Inagaki Manjirō
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- In this Japanese name, the family name is Inagaki.
Inagaki Manjiro (稲垣 満次郎 Inagaki Manjirō?); (26 September 1861– 25 November 1908) was a diplomat in Meiji period Japan.
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[edit] Early life
Inagaki was born in Nagasaki, as the son of a samurai of the Hirado clan. As a young man he was a warder of Satsuma men imprisoned in Nagasaki after the unsuccessful Satsuma Rebellion, and gained their respect and affection.
After studying at the clan-established Ishinkan, Kagoshima Shigakko (private school), etc., he entered the Department of Literature of the Tokyo Imperial University in 1882. Sent down from Tokyo University with many others after the ‘Incident of 1883’ when the student body rebelled and boycotted the graduation ceremony because the time of the ceremony was changed, he never returned as most of the others did.
Instead, Inagaki went to Great Britain from January 1888 to December 1890 and studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He also founded the Japanese Club at Cambridge University to study the ways of English gentlemen. He became a very popular figure at the University, especially with the Master of Pembroke College and the Vice-Chancellor, the Reverend Dr Charles Edward Searle.
[edit] Later life
After graduating he returned to Japan, and became a temporary professor at Gakushuin Higher Commercial School. He entered the Foreign Ministry and became Japan's first deputy Minister Resident in Siam (now Thailand) on 31 March 1897. He was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary on 19 November 1899, and envoy extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in 1903. He continued in that role until July 1907 when he was transferred to Spain.
Inagaki wrote a number of scholarly books in English and Japanese on international affairs, but died relatively young with his potential unfulfilled.
[edit] Writings
[edit] English
- Japan and the Pacific and the Japanese View of the Eastern Question, 1890 (London: T. Fisher Unwin) - dedicated to John Robert Seeley who taught Inagaki at Gonville and Caius College.
[edit] Japanese
- Tohosaku (Policy for the East) (1891).
- Shiberia tetsudoron (On the Siberian railways) (1891).
- Kizokuron (On the nobility) (Meiji 24, 26, 27)
- Kyoiku no Omoto (Great Fount of Education) (Meiji 25)
- Nanyo Chosei dan (Expedition to the South seas) (Meiji 26)
- Gaiko to Gaisei (Diplomacy and Foreign Campaigns) (1896)
[edit] See also
- Kikuchi Dairoku
- Suematsu Kencho
- Donald MacAlister
- Anglo-Japanese relations
- Japanese students in Britain
[edit] External links
- Japanese Students at Cambridge University in the Meiji Era, 1868-1912: Pioneers for the Modernization of Japan, by Noboru Koyama, translated by Ian Ruxton, (Lulu Press, September 2004, ISBN 1-4116-1256-6)
- Portrait of Inagaki Manjiro on the website of the National Diet Library of Japan
