma was attacked the cabinet resigned.
He continued as an elder statesman to take part in important government decisions, serving among other posts as president of the Privy Council, which advised the emperor.
He died in Tokyo. Enomoto Takeaki, whose life he had once saved, is said to have chaired his funeral. As a man who devoted himself to developing Hokkaidō, he is honored with a statue in Ōdōri Park in Sapporo.
Saigō TakamoriŌkubo ToshimichiKido TakayoshiEnomoto TakeakiŌkuma ShigenobuSoejima TaneomiŌtori KeisukeItō Hirobumi
Yamagata AritomoEdward S. MorseGoto ShojiroShibusawa EiichiItō HirobumiTanaka ShōzōŌyama IwaoNiijima Jō
People of the Meiji period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.