Tsutsui Masanori
Tsutsui Masanori was a Tokugawa shogunate official during the Bakumatsu period. He is perhaps best known as one of three signers of the 1854 Treaty of Shimoda, along with Kawaji Toshiakira and Koga Masaru, on behalf of the shogunate.
In the mid-1840s, he was asked on a number of occasions to provide the shogunate with his formal opinion on coastal defense and related matters.[1] He was named Chôsen tsûshinshi heirei yôkakari (official in charge of the reception of Korean embassies to Edo) in 1846, and was promoted from yoriai to Nishinomaru Rusui the following year.[2] In the late 1840s to early 1850s, he performed inspection tours of coastal defenses in and around Edo, oversaw economic relief efforts for the people of the city, and engaged in other activities on behalf of the shogunate. In 1852, he was formally recognized by the shogunate along with Hayashi Akira and several others for their efforts in performing surveys of historical documents.[3]
Though already of ômetsuke rank in 1854, Tsutsui was reassigned from Nishinomaru Rusui to an active position as ômetsuke in that year.[4] The following year (1855), due to his advanced age, the shogunate excused him from more formal duties, and asked him to help oversee matters of coastal defense, the shogunate's military academy (Kôbusho), and record-keeping.[5] He was officially reassigned from ômetsuke to yari bugyô in 1857,[6] but continued to be called upon for discussions and work pertaining to coastal defense and foreign relations, including matters pertaining to Ezo and discussions and preparations surrounding the 1857 visit of US consul general Townsend Harris to Edo.[7]
References
- ↑ Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 1 (1937), 6, 32, 48.
- ↑ Ishin Shiryô Kôyô, vol 1, 51, 62.
- ↑ Ishin Shiryô Kôyô, vol. 1, 144, 146, 175, 244, 248, 256, 300, 347.
- ↑ Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 1 (1937), 626.
- ↑ Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 2 (1937), 101.
- ↑ Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 2 (1937), 298.
- ↑ Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 2 (1937), 376, 386.
