was a scholar and statesman in 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 :...

 Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. He often used the pen-name Kanda Kōhei.

Kanda was born in the Fuwa District

Fuwa District, Gifu

is a district located in Gifu, Japan.As of July 2011, the district has an estimated population of 36,426. The total area is 106.43 km²....

 of Mino Province

Mino Province

, one of the old provinces of Japan, encompassed part of modern-day Gifu Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Mino Province bordered Echizen, Hida, Ise, Mikawa, Ōmi, Owari, and Shinano Provinces....

, (present-day Gifu Prefecture

Gifu Prefecture

is a prefecture located in the Chūbu region of central Japan. Its capital is the city of Gifu.Located in the center of Japan, it has long played an important part as the crossroads of Japan, connecting the east to the west through such routes as the Nakasendō...

). He studied rangaku

Rangaku

Rangaku is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641–1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate’s policy of national...

and became a teacher at the Tokugawa bakufu's Bansho Shirabesho

Bansho Shirabesho

The ', or "Institute for the Study of Barbarian Books," was the Japanese institute charged with the translation and study of foreign books and publications in the late Edo Period. Founded in 1857, it functioned as a sort of bureau of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It was renamed ' in 1862, and ' in 1863...

institute for researching western science and technology.

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...

, Kanda was appointed governor of Hyōgo Prefecture

Hyogo Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is Kobe.The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.- History :...

, and also worked for the new Meiji government as an advisor on economics and governmental structures, and was responsible for developing and implementing the Land Tax Reforms of 1873-1881, and for establishing local administration structures. He was appointed to the House of Peers

House of Peers (Japan)

The ' was the upper house of the Imperial Diet as mandated under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan ....

 in 1890.

His translation of William Ellis

William Ellis (economist)

William Ellis was an English businessman, writer on economics, and educational thinker.-Life:Ellis was born in January 1800. His father, Andrew Ellis Ellis, an underwriter at Lloyd's of London, was the descendant of a French refugee family named De Vezian, and took the name Ellis shortly after the...

's Outlines of Social Economy in 1867 is regarded as Japan’s earliest study of western economics.

He served in the Genroin

Genroin

' was a national assembly in early Meiji Japan, established after the Osaka Conference of 1875. It is also referred to as the Senate of Japan, Genrōin being the word used to describe the Roman Senate, and other western legislatures named after it....

, and was afterwards appointed to the House of Peers. He was ennobled with the title of danshaku (baron) in the kazoku

Kazoku

The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan that existed between 1869 and 1947.-Origins:Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the ancient court nobility of Kyoto regained some of its lost status...

peerage system.