Konoe Atsumaro
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Prince Konoe Atsumaro (近衛篤麿 Konoe Atsumaro?) (10 August 1863 – 1 January 1904) was a Japanese statesman, the 3rd President of the House of Peers and 7th President of the Gakushuin Peer's School in Meiji period Japan. He was also the father of Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro.
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[edit] Early life
Konoe Atsumaro was born in Kyoto as the heir to the highly-ranked Konoe family of Court nobility. His father, the Udaijin Konoe Tadafusa, died when Atsumaro was young, and he was raised by his grandfather. Also of fragile health, he had problems staying in university, but managed to teach himself English on his own.[citation needed]
[edit] Political career
After the Meiji Restoration, Konoe toured Europe from 1885 until 1890 and studied at both Bonn and Leipzig universities in Germany. After returning to Japan, he became a member of the House of Peers as koshaku (prince) under the new kazoku system of peerage.
In 1895, he became president of Gakushuin Peer's School.
Later he served as the 3rd President of the House of Peers, presiding over its 10th through 18th sessions from 3 October 1896 to 4 December 1903. From 1903 he concurrently served as a Privy Councillor.
Domestically, Konoe was a strong critic of clan-based politics.
In terms of foreign policy, Konoe was a central figure in the Pan-Asian Movement. He established a Pan-Asian political movement called the East Asia Common Culture Society (東亜同文会 Toa Dobunkai?) which promoted mutual understanding and improvement in relations between Japan and China after the First Sino-Japanese War. The society opened a college in Nanjing called the East Asia Common Cultural College (東亜同文書院 Toa Dobun Shoin?) in 1900, which was relocated to Shanghai in 1901. The college recruited students from Japan wishing to learn the Chinese language and culture, and sponsored a school in Tokyo for Chinese students seeking higher education in Japan. The society also published a scholarly journal. Graduates of both schools were highly sought after by the Japanese military, Japanese secret intelligence services and ultranationalist organizations for their language skills and in-depth knowledge of Chinese culture.
In August 1903, Konoe established the Anti-Russia Society (対露同志会 Tairo Doshikai?) which pushed for a hard-line foreign policy towards Russia, which it perceived as a threat to the independence of China, Korea and Japan. Konoe personally urged that Japan declare war on Russia, but died before the start of the Russo-Japanese War in late 1904.
His grave is at the Konoe family cemetery at Daitoku-ji in Kyoto.
[edit] References
- Bergere, Marie-Clarie. Sun Yat-Sen. Stanford University Press (2000) ISBN: 0804740119
- Duus, Peter. The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910 (Twentieth-Century Japan - the Emergence of a World Power, 4). University of California Press (1998). ISBN: 0520213610.
- Jansen, Marius B. The Making of Modern Japan. Belknap Press; New Ed edition (October 15, 2002). ISBN: 0674009916
- Keane, Donald. Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852-1912. Columbia University Press (2005). ISBN: 0231123418
