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Kido Takayoshi

Kido Takayoshi
木戸 孝允
Kido Takayoshi 1869.jpg
Kido Takayoshi
(Tokugawa shogunate years)
Born (1833-08-11)August 11, 1833
Chōshū Domain, Japan
Died May 26, 1877(1877-05-26) (aged 43)
Kyoto, Japan
Nationality Japanese

Kido Takayoshi (木戸 孝允?, August 11, 1833 – May 26, 1877), also referred as Kido Kōin was a Japanese statesman during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji Restoration. He used the alias Niibori Matsusuke (新堀 松輔?) when he worked against the Shogun.

Kido was born in Hagi, in Chōshū Domain (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture) as the latest son of Wada Masakage (和田 昌景?), a samurai physician. He was adopted into the Katsura family at age seven, and until 1865 was known as Katsura Kogorō (桂 小五郎?). He was educated at the academy of Yoshida Shōin, from whom he adopted the philosophy of Imperial loyalism.

In 1852, he went to Edo to study swordsmanship, established ties with radical samurai from Mito domain, learned artillery techniques with Egawa Tarōzaemon, and (after observing the construction of foreign ships in Nagasaki and Shimoda), returned to Chōshū to supervise the construction of the domain's first western-style warship.


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