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27-730: Following the closure of the Nagasaki Naval Training Center by his political opponents within the Tokugawa shogunate , Katsu Kaishū made a visit to the United States aboard the Japanese steamship Kanrin Maru , and returned even more determined that Japan needed to build a modern navy in order to prevent colonization by the Western imperialist powers. He obtained official permission to establish

54-411: A hotbed of anti-Tokugawa activities. The origins of this were evident in the tradition of the clan's New Year's meeting. Every year during the meeting, the elders and the administrators would ask the daimyo whether the time to overthrow the shogunate had come, to which the daimyo would reply: "Not yet, the shogunate is still too powerful." This dream would eventually be realized some 260 years later, when

81-510: A strategy of alliance with Toyotomi Hideyoshi . This would later prove to be a great mistake. After Hideyoshi's death, the daimyō Tokugawa Ieyasu challenged the Toyotomi power and battled with Hideyoshi's trusted advisor Ishida Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara . Mōri Terumoto was the most powerful ally of the Toyotomi and was elected by a council of Toyotomi loyalists to be the titulary head of

108-525: A strict policy with regard to trade. Laws were also passed through which the profitable trade of the "four whites" was controlled by the domain: paper, rice, salt, and wax. Some of the profits, and a large amount of the tax revenue from this trade, went into the domain coffers. These policies greatly strengthened the domain's finances and allowed the daimyo more effective control over his territory. However, these policies angered peasants and displaced samurai alike, resulting in frequent revolts. The capital of

135-491: A training school at what was then the small fishing village of Kobe in Settsu Province with the three-fold purpose of creating an officer’s training academy, a shipyard for the construction of modern warships, and a modern seaport. From the beginning, Katsu encountered opposition to his plans from within the shogunate, and as official funding was withheld, he was forced to support the center largely out of his own funds and

162-709: The Dutch settlement on the artificial island Dejima in Nagasaki , where maximum interaction with Dutch naval technology would be possible. Nagai Naoyuki was appointed the first director with a first class of 37 cadets from the various hatamoto with fealty directly to the Shōgun , and 128 cadets sent from the various feudal han (16 from Satsuma Domain , 28 from Fukuoka Domain , 15 from Chōshū Domain , 47 from Saga Domain , 5 from Kumamoto Domain , 12 from Tsu Domain , 4 from Fukuyama Domain and one from Kakegawa Domain ). Katsu Kaishū

189-680: The Ezo Republic , during the Boshin War . The domains' military forces of 1867 through 1869 also formed the foundation for the Imperial Japanese Army . Thanks to this alliance, Chōshū and Satsuma natives enjoyed political and societal prominence well into the Meiji and even Taishō eras. The initial reduction of 1.2 million to 369,000 koku resulted in a large shortfall in terms of military upkeep and infrastructure maintenance, despite which

216-733: The Hagi Domain ( 萩藩 , Hagi-han ) , was a domain ( han ) of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Chōshū Domain was based at Hagi Castle in Nagato Province , in the modern city of Hagi , located in the Chūgoku region of the island of Honshu . The Chōshū Domain was ruled for its existence by the tozama daimyō of the Mōri , whose branches also ruled

243-750: The Kankō Maru was also sailed by a Japanese-only crew. The decision to terminate the School was made for political reasons, arising from the Japanese side as well as from the Dutch side. While the Netherlands feared that the other Western powers would suspect that they were helping the Japanese accumulate naval power to repulse Westerners, the Shogunate became reluctant to give samurai from traditionally anti-Tokugawa domains opportunities to learn modern naval technology. Although

270-525: The Kaientai would also influence Tosa trading official Iwasaki Yatarō in contributing to Japan's naval expansion–which became one of the central industries Mitsubishi (the company he will found) will be involved. 34°41′08.75″N 135°11′36.54″E  /  34.6857639°N 135.1934833°E  / 34.6857639; 135.1934833 Nagasaki Naval Training Center The Nagasaki Naval Training Center ( 長崎海軍伝習所 , Nagasaki Kaigun Denshū-jo )

297-587: The Kobe Naval Training Center subsequently went on to play a major role in the Meiji Restoration , including Sakamoto Ryōma , Mutsu Munemitsu and Itō Sukeyuki . Sakamoto and Mutsu would be later instrumental in the foundation of the Kaientai , a shipping company that would play a major part in bridging the alliance between the domains of Satsuma and Choshu. Indirectly, the activities of Sakamoto and

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324-767: The Nagasaki Naval Training Center was short-lived, it had considerable direct and indirect influence on future Japanese society. The Nagasaki Naval Training Center educated many naval officers and engineers who would later become not only founders of the Imperial Japanese Navy but also promoters of Japan's shipbuilding and other industries. 32°44′42.12″N 129°52′24.53″E  /  32.7450333°N 129.8734806°E  / 32.7450333; 129.8734806 Ch%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB Domain The Chōshū Domain ( 長州藩 , Chōshū-han ) , also known as

351-495: The Toyotomi force. However, the Toyotomi forces lost the battle due to several factors tied to Mōri Terumoto: Despite its inactivity, the Mōri clan was removed from its ancestral home in Aki to Nagato Province (also known as Chōshū), and its holdings were drastically reduced from 1,200,000 to 369,000 koku . This was seen as a great act of betrayal to the Mōri clan, and Chōshū later became

378-509: The domain joined forces with the Satsuma Domain and sympathetic court nobles to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1865, the domain bought a warship Union ( ja ) from Glover and Co. , an agency of Jardine Matheson established in Nagasaki , in the name of Satsuma Domain . They led the fight against the armies of the former shōgun, which included the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei , Aizu , and

405-493: The domain remained the seventh largest in Japan outside the shogunate-controlled domains. In order to bring the domain's finances out of debt, strict policies were enforced on the retainers: Previously, as a result of high taxation, farmers secretly developed farms far inside the mountains as a private food source. A new land survey was conducted within the domain in which many hidden farms were discovered and taxed. The domain also began

432-446: The domain was the castle town of Hagi , which was the source of Chōshū's alternate name of Hagi han (萩藩). The domain remained under the rule of the Mōri family for the duration of the Edo period . Because the shogunate frequently confiscated domains whose daimyo were unable to produce heirs, the Mōri daimyo created four subordinate han ruled by branches of the family: During the Edo period,

459-534: The donations of a few sympathetic daimyō. The presence of a large number of pro- Sonnō jōi rōnin within the membership of the center also brought the project under suspicion, especially in the wake of the Kinmon Incident and the Ikedaya Incident (wherein one of its students, Mochizuki Kameyata of Tosa was among the jōi shishi casualties). The center was closed in mid-1865. A number of students of

486-419: The guidance of Dutch instructors, the Shogunate built a factory for the repair of naval ships as a part of the School's supporting facilities. This was the first modern factory in Japan utilizing imported European machinery. The number of cadets from various domains proved unwieldy, and the second class of 1856 was reduced to only 12 cadets, all from the hatamoto in Edo . In 1857 another naval training academy

513-455: The landing of United States commodore Matthew Perry in 1854, resulting in the Treaty of Kanagawa and the opening of Japan to foreign trade. The Tokugawa government decided to order modern steam warships and to build a naval training center as part of its modernization efforts to meet the perceived military threat posed by the more advanced Western navies. The training center was established near

540-560: The main branch died out in 1707, after which heirs were adopted from the Chōfu branch, which also became extinct in 1751. The family then continued through the Kiyosue branch. The Mōri daimyo, as with many of his counterparts throughout Japan, was assisted in the government of his domain by a group of karō , or domain elders. There were two kinds of karō in Chōshū: hereditary karō (whose families retained

567-555: The neighboring Chōfu and Kiyosue domains and was assessed under the Kokudaka system with peak value of 369,000 koku . The Chōshū Domain was the most prominent anti-Tokugawa domain and formed the Satchō Alliance with the rival Satsuma Domain during the Meiji Restoration , becoming instrumental in the establishment of the Empire of Japan and the Meiji oligarchy . The Chōshū Domain

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594-784: The rank in perpetuity ) and the "lifetime karō ", whose rank was granted to an individual but could not be inherited by his son. The hereditary karō were either members of minor branches of the Mōri family, or members of related families such as the Shishido and the Fukuhara, or descendants of Mōri Motonari's most trusted generals and advisors such as the Mazuda, the Kuchiba and the Kunishi. The lifetime karō were middle or lower samurai who displayed great talent in economics or politics and were promoted to karō by

621-501: Was a naval training institute, between 1855 when it was established by the government of the Tokugawa shogunate , until 1859, when it was transferred to Tsukiji in Edo . During the Bakumatsu period , the Japanese government faced increasing incursions by ships from the Western world , intent on ending the country's two centuries of isolationist foreign policy . These efforts cumulated in

648-544: Was director of training under Nagai starting from 1855, until 1859, when he was commissioned as an officer in the Shogunal navy the following year. Officers of the Royal Netherlands Navy were in charge of education, the first being Pels Rijcken (from 1855 to 1857), and the second Willem Huyssen van Kattendijke (from 1857 to 1859). Western medical science was taught by J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort . The curriculum

675-450: Was dissolved in the abolition of the han system in 1871 by the Meiji government and its territory was absorbed into Yamaguchi Prefecture . The rulers of Chōshū were the descendants of the great Sengoku warlord Mōri Motonari . Motonari was able to extend his power over all of the Chūgoku region of Japan and occupied a territory worth 1,200,000 koku. After he died, his grandson and heir Mōri Terumoto became daimyō and implemented

702-596: Was opened at Tsukiji in Edo. The director of the center Nagai moved to the new center, and Kimura Kaishū was promoted to director of the Nagasaki center. The third class of 1857 has 26 cadets. The future Admiral Enomoto Takeaki was one of the students of the Nagasaki Training Center. The Training Center was closed in 1859, and all education transferred to the Tsukiji Naval Training Center , where

729-716: Was weighed towards navigation and Western science . The training institute was also equipped with Japan's first steamship, Kankō Maru given by the King of the Netherlands in 1855. It was later joined by the Kanrin Maru and the Chōyō . The Nagasaki Naval Training Center provided not only samurai students but also local domain students with opportunities to pursue systematic Western-style naval training. The students gradually overcame language and other barriers and learned various modern naval skills and marine technology and organization . Under

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