Katō Hiroyuki
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- In this Japanese name, the family name is Katō.
Katō Hiroyuki (加藤弘之 Katō Hiroyuki?, 5 August 1836 – 9 February 1916) was an educator, statesman and leader of the Meiji Enlightenment in Meiji period Japan.
Katō was born to a samurai family in Izushi domain, Tajima Province (present day Hyōgo Prefecture), and studied military science under Sakuma Shozan and rangaku under Oki Nakamasu in Edo. As an instructor at the Tokugawa bakufu's Bansho Shirabesho institute for researching Western science and technology from 1860-1868, he was one of the first Japanese to study German language and German philosophy.
After the Meiji Restoration, he wrote numerous thesis recommending Japanese adoption of Western forms of government, especially that of a constitutional monarchy with a national assembly based on representative democracy. He joined the Rikken Seiyukai political party, and was also a founding member of the Meirokusha intellectual society organized by Mori Arinori. A strong believer in social Darwinism, he drew parallels a democratic government and the natural order. He served on the Genroin, where he strongly supported a more authoritarian version of government against the views propounded by the Freedom and People's Rights Movement.
He served as superintendent of the Departments of Law, Science, and Literature of Tokyo Imperial University from 1877-1886, and again as president from 1890-1893, and was head of the Imperial Academy from 1905-1909. He was also a special advisor to the Imperial Household Agency.
He was appointed a member of the House of Peers in 1890, and was ennobled with the title of danshaku (baron) under the kazoku peerage system in 1900. In addition, he became a Privy Councilor.
[edit] References and further reading
- Davis, Winston. The Moral and Political Naturalism of Baron Kato Hiroyuki. Institute for East Asian Studies, June 1996. ISBN 1-55729-052-0.
