Ōtori Keisuke

Ōtori Keisuke was born in Akō District, Harima Province, the son of a village doctor. He was born in 1833 (Tenpō 4) and died on the fifteenth day of the sixth month of 1911 (Meiji 44) at his villa in Kōzu.

From Dutch Learning to the Shogunate

In 1852 he entered the Tekijuku school in Osaka to study Dutch learning and Western medicine. Later he served at the Bansho Shirabesho and learned English from Nakahama Manjirō. In the first month of 1865 he entered the Army Training Office (Rikugunsho) and became a hatamoto.

The Denshūtai and the Boshin War

In 1867 he took part in founding the Denshūtai, and in the second month of 1868 he was promoted to Infantry Commissioner (hei-bugyō). On the eleventh day of the fourth month of 1868 he led the Denshūtai out of Edo. After the Hakodate War, he surrendered at Goryōkaku on the eighteenth day of the fifth month of 1869 (Meiji 2), was taken to Tokyo, and was imprisoned.

Pardon and the Meiji Government

He was released on the eighth day of the first month of 1872 under a special pardon, and returned in the third month of 1874 from a tour of Europe and America. He then served as principal of the Imperial College of Engineering and as chief engineer of the Ministry of Public Works, and in 1894 became a member of the Privy Council. In 1900 he was granted the title of baron.

Minister to China and Korea

In 1889 (Meiji 22) he was appointed Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Minister to China and served there. In 1893 he also held concurrent appointment as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Minister to Korea at Seoul, and in 1894 he was posted to Korea.