Enomoto Takeaki

Enomoto Takeaki was a shogunate retainer in the Bakumatsu period who later became a minister in the Meiji government. His common name was Kamajiro and his art name Ryosen. He was born on 5 October 1836 in Shitaya Okachimachi, Edo, the son of the shogunate retainer Enomoto Takenori, and died of kidney disease at Mukojima on 26 October 1908, aged 72. He studied at the Shoheizaka Gakumonjo and the Nagasaki Naval Training Institute.

Study in the Netherlands

In 1862 he sailed to Europe to order the warship Kaiyo Maru, arriving in Rotterdam in the 4th month of Bunkyu 3 (1863). He studied navigation, gunnery, steam engineering, chemistry and international law, and returned to Yokohama in the 3rd month of Keio 3 (1867).

The Boshin and Hakodate wars

He commanded the former shogunate fleet and won against Satsuma ships at the Battle of Awa-oki in the 1st month of Keio 4 (1868). After the surrender of Edo he led the fleet north and occupied Ezo. He landed in the 10th month of Meiji 1 (1868), took Goryokaku and was elected leader (sosai) in the 12th month. Kaiyo Maru was lost when it ran aground off Esashi. He surrendered at Hakodate in the 5th month of Meiji 2 (1869).

Pardon and Meiji career

Imprisoned for about two and a half years, he was pardoned in the 1st month of Meiji 5 (1872) with the help of Kuroda Kiyotaka. He joined the Hokkaido Development Commission and surveyed resources such as coal. From 1874 he served as special envoy to Russia and concluded the Sakhalin-Kuril Islands exchange treaty in 1875. After serving as Navy Minister and envoy to Qing China, he held the portfolios of Communications, Education, Foreign Affairs, and Agriculture and Commerce. He was made a viscount in 1887 and resigned as Minister of Agriculture and Commerce over the Ashio pollution issue. In 1897 he promoted emigration to Mexico, but the Escuintla settlement collapsed within about three months. He retired from the navy as vice admiral in 1905.

Swords

He is known for the Ryusei-to, a katana made from a meteorite found in Toyama. In 1898 he presented it to the crown prince, the future Emperor Taisho, and published a paper on its making.