Terashima Munenori
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Terashima Munenori (寺島宗則?) (21 June 1832 - 6 June 1893) was a diplomat in Meiji period Japan.
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[edit] Early life
Terashima was born to a samurai family in Satsuma domain (present day Kagoshima prefecture). He studied rangaku and was appointed as a physician to Satsuma daimyo Shimazu Nariakira. In 1862, he was chosen as a member of the group of Japanese students selected by the Tokugawa bakufu to study at the University College London in Great Britain. He also visited France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia and Portugal. He returned to Japan in 1863, and participated in the defense of Satsuma during the Anglo-Satsuma War.
[edit] Meiji bureaucrat
After the Meiji Restoration, Terashima was appointed a san'yo (junior councilor) in the new Meiji government. In 1873, he was appointed foreign minister, and negotiated the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), which fixed the national boundaries between Japan and the Russian Empire. His efforts to re-negotiate the unequal treaties with the United States failed at the last minute due to British opposition. Terashima was also responsible for the negotiations during the Maria Luz Incident involving a Peruvian ship carrying indentured labor Chinese laborers stopping in Japan.
As Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture, he was responsible for connecting Tokyo and Yokohama by telegraph in 1868.
He later served in the Genroin, and in 1891, he became vice president of the Privy Council.
[edit] Reference and further reading
- Austin, Michael R. Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy. Harvard University Press (2006). ISBN 978-0-674-02227-0
- Cobbing, Andrew. The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain. RoutledgeCurzon, London, 1998. ISBN 978-1-873410-81-3
- Jansen, Marius B. Emergence of Meiji Japan, The (Cambridge History of Japan). Cambridge University Press (2006). ISBN 978-0-521-48405-3
- Keane, Donald. Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852-1912. Columbia University Press (2005). ISBN 978-0-231-12341-9
