Aoki Shūzō

Viscount Aoki Shūzō (青木 周藏, 3 March 1844 – 16 February 1914) was a diplomat and Foreign Minister in Meiji period Japan.[1]

Viscount

Aoki Shūzō
青木 周藏
Viscount Aoki Shūzō
Born(1844-03-03)March 3, 1844
San'yō-Onoda, Yamaguchi, Japan
DiedFebruary 16, 1914(1914-02-16) (aged 69)
Nasu, Tochigi, Japan
NationalityJapanese
OccupationDiplomat, Foreign Minister of Japan
Spouse(s)Elisabeth von Rhade
ChildrenHanna Aoki
In this Japanese name, the surname is Aoki.

Biography

Viscount Aoki was born to a samurai family as son of the Chōshū domain's physician in what is now part of Sanyō Onoda in Yamaguchi Prefecture). He studied western science and medicine (rangaku) at the domain school Meirinkan in Hagi, and in Nagasaki, He was then sent by Chōshū domain to Germany to study western law in 1868. However, while in Germany, his studies ranged over a very wide area, from western medicine, to politics, military science, and economics. From his surviving notes, he studied how to make beer, paper and paper money, carpets and rugs and techniques of western forestry management.

Aoki returned to Japan after the Meiji Restoration, and entered the Foreign Ministry of new Meiji government in 1873 as First Secretary to the Japanese legations to Germany, Netherlands and Austria. He then served as Vice Foreign Minister in the first Itō administration and Foreign Minister in the first Yamagata administration. While Foreign Minister, he strove for the revision the unequal treaties between the Empire of Japan and the various European powers, particularly the extraterritoriality clauses, and expressed concern over the eastern expansion of the Russian Empire into east Asia.

During this time, Viscount Aoki was instrumental in the development of the internal program for Transfers of technology and advice on systems and cultural ways.

By the hand of Aoki, over a dozen of specialized western professionals were brought to Japan in 1887, not only at a governmental level but also into the private sector. Amongst these so called "O-yatoi gaikokujin" were prominent figures including W. K. Burton, Ottmar von Mohl, Albert Favre Zanuti, Henry Spencer Palmer, Hermann Ende, Wilhelm Böckmann, Rudolf Dittrich and Ludwig Riess.

In 1888 Aoki commissioned an architect and friend from Berlin times, Matsugasaki Tsumunaga, to build him a villa as resort in Nasu highlands. This villa was costly restored in recent years and entered the list of Important Cultural Properties of Japan.[2] Matsugasaki won Aoki as first president of the newly established Society of Japanese Architects in 1888.[3]

Aoki was forced to resign as a consequence of the Ōtsu Incident of 1891, but resumed his post as Foreign Minister under the Matsukata administration.

In 1894, as ambassador to Great Britain, Aoki worked with Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu towards the revision of the unequal treaties, successfully concluding the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation for Japan in London on 16 July 1894.

Returned to his post as Foreign Minister under the second Yamagata administration, Aoki helped Japan gain recognition as one of the Great Powers by its military support of the European forces during the Boxer Rebellion.

Aoki was then appointed to the Privy Council and elevated in title to shishaku (viscount).

In 1906, he served as ambassador to the United States.

Aoki died at his country house in Nasu, Tochigi prefecture in 1914.

Family
Aoki villa in Nasu

Aoki married the daughter of a Prussian aristocrat, Elisabeth von Rhade (Strippow, 13 January 1849 – Munich, 5 April 1931), and they had among others a daughter named Hanna Aoki (Tokyo, 16 December 1879 – Wissen, 24 June 1953), who married in Tokyo on December 19, 1904 Alexander Maria Hermann Melchior, Graf von Hatzfeldt zu Trachenberg (Berlin, 10 February 1877 – Schloss Schönstein, 27 November 1953) and had an only daughter Hissa Elisabeth Natalie Olga Ilsa Gräfin von Hatzfeldt zu Trachenberg (Pommerswitz, 26 February 1906 – Salzburg, 4 June 1985), who married in Munich, 28 April 1927 Maria Erwin Joseph Sidonius Benediktus Franziskus von Sales Petrus Friedrich Ignatius Hubertus Johannes von Nepomuk Felix Maurus Graf von Neipperg (Schwaigern, 15 January 1897 – Stuttgart-Vaihingen, 5 December 1957), and had issue now extinct in male line.

Morihisa Aoki (born November 23, 1938), Japanese ambassador to Peru during the Japanese embassy hostage crisis was his great grandson.

Awards and Decorations

Peerages and titles
  • Viscount (7 May 1887)

Decorations

Order of precedence
  • Third rank (20 October 1886)
  • Senior second rank (16 February 1914; posthumous)

Foreign

See also

References
  1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Aoki Shūzō" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 35, p. 35, at Google Books.
  2. See Japanese link of this page
  3. see Okada

Further reading
  • Okada, Y.: Aoki Shūzō Nasu bessō. (The country house of Aoki Shūzō at Nasu) 1995
  • Auslin, Michael R. (2004). Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01521-0; OCLC 56493769
  • Edström, Bert. Turning Points in Japanese History. RoutledgeCurzon (2002). ISBN 1-903350-05-0
  • Jansen, Marius B. (2000). The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674003347; OCLC 44090600
  • Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
Political offices
Preceded by
Ōkuma Shigenobu		 Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
24 December 1889 – 29 May 1891		 Succeeded by
Enomoto Takeaki
Preceded by
Ōkuma Shigenobu		 Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
8 November 1898 – 19 October 1900		 Succeeded by
Katō Takaaki
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