Changes

From SamuraiWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
456 bytes added ,  19:50, 19 March 2015
no edit summary
Line 7: Line 7:  
After serving as governor of [[Shiga prefecture]] for some time, Matsuda stepped down from that position in March [[1875]] to become Chief Secretary of the Home Ministry. Acting in accordance with "disposal of Ryûkyû" plans articulated by [[Minister of the Interior]] [[Okubo Toshimichi|Ôkubo Toshimichi]], Matsuda met with Ryukyuan officials in March through May that same year, rebuking them for their disloyalty to the Empire of Japan in continuing [[tribute|tributary]] relations with [[Qing Dynasty]] China. In June, he was named "''Shobun-kan''," or "Disposal Officer," by the [[Meiji Emperor]]. He left for Okinawa two days later, arriving in July and beginning the implementation of a number of political and other systematic changes, following the declaration in [[1872]] that the Ryûkyû Kingdom was now [[Ryukyu han|Ryûkyû han]], a feudal domain under the Emperor, and thus subject more directly to Japanese law. While the Ryukyuan royal court rejected many of Tokyo's demands (as conveyed by Matsuda), and even sent [[Ikegusuku ueekata]] and several other officials to Tokyo where they remained for a year, continuing to reject Tokyo's demands, on behalf of their king, Matsuda still managed to implement numerous policy changes in Ryûkyû, including the imposition of Japanese criminal codes and law enforcement, and the establishment of a permanent [[Kumamoto Garrison|army garrison]] in the islands, which actually arrived the following year.<ref>Kerr, George. Okinawa: The History of an Island People (revised ed.). Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2000, 371-373.</ref>
 
After serving as governor of [[Shiga prefecture]] for some time, Matsuda stepped down from that position in March [[1875]] to become Chief Secretary of the Home Ministry. Acting in accordance with "disposal of Ryûkyû" plans articulated by [[Minister of the Interior]] [[Okubo Toshimichi|Ôkubo Toshimichi]], Matsuda met with Ryukyuan officials in March through May that same year, rebuking them for their disloyalty to the Empire of Japan in continuing [[tribute|tributary]] relations with [[Qing Dynasty]] China. In June, he was named "''Shobun-kan''," or "Disposal Officer," by the [[Meiji Emperor]]. He left for Okinawa two days later, arriving in July and beginning the implementation of a number of political and other systematic changes, following the declaration in [[1872]] that the Ryûkyû Kingdom was now [[Ryukyu han|Ryûkyû han]], a feudal domain under the Emperor, and thus subject more directly to Japanese law. While the Ryukyuan royal court rejected many of Tokyo's demands (as conveyed by Matsuda), and even sent [[Ikegusuku ueekata]] and several other officials to Tokyo where they remained for a year, continuing to reject Tokyo's demands, on behalf of their king, Matsuda still managed to implement numerous policy changes in Ryûkyû, including the imposition of Japanese criminal codes and law enforcement, and the establishment of a permanent [[Kumamoto Garrison|army garrison]] in the islands, which actually arrived the following year.<ref>Kerr, George. Okinawa: The History of an Island People (revised ed.). Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2000, 371-373.</ref>
   −
Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, Matsuda was in [[1876]] named the head of a committee put together by the Home Ministry to organize urban planning in Tokyo. He presented a plan in [[1880]] which proposed boosting the city's economic development through the elimination of slums, improving the city's safety and hygiene, and improving infrastructure, including roads, canals, the water system, and the port facilities.<ref name=goddard>Timothy Unverzagt Goddard, "Teito Tokyo: Empire, Modernity, and the Metropolitan Imagination," PhD Dissertation, UCLA, 2013, p7.</ref> Matsuda was succeeded as governor of Tokyo by [[Yoshikawa Akimasa]]<!--芳川顕正, 1841-1920-->.<ref name=goddard/>
+
Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, Matsuda was in [[1876]] named the head of a committee put together by the Home Ministry to organize urban planning in Tokyo. He presented a plan in [[1880]] which proposed boosting the city's economic development through the elimination of slums, improving the city's safety and hygiene, and improving infrastructure, including roads, canals, the water system, and the port facilities.<ref name=goddard>Timothy Unverzagt Goddard, "Teito Tokyo: Empire, Modernity, and the Metropolitan Imagination," PhD Dissertation, UCLA, 2013, p7.</ref> His plan advocated explicitly focusing on a designated core of the city, and giving little attention to the development of other neighborhoods.<ref>Takashi Fujitani, ''Splendid Monarchy'', UC Press (1998), 72.</ref> Matsuda was succeeded as governor of Tokyo by [[Yoshikawa Akimasa]]<!--芳川顕正, 1841-1920-->.<ref name=goddard/>
    
Matsuda returned to Ryûkyû in [[1877]] to present further demands from Tokyo, and in [[1878]] he presented his own ideas for the "disposal of Ryûkyû" to [[Ito Hirobumi|Itô Hirobumi]]. Granted permission and authority to begin carrying this plan out, he returned to Ryûkyû once again in January [[1879]], and presented to [[Nakijin Chofu|Prince Nakijin]] a formal letter from the Prime Minister reproaching Ryûkyû for breaking the prohibition imposed by Japan on sending [[Ryukyuan tribute missions to China|diplomatic missions to China]], and for obstructing the implementation of Japanese law enforcement and criminal administration in the islands. Spending only a brief time there, he returned to Tokyo, and then back to Ryûkyû two months later, where he presented to the Prince the formal letter officially declaring the dissolution of the Kingdom of Ryûkyû and its annexation by the Japanese Empire, as Okinawa Prefecture.
 
Matsuda returned to Ryûkyû in [[1877]] to present further demands from Tokyo, and in [[1878]] he presented his own ideas for the "disposal of Ryûkyû" to [[Ito Hirobumi|Itô Hirobumi]]. Granted permission and authority to begin carrying this plan out, he returned to Ryûkyû once again in January [[1879]], and presented to [[Nakijin Chofu|Prince Nakijin]] a formal letter from the Prime Minister reproaching Ryûkyû for breaking the prohibition imposed by Japan on sending [[Ryukyuan tribute missions to China|diplomatic missions to China]], and for obstructing the implementation of Japanese law enforcement and criminal administration in the islands. Spending only a brief time there, he returned to Tokyo, and then back to Ryûkyû two months later, where he presented to the Prince the formal letter officially declaring the dissolution of the Kingdom of Ryûkyû and its annexation by the Japanese Empire, as Okinawa Prefecture.
    
He then remained in Okinawa, or traveled back and forth between there and Tokyo, continuing to oversee the implementation of the ''shobun'' for some time, though he was never named governor of Okinawa.
 
He then remained in Okinawa, or traveled back and forth between there and Tokyo, continuing to oversee the implementation of the ''shobun'' for some time, though he was never named governor of Okinawa.
 +
 +
<center>
 +
{| border="3" align="center"
 +
|- align="center"
 +
|width="32%"|Preceded by:<br>'''[[Kusumoto Masataka]]'''
 +
|width="35%"|'''Governor of [[Tokyo]]'''<br> 1879-1882
 +
|width="32%"|Succeeded by:<br>'''[[Yoshikawa Akimasa]]'''
 +
|}
 +
</center>
    
{{stub}}
 
{{stub}}
contributor
26,975

edits

Navigation menu