was a Japanese statesman in the early Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

.

Endō was born to a samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

family in Hagi

Hagi, Yamaguchi

is a city located in Yamaguchi, Japan and was incorporated as a city on July 1, 1932. Formerly part of Abu District.On March 6, 2005, the former city of Hagi merged with the towns of Susa and Tamagawa, and the villages of Asahi, Fukue, Kawakami and Mutsumi to form the new city of Hagi.Iwami Airport...

, Chōshū Domain (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture

Yamaguchi Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Yamaguchi, in the center of the prefecture. The largest city, however, is Shimonoseki.- History :...

. He was selected by the domain to be a member of the Chōshū Five

Choshu Five

The were members of the Chōshū han of western Japan who studied in England from 1863 at University College London under the guidance of Professor Alexander William Williamson. It was still illegal to leave Japan when they left, as sakoku was still practically in force until the Meiji...

 who were smuggled out of Japan in defiance of the Tokugawa bakufu's policy of national seclusion

Sakoku

was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...

 to Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 in 1863. Chōshū was desperate to acquire better knowledge of the western nations in order to strengthen the domain in its struggle to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

. Endō returned from England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1866, just before the start of the Boshin War

Boshin War

The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....

.

When Sir Harry Parkes

Harry Smith Parkes

Sir Harry Smith Parkes was a 19th century British diplomat who worked mainly in China and Japan...

, the British minister in Japan between 1865 and 1883, visited Chōshū in 1866, Endō served as an interpreter, together with Inoue Kaoru

Inoue Kaoru

Count , GCMG was a member of the Meiji oligarchy during the Meiji period Empire of Japan. As one of the senior statesman in Japan during that period, he had a tremendous influence on the selection of the nation's leaders and formation of its policies.-Early years:...

, another member of the Chōshū Five

Choshu Five

The were members of the Chōshū han of western Japan who studied in England from 1863 at University College London under the guidance of Professor Alexander William Williamson. It was still illegal to leave Japan when they left, as sakoku was still practically in force until the Meiji...

.

After the Meiji Restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

 and the establishment of the new Meiji government, Endō served as the head of the new in Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

, from 1881-1883. He is remembered less for his efforts in establishing a unified national currency and more for his policy that the grounds of the Mint should be open for all the people of Osaka in spring, when the sakura

Sakura

A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese Cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is sometimes called sakura after the Japanese . Many of the varieties that have been cultivated for ornamental use do not produce fruit...

 trees planted there come into bloom.

Reference and further reading

• Beasley, W. G. The Meiji Restoration. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972.
• Cobbing, Andrew. The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain. RoutledgeCurzon, London, 1998. ISBN 1873410816
• Craig, Albert M. Chōshū in the Meiji Restoration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961