" Satcho Dohi ", which represents the name of the Meiji Restoration's meritorious clan "Hizen" in "" refers to "Hizen", that is, "Saga". Among them, Nabeshima Naomasa has two names, "Hizen Yokai". He is also known as a rare master.
This time, Nabeshima Naomasa was said to be the efforts of the Saga domain and the madness of Dutch studies. Approaching.
Saga Domain before Nabeshima Naomasa became the feudal lord
To be honest, it can be said that the car is in a state of considerable fire.
The Saga domain, which is governed by Tozama Daimyo, has a heavier economic burden than the other domains just by changing to work in Edo. In addition to the change of attendance to Edo, I am in charge of security for one year with the Fukuoka domain because it is close to Nagasaki, which was the only place where trade with foreign countries was allowed at that time. This security also put pressure on the finances.
It was the Phaeton Incident by a British warship in 1808 that further exacerbated its finances. is.
* Phaeton Incident What is ...
In 1808, a British warship invaded Nagasaki Port with the Dutch flag raised.
Speaking of the 1800s, Napoleon was rampaging in Europe. The Netherlands was requisitioned by France and lost its home country, but it did not tell the fact to the Shogunate.
Britain is naturally in conflict with France. It is said that a Dutch ship (a French ship from the perspective of England) invaded Nagasaki Port to capture it.
The Saga domain recognized the need for military reinforcement in this case and added a battery to Nagasaki Port . Because of that, it is becoming more and more difficult. In 1817, it will be impossible to generate the necessary funds for the change of attendance. Moreover, Nabeshima Narinao, the feudal lord at that time, is also famous as a flashy lover.
Furthermore, the wedding expenses when the daughter of Shogun Ienari Tokugawa was greeted in the Seishitsu room of Naomasa in the direct hit of the typhoon in 1828. You should know the circumstances of the Saga domain.
Nabeshima Naomasa succeeds
Under such severe circumstances, Naomasa, who succeeded Naomasa as the reign of the family in 1830 (my father retired), had a bitter experience that the procession was stopped by merchants who were pressing for debt repayment on the way from Edo to Saga to join the club. increase. It seems that he decided to reform the clan's finances more strongly because of this incident.
Initially, his father, who had retired, had the power to issue a sumptuary law, but after 1835 he should make a full-scale reform.
- Reorganization of personnel, restructuring of 30% of officials
- Substantial defeat of debt that has been up to now
- Reconstruction of rural areas, reclamation of the Ariake Sea ⇒ Stone height almost doubled
- Expansion of the clan school and Kodokan (=human resources development. Many talents such as Shigenobu Okuma have grown up)
- Establishment of medical school (first license system for doctors in Japan)
- Promotion of the breeding industry (pottery, white wax, wheat, tea, coal industry)
These reforms have expanded financial resources and human resources. It seems that the reputation of the clan, which is enthusiastic about education, from posterity is also said to be due to this reform.
Meanwhile, information on the Opium War comes from neighboring countries. Since there was a coal mine in Saga, we will export coal, which is in high demand, in the wake of the Opium War and embark on foreign currency acquisition. At the same time, I had a bitter memory of the past, and I felt a sense of crisis.
Modernization of armaments
Nabeshima Naomasa Has visited Nagasaki Port several times for foreign-registered merchant ships and warships. Although he was unusual as a feudal lord, his realization of foreign threats by witnessing the scientific and technological capabilities of foreign countries had a strong influence on his direct policies and policies, and he became known as a feudal clan with great military power at the end of the Edo period. It will lead to raising.
What did you start with?
One goal was to replace the bronze cannons that were mainstream at the time with the more powerful iron ones. However, at that time, Japanese steelmaking technology could not produce iron of stable quality and was not at the level of producing iron cannons.
That's where I went to Tsukiji Reverberatory Furnace Construction is.
Saga Prefecture is still famous for pottery such as Karatsu, Imari, and Arita. .. The same was true during the Edo period. I already had the know-how to make a kiln .. Furthermore, the scholars, casters, and swordsmiths in the domain mobilized to create high-quality iron, and finally succeeded in creating a domestic iron cannon . To do. This happened in 1852, a year before Perry's arrival.
What the arrival of Perry and the arrival of Russia Putyatin brought about
Perry's arrival , the beginning of the end of the Edo period in 1853 .. In response to this, the Shogunate requested an iron cannon, and multiple cannons have been installed at the Shinagawa Battery (currently Odaiba).
About a month and a half later, Putyatin from Russia Came to Nagasaki.
Putyatin is a (strongly) signed Nanking Treaty between Qing and Britain. He advised the emperor that the "opening of the Qing dynasty" by the Emperor would affect Russia. Eventually, the plan to send an expedition to Qing and Japan in 1843 was postponed due to opposition from Russia's problems with Turkey and financial difficulties, but the American steam fleet heard information about going to Japan and came to Japan. It is supposed to be carried.
Putyatin arrived in Nagasaki with the advice of a Japanese doctor, Siebold. At that time, he prepared a steam locomotive model doing.
At this time, from the Saga domain, Kisuke Nakamura, Hisashige Tanaka, Naohiro Ishiguro Is on board and is the first in Japan to see a model of a steam locomotive. They were officials in the Saga domain (an institution that conducts research and development of reverberatory furnaces and steam engines, etc., which was established in 1852 by the Saga domain).
* Hisashige Tanaka is the founder of Toshiba's predecessor, Shibaura Seisakusho.
A year later, I went to Uraga Perry When he re-enters the port, he decides to witness a model of a steam locomotive that the Shogunate brought as a souvenir from the United States. It was about a year after the Saga domain officials visited the model.
In the meantime, the Saga domain mass transportation of coal can be a means to gain economic strength . Steam engine research to modernize transportation means Was advancing. Beyond that, Fukoku Kyohei's plan Is also visible.
Of course, you can't make it just by looking at it once. It seems that he made a model one year after the shogunate saw it by repeating trial and error with reference to the book that describes the mechanism of the steam engine in the Dutch book.
The Saga domain was not the only one who felt the need to modernize transportation and armaments. The Fukuoka domain also made models of steam locomotives at about the same time, and there are records that the Choshu domain and the Kaga domain purchased steam locomotive models.
By accumulating such research and development, not only models of steam locomotives, but also steamships, Armstrong guns, telegraph machines, glass and cameras, etc. .. .. He created various modern machines.
After that, in the Meiji era, the Nabeshima family managed to move to a private company called Refining Company. I will finish the role of refining in the Nabeshima domain.
What raised Nabeshima Naomasa? ??
Naomasa Is Nagasaki / Dejima Defense Not only, Hokkaido is important because of its relationship with Russia I also do.
- What to do with national defense?
- How do you get what you need for that?
He was in charge of the domain reforms with an eye on the whole country and the future.
The reason why I became a lord with such foresight is that, as I have written so far, the Saga domain is geographically an environment close to Dejima . , And Phaeton Incident Father's splurge Not only the Saga domain scholar who scrutinized the Phaeton Incident, Koga Kokudo I can't talk without the existence of.
The grain hall is a person who worked as a professor at a clan school. He had appealed to the clan that he needed to study not only Confucianism but also Western scholarship. Naomasa lived in Edo at that time. I have been selected as an educator. Instead of giving lectures and teaching, he gave lessons that made him think. Especially the Phaeton Incident Seems to have been taken up as a debate theme many times.
Recently, the need for group discussions and debates has been called out as one of the educational methods, so it can be said that it was quite advanced at that time.
Receiving the expectations of such a grain hall, Naomasa Is
He is said to have grown moderately. In addition, Naomasa In order to support this, we have also created an educational institution for young feudal lords in Edo.
Naomasa While observing the teachings of such a grain hall, he laid down the domain reform.
It is said that the Saga Domain, which had a powerful military power and remained on the sidelines until just before the fall of the Shogunate, was estranged from the Choshu Domain, who play a central role in the Meiji government. Even so, the presence of the Saga Domain, which had many excellent human resources and possessed basic techniques for modernization such as daily necessities as well as armaments, was great even after the restoration.
It is none other than Nabeshima Naomasa who raised such a Saga domain. .. I think it's understandable that he is said to be a rare master.