View source for Mutsu Munemitsu

{{short description|Japanese politician}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=December 2024}}
{{family name hatnote|Mutsu|lang=Japanese}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[Senior Second Rank]]<br />[[Kazoku|Count]]
| name             = Mutsu Munemitsu
| native_name      = {{nobold|陸奥 宗光}}
| native_name_lang = ja
| image            = Mutsu Munemitsu.jpg
| caption          = Count Mutsu Munemitsu
| office           = [[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Minister for Foreign Affairs]]
| primeminister    = [[Itō Hirobumi]]
| term_start       = 8 August 1892
| term_end         = 30 May 1896
| predecessor      = [[Enomoto Takeaki]]
| successor        = [[Saionji Kinmochi]]
| office1          = [[Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce|Minister of Agriculture and Commerce]]
| primeminister1   = [[Yamagata Aritomo]]<br>[[Matsukata Masayoshi]]
| term_start1      = 17 May 1890
| term_end1        = 14 March 1892
| predecessor1     = [[Iwamura Michitoshi]]
| successor1       = [[Kōno Togama]]
| office2          = Member of the [[House of Representatives (Japan)|House of Representatives]]
| constituency2    = [[Wakayama 1st district (1890–1898)|Wakayama 1st]]
| term_start2      = 1 July 1890
| term_end2        = 25 December 1891
| predecessor2     = ''Constituency established''
| successor2       = [[Okazaki Kunisuke]]
| office3          = Member of the [[Genrōin]]
| term_start3      = 25 April 1875
| term_end3        = 28 November 1875
| office4          = [[List of governors of Kanagawa Prefecture|Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture]]
| monarch4         = [[Emperor Meiji|Meiji]]
| term_start4      = 5 October 1871
| term_end4        = 17 August 1872
| predecessor4     = [[Terashima Munenori]]
| successor4       = [[Ōe Taku]]
| office5          = Governor of [[Hyōgo Prefecture]]
| monarch5         = Meiji
| term_start5      = 28 July 1869
| term_end5        = 24 August 1869
| predecessor5     = [[Nakajima Masutane]]
| successor5       = [[Saisho Atsushi]]
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1844|08|20|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Wakayama (city)|Wakayama, Kii]], [[Tokugawa shogunate|Japan]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1897|08|24|1844|08|20|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Kita, Tokyo|Takinogawa, Tokyo]], [[Empire of Japan|Japan]]
| nickname         = Mutsu Yonosuke
| spouse           = [[Mutsu Ryōko]]
| father           = [[Date Munehiro]]
| children         = [[Mutsu Hirokichi]]
| relatives        = [[Okazaki Kunisuke]] (cousin)
| education        = [[Kobe Naval Training Center]]
| occupation       = Diplomat, Cabinet Minister
| nationality      = Japanese
}}
[[Count]] {{nihongo|'''Mutsu Munemitsu'''|陸奥 宗光||extra=August 20, 1844 &ndash; August 24, 1897}} was a Japanese diplomat and politician. He became [[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]] in 1890 and worked to revise unequal treaties. He served as plenipotentiary at the [[Treaty of Shimonoseki|peace conference in Shimonoseki]] after the [[First Sino-Japanese War]].

==Early life==
Mutsu Munemitsu was born in [[Kishū Domain|Wakayama domain]], [[Kii Province]] as the sixth son of [[Date Munehiro]], a ''[[samurai]]'' retainer of the Kii [[Tokugawa Clan]]. His father was active in the ''[[Sonnō jōi]]'' movement, and Mutsu Munemitsu joined forces with [[Sakamoto Ryōma]] and [[Itō Hirobumi]] in the movement to overthrow the [[Tokugawa shogunate]].{{cn|date=July 2022}}

==Career==
[[File:Mutsu family.jpg|thumb|left|The Mutsu family]]
After the [[Meiji Restoration]], Mutsu held a number of posts in the new [[Meiji government]], including that of governor of [[Hyōgo Prefecture]] and later governor of [[Kanagawa Prefecture]], both of which were host to foreign settlements. He was head of the Land Tax Reform of 1873–1881, and served on the ''[[Genrōin]]''. He conspired to assist [[Saigō Takamori]] in the [[Satsuma Rebellion]] and was imprisoned from 1878 until 1883. While in prison he translated [[Jeremy Bentham]]'s ''[[Utilitarianism]]'' into Japanese.

After he left prison, he rejoined the government as an official of the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Foreign Ministry]], and in 1884 was sent to Europe for studies. Later he became Japanese Minister to [[Washington D.C.]] (1888–1890), during which time he established formal [[diplomatic relations]] between Japan and [[Mexico]], and partially revised the [[unequal treaties]] between Japan and the United States.

On his return to Japan in 1890, he became [[Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce|Minister of Agriculture and Commerce]]. He was also elected to the [[House of Representatives of Japan]] from the 1st Wakayama District for a single term in the [[1890 Japanese general election|1890 General Election]]. In 1892, he became [[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Foreign Minister]] in the Itō Hirobumi cabinet. In 1894, he concluded the [[Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation]] of 1894, which finally ended the unequal treaty status between Japan and [[Great Britain]].

Mutsu was the lead Japanese negotiator in the [[Treaty of Shimonoseki]], which ended the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] (1894–1895).  In the wake of an attempt on the life of the Chinese leading negotiator [[Li Hongzhang]] by a Japanese fanatic, the Japanese government voluntarily reduced the size of the indemnity it planned to claim from China, and Mutsu famously remarked, 'Li's misfortune is the good fortune of the Great Ch'ing Empire'.<ref>''Cambridge History of China'', xi. 107–8</ref>  The [[Triple Intervention]] by [[France]], [[Germany]] and [[Russia]] reversed the gains that Mutsu had negotiated from [[China]] in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and the Japanese public blamed Mutsu for the national humiliation. He resigned all government posts in May 1896 and moved to [[Ōiso, Kanagawa|Ōiso]], Kanagawa, where he wrote his personal diplomatic memoirs ''{{ill|Kenkenroku|ja|蹇々録|vertical-align=sup}}'' (蹇々録) after the treaty was signed to explain his views and actions. However, his memoirs could not be published until 1923 due to the diplomatic secrets they contained.

Mutsu lived in what is now [[Kyu-Furukawa Gardens]]. Mutsu died of [[tuberculosis]] in [[Kita, Tokyo|Takinogawa]], [[Tokyo-Fu|Tokyo Prefecture]] in 1897.

Mutsu was ennobled with the title of ''hakushaku'' ([[count]]) under the ''[[kazoku]]'' peerage system at the end of the Sino-Japanese War.

==Honors==
*[[File:JPN Kyokujitsu-sho 1Class BAR.svg|55px|ribbon bar]] Grand Cordon of the [[Order of the Rising Sun]] (1895)
* [[List of Japanese court ranks, positions and hereditary titles|Senior Second Rank]] (1897)

==Family tree==

{{tree chart/start |summary=}}
{{tree chart | | | | GMa |-|v|-| GPa | | GMa=Count Mutsu Munemitsu|GPa=[[Mutsu Ryōko|Countess Mutsu Ryōko]]}}
{{tree chart | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | }}
{{tree chart | | | MOM |v| DAD | | | | | MOM=[[Iso Mutsu|Countess Iso Mutsu]]|DAD=[[Mutsu Hirokichi|Count Mutsu Hirokichi]]}}
{{tree chart | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | }}
{{tree chart | | | | | ME  | | | | | | | JOE=My brother Joe|ME=Ian Mutsu|SIS=My little sister}}
{{tree chart/end}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* Cortazzi, Hugh. ''Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume V''. Global Oriental (2004) {{ISBN|1-901903-48-6}}
* Mutsu, Munemitsu. (1982). ''Kenkenroku'' (trans. Gordon Mark Berger). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. {{ISBN|9780860083061}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/252084846 OCLC 252084846]
* Perez, Louis. ''Japan Comes of Age: Mutsu Munemitsu and the Revision of the Unequal Treaties''. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (1999). {{ISBN|0-8386-3804-X}}
* Perez, Louis. ''Mutsu Munemitsu and Identity Formation of the Individual and the State in Modern Japan''. Edwin Mellen Press (2001). {{ISBN|0-7734-7366-1}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book | author=Okazaki, Hisahiko | title=''Mutsu Munemitsu and His Time'' | location=Tokyo | publisher=Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture | year=2018 | url=https://japanlibrary.jpic.or.jp/books/published/biography/001898.html | access-date=2019-05-27 | archive-date=2019-05-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527043310/https://japanlibrary.jpic.or.jp/books/published/biography/001898.html | url-status=dead }}

==External links==
{{Commons+cat|Mutsu Munemitsu}}
{{EB1911 Poster|Mutsu, Munemitsu, Count|Mutsu Munemitsu}}
* [http://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/e/datas/199.html?c=4 National Diet Library photos and biography]

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box | before=[[Enomoto Takeaki]]| title=[[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]] | years=Aug 1892 – May 1896| after=[[Saionji Kinmochi]]}} 
{{succession box | before=[[Iwamura Michitoshi]]| title=[[Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce|Minister of Agriculture & Commerce]] | years=May 1890 – Mar 1892| after=[[Kōno Togama]]}} 
{{s-end}}
{{Japanese foreign ministers}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mutsu, Munemitsu}}
[[Category:1844 births]]
[[Category:1897 deaths]]
[[Category:People of the Meiji Restoration]]
[[Category:Japanese diplomats]]
[[Category:People from Wakayama (city)]]
[[Category:Kazoku]]
[[Category:People of the First Sino-Japanese War]]
[[Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Japan]]
[[Category:Ministers for foreign affairs of Japan]]
[[Category:Government ministers of Japan]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Representatives (Empire of Japan)]]
[[Category:Governors of Hyōgo Prefecture]]
[[Category:Governors of Kanagawa Prefecture]]
[[Category:Kansai University alumni]]
[[Category:Mutsu family|Munemitsu]]