Nakane Kōtei

Nakane Kōtei (中根 香亭^?, March 27, 1839 – January 20, 1913) was a Japanese writer who lived during the late Edo Period and early Meiji Era. Writing under the pen name of Kōtei, his given name was Kiyoshi (淑). He was the second son of Sone Nao (曾根 直), and his patrilineality root was the Kai-Genji clan (甲斐源氏).

Nakane was born in Edo (江戸), and was adopted and brought up by the Nakane-House (中根) from childhood. His adoptive parents treated him as a real son and he served them faithfully. Nakane liked Japanese martial arts and read many books, however he had no formal teacher.

Nakane served Edo Bakufu as a kachi-metsuke (徒士目), an infantry officer, and became an infantry commandant in the last days of the Edo period. After the Meiji Restoration, Nakane followed Tokugawa Yoshinobu to Suruga (駿河, now Shizuoka prefecture), and worked there at the Numazu Military Academy (沼津兵学校).

In 1873, Nakane was called to the Staff Bureau of Military (陸軍参謀局), and served as a major. In the winter of 1876, he contracted a disease, and became incapable of performing any further physical hard labour. Due to this he resigned his post, and lived in Tokyo for the next five or six years. He was eventually appointed as a sonin-hensankan (奏任編纂官), or "compilation government service" in the Ministry of Education, but resigned several years later. At this point Nakane's life in the public services had ended, and he thereafter followed his literary pursuits.

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