Ōkubo Toshimichi — The Cool-Headed Statesman Who Built the Meiji State
Often contrasted with the warm-hearted Saigō Takamori is the cool, decisive administrator Ōkubo Toshimichi. Born in the same Satsuma domain, the two achieved the Restoration together — and then parted ways over the direction of the nation.
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A Satsuma comrade
Ōkubo Toshimichi was born in 1830 into a samurai family of Satsuma. Together with his childhood friend Saigō he reached the heart of domain politics and led the drive toward overthrowing the shogunate.
Where Saigō was a man of action, Ōkubo excelled at meticulous calculation and patient negotiation. The pairing of feeling and reason, the two men's contrasting gifts, drew out Satsuma's strength to the full.
To the center of the new government
After the Satsuma–Chōshū Alliance and the fall of the shogunate, Ōkubo took a central role in the new government. One of the greatest reforms he led was the abolition of the domains and their replacement with prefectures.
Switching from rule by domains to direct rule by a central government overturned the very foundations of the samurai order. Ōkubo carried it through with an almost cold-blooded resolve, suppressing the resistance it provoked.
Promoting industry
Later, as Home Minister wielding real power, Ōkubo devoted himself to fostering modern industry. He pressed ahead with state-run factories, transport networks, and the infrastructure that would support a rich nation and strong army.
Rather than proclaim ideals, he assembled the concrete institutions of the state — and that skill gave the Meiji state its framework.
Struck down at Kioizaka
Ōkubo's methods of forced modernization provoked fierce resentment among samurai losing their privileges. In 1878, the year after his comrade Saigō was defeated in the Satsuma Rebellion, Ōkubo was attacked and killed by disaffected samurai at Kioizaka in Tokyo.
That two men who had dreamed of the Restoration together met violent ends in succession speaks to the magnitude of the new era's birth pangs.
The group portrait of those who carried the Restoration is gathered in Bakumatsu Figures.
Related reading
Sakamoto Ryōma — The Tosa Visionary Who United Satsuma and Chōshū
A low-ranking Tosa samurai who left his domain, built a trading company, and brokered the Satsuma–Chōshū Alliance. A fact-based look at the brief, decisive life of one of the Bakumatsu's most celebrated figures.
Saigō Takamori — The Satsuma Giant Who Led the Restoration and Died in Revolt
He achieved the bloodless surrender of Edo and became a central architect of the Meiji Restoration, only to take up arms against the new government and fall in the Satsuma Rebellion. A fact-based account of a dramatic life.
Yoshida Shōin — The Teacher Who Trained the Restoration at the Shōka Sonjuku
In just a few years of running a private school, Yoshida Shōin educated the men who would lead the Meiji Restoration. From his attempt to stow away on Perry's ships to his death in the Ansei Purge, a fact-based portrait of the thinker and teacher.