Etō Shimpei

▪ Japanese statesman

born March 18, 1834, Hizen province, Japan

died April 13, 1874, Saga prefecture, Kyushu

      statesman who played a leading role in the Meiji Restoration (the 1868 return of power to the emperor and overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate).

      Although Etō was not a native of Chōshū or of Satsuma, the two feudal fiefs that played the leading role in the Meiji Restoration, he was responsible for the support given the imperial forces by troops from his native domain of Saga. After the 1868 coup he became an important member of the new government and was partially responsible for the transfer of the imperial capital from Kyōto to Edo, renamed Tokyo. He then assisted in setting up a new civil administration and public-finance system and initiated the reform of the old judicial apparatus.

      In 1873, however, Etō was a member of a faction within the Cabinet that advocated a military expedition against Korea. When this idea was rejected, Etō resigned from the Cabinet and helped form a political club, the Aikoku Kōtō (“Public Party of Patriots”). Angered by the domination of the government by samurai (hereditary warriors) from Chōshū and Satsuma, the group denounced the arbitrary manner in which official decisions were being made and called for the establishment of a parliamentary system of government.

      When the administration ignored these suggestions, Etō returned to Saga, where he organized a revolt, the first serious challenge to the new government. Dissident samurai in other provinces failed to rally to Etō's cause, however, and he was captured and beheaded.

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