Hotta Masayoshi
Hotta Masayoshi was a daimyô of Sakura han (Shimousa province), and head of the rôjû, famous as the chief Japanese official involved in negotiating the 1858 Harris Treaty (US-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce), which opened four Japanese ports to foreign commerce, and granted a degree of extraterritoriality to foreigners in Japan.
Masayoshi became lord of Sakura in 1825, and after stints as jisha bugyô (Magistrate of Temples & Shrines), and Ôsaka jôdai (castellan of Osaka castle on behalf of the shogunate), he was eventually named a rôjû, and then, in 1855, became head of the rôjû (rôjû shuza). He was appointed gaikoku-jimu-toriatsukai (essentially, "foreign minister") the following year, and in opposition to certain other prominent figures in the Tokugawa shogunate, took a stance that Japan needed to engage more actively and openly in foreign intercourse in order to prosper. He thus negotiated the terms of a treaty with US Consul Townsend Harris, resulting in the signing of the treaty on 1858/7/19 (July 29).
Masayoshi returned to Sakura shortly after the signing of the treaty, and died there on 1864/3/21.
References
- Plaque at Sakura castle.
- Plaques at Hotta clan cemetery at Jindai-ji in Sakura City.
