He was born in a village in Izumi District, Satsuma, the second son of the Nagano family of country samurai. As a small child he was adopted by his uncle Matsuki Sōho, a Western-style doctor, and took the name Matsuki Kōan. As heir to a doctor's house he set out on the path of learning, and is said to have encountered Dutch learning early on in Nagasaki.
He went to Edo and studied under leading scholars of Dutch learning of the day, such as Itō Genboku and Kawamoto Kōmin. He took a strong interest not only in medicine but in Western sciences such as chemistry and physics. This study is thought to have laid the groundwork for his later attention to new technologies such as the telegraph.
He became an assistant instructor at the Bansho Shirabesho, the shogunate's institute for Western studies, and soon returned to Satsuma as personal physician to the lord Shimazu Nariakira. Under the forward-thinking Nariakira he also took part in work testing Western techniques. Afterward he served again at the Bansho Shirabesho and began teaching himself English.
He joined the mission the shogunate sent to Europe as interpreter and physician, together with Fukuzawa Yukichi and Mitsukuri Shūhei. Touring the countries, he learned that Dutch was little understood in Europe and changed his view, deciding that English should now be the center of study.
When the Anglo-Satsuma War broke out between Satsuma and Britain, he was aboard a domain ship and was captured by the British, along with Godai Tomoatsu. After his release he was viewed with suspicion even by his domain and is said to have spent some time in hiding. It was a bitter experience.
He crossed to Britain with the envoys and students the Satsuma domain secretly sent there. In London he met British politicians and explored ways for Satsuma to deal with Britain directly. The names of the students on this journey are still engraved on a memorial at University College London.
He submitted a memorial to the lord Shimazu Tadayoshi, arguing that the lands and people ruled by the daimyō should be returned to the court. This idea led toward the later return of land and people. He also taught English at the domain school in Kagoshima, working to train young men for the new age.
Joining the new Meiji government, he handled negotiations with foreigners in Kanagawa. He also strongly pressed for a telegraph line between Tokyo and Yokohama, which began to be realized that year. For such achievements he later came to be called the father of Japanese telecommunications.
After serving as plenipotentiary for a treaty with Hawaii, he went to London as Japan's first minister resident in Britain. He now faced Britain, which he had once confronted as a captive in his youth, as a diplomat representing his country, gaining experience on the front line of diplomacy.
Serving as both councillor and foreign minister, he became the head of diplomacy. He worked on treaty revision to amend the unequal terms and recover Japan's right to set its own tariffs. Talks with the United States nearly succeeded, but strong opposition from Britain and others kept progress from going as hoped.
Talks stalled over incidents such as a foreign ship entering port without obeying Japanese quarantine, and he resigned as foreign minister. The outcome showed how long the road to treaty revision would be. He went on to serve as education minister, president of the Genrōin and minister to the United States, continuing in heavy government roles.
Made a count, he served as vice president of the Privy Council, which advised the emperor. In deliberations on the Meiji Constitution, he strongly argued that the Diet too should have the right to propose bills. Drawing on what he had seen abroad, he is thought to have valued the power of the people's representatives.
He died at the age of sixty. His was a life that began in medicine, broadened from Dutch to English learning, and led from shogunate envoy and domain diplomacy to foreign minister of the Meiji government. His introduction of the telegraph and his challenge of treaty revision left his name in the history of modern Japanese diplomacy and communications.
Shimazu NariakiraGodai TomoatsuIsawa ShūjiFukuzawa Yukichi
Yuri KimimasaŌkubo ToshimichiKawanabe KyōsaiNakamura MasanaoKido TakayoshiŌtori KeisukeEtō ShinpeiFukuzawa Yukichi
People of the Meiji period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.