Enomoto Takeaki 榎本 武揚 (1836-1908)
Enomoto was born in 1836 into a warrior family that directly served the Tokugawa. He started learning Dutch in the 1850s and studied at the shogunate’s Naval Training Centre in Nagasaki and at the Tsukiji Warship Training Centre in Edo.
At the age of 26, he was sent to the Netherlands to study European naval warfare and to procure European technology. He stayed there from 1862 to 1867 and became fluent in both Dutch and English. During his stay in Europe, Enomoto realized that the telegraph would be an important means of communication in the future and started planning a system to connect Edo and Yokohama. Upon his return, Enomoto was promoted to the second highest rank in the Tokugawa Navy.
During the Meiji Restoration, after the surrender of Edo in 1868 during the Boshin War, Enomoto refused to hand over warships under his command to Imperial forces. He escaped to Hakodate in Hokkaido with what was left of the Tokugawa Navy. He hoped to create an independent country under the rule of the Tokugawa family in Hokkaido but the Meiji government refused to accept partition of Japan. In January 1869, Tokugawa loyalists declared the foundation of the Republic of Ezo and elected Enomoto as president.
The Meiji government defeated Enomoto’s forces in the Battle of Hakodate in May 1869. Following the battle, the Republic of Ezo collapsed, and Hokkaido came under the rule of the central government. After his surrender, Enomoto was arrested, accused of high treason and imprisoned.
However, the leaders of the Meiji government realized that Enomoto’s talents and knowledge could be of use and pardoned him in 1872. He became one of the few former Tokugawa loyalists who made the transition to the new ruling elite. In 1874, he was given the rank of vice-admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The following year, he was sent to Russia as a special envoy to negotiate the Treaty of St Petersberg. In 1880, he became Navy Minister and was subsequently appointed Minister of Communications; Agriculture and Commerce; Education; and Foreign Minister.
Aizan Connection:
Aizan’s father Ichirō accompanied Enomoto, along with other members of the Shōgitai, to Hokkaido after the defeat of the Tokugawa army in the Battle of Ueno. Aizan also later criticised Enomoto’s conservative Confucian opinions when he was Minister of Education.
