Aoki Shūzō

Viscount Aoki Shūzō (青木 周蔵, 3 March 1844 – 16 February 1914) was a Japanese politician and diplomat who served as Foreign Minister during the Meiji era.[1]

Viscount
Aoki Shūzō
青木 周蔵
Viscount Aoki Shūzō
Japanese Ambassador to the United States
In office
24 April 1906 – 3 February 1908
Preceded byTakahira Kogorō
Succeeded byTakahira Kogorō
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
In office
8 November 1898 – 19 October 1900
Preceded byŌkuma Shigenobu
Succeeded byKatō Takaaki
In office
24 December 1889 – 29 May 1891
Preceded byŌkuma Shigenobu
Succeeded byEnomoto Takeaki
Personal details
Born(1844-03-03)3 March 1844
San'yō-Onoda, Chōshū, Japan
Died16 February 1914(1914-02-16) (aged 69)
Tokyo, Empire of Japan
SpouseElisabeth von Rhade
ChildrenHanna Aoki
OccupationDiplomat, politician
In this Japanese name, the surname is Aoki.

Early life

Aoki was born to a samurai family as the son of the domain physician of Chōshū, in what is now part of San'yō-Onoda in Yamaguchi Prefecture. He studied western science and medicine (rangaku) at the domain school Meirinkan in Hagi, and in Nagasaki.

He was then sent to Germany by the Chōshū Domain to study western law in 1868. However, while in Germany, his studies ranged over a very wide area, from western medicine, to politics, military science, and economics. From his surviving notes, he studied how to make beer, paper and paper money, carpets and rugs and techniques of western forestry management.

Career

Aoki returned to Japan after the Meiji Restoration, and entered the Foreign Ministry of the new Meiji government in 1873, as First Secretary to the Japanese legations to Germany, Netherlands and Austria-Hungary. He then served as Vice Foreign Minister in the first Itō administration and Foreign Minister in the first Yamagata administration.

Foreign Minister (first)

While Foreign Minister, he strove for the revision the unequal treaties between the Empire of Japan and the various European powers, particularly the extraterritoriality clauses, and expressed concern over the eastern expansion of the Russian Empire into east Asia. Aoki was forced to resign as a consequence of the Ōtsu Incident of 1891, but resumed his post as Foreign Minister under the Matsukata administration.

During his time as minister, Viscount Aoki was instrumental in the development of the internal program for Transfers of technology and advice on systems and cultural ways. By the hand of Aoki, over a dozen of specialized western professionals were brought to Japan in 1887, not only at a governmental level but also into the private sector. Amongst these so called "O-yatoi gaikokujin" were prominent figures including W. K. Burton, Ottmar von Mohl, Albert Favre Zanuti, Henry Spencer Palmer, Hermann Ende, Wilhelm Böckmann, Rudolf Dittrich and Ludwig Riess.

Ambassador to the United Kingdom

In 1894, as ambassador to Great Britain, Aoki worked with Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu towards the revision of the unequal treaties, successfully concluding the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation for Japan in London on 16 July 1894.

Foreign Minister (second)

Returned to his post as Foreign Minister under the second Yamagata administration, Aoki helped Japan gain recognition as one of the Great Powers by its military support of the European forces during the Boxer Rebellion.

Aoki was then appointed to the Privy Council and elevated in title to shishaku (viscount).[2]

Ambassador to the United States

In 1906, he was appointed ambassador to the United States.[3] In 1908, Aoki protested to President Theodore Roosevelt to stop racial hostility against Japanese immigrants in California, there were anti-Asian groups and bills that discriminated against the Japanese, which included segregation of Japanese children in schools.[4] Californians did not want Japanese immigrants to dominate the state's agricultural economy, as the Japanese bought their own land and refused to work for white Californians. Aoki negotiated with Roosevelt and reached an agreement to restrict passports, deport some Japanese, and withdraw anti-alien bills. Although this did not stop the immigration of the Japanese or future discriminatory legislation, it did reduce diplomatic hostility.[5]

Personal life
Aoki villa in Nasu

On 20 April 1877, Aoki married Elisabeth von Rhade (1849–1931) in Bremen. Elisabeth, the daughter of a Prussian aristocrat, was born in Strippow, Pomerania, Prussia, Germany. Together, they had one daughter:

  • Viscountess Aoki Hanna (Hanako) (16 December 1879 – 24 June 1953), who was born in Tokyo; she married Alexander Maria Hermann Melchior, Graf von Hatzfeldt zu Trachenberg (1877–1953), the second son of Prince Hermann von Hatzfeldt, in Tokyo, on 9 December 1904.

Aoki died of complications following an Pneumonia in 1914 at his home in Kojimachi, Tokyo.[6][7] His grave is at Nasu, Tochigi. His widow died on 5 April 1931 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

Descendants

Through his daughter, he was a grandfather of Hissa Elisabeth Natalie Olga Ilsa Gräfin von Hatzfeldt zu Trachenberg (26 February 1906 – 4 June 1985), who married Maria Erwin Joseph Sidonius Benediktus Franziskus von Sales Petrus Friedrich Ignatius Hubertus Johannes von Nepomuk Felix Maurus Graf von Neipperg (a great-grandson of Austrian general Adam Albert von Neipperg) in Munich in 1927. Erwin and Hissa had four children, but now extinct in male line. Hissa's daughter Maria Hedwig Gabrielle Nathalie Benedicta Lioba Laurentia Gräfin von Neipperg (born 10 August 1929) married Sir Anthony Williams, a British ambassador to Argentina during Falkland War.

Morihisa Aoki (born 23 November 1938), Japanese ambassador to Peru during the Japanese embassy hostage crisis was his great-grandson.

Aoki villa

In 1888 Aoki commissioned an architect and friend from Berlin times, Matsugasaki Tsumunaga, to build him a villa as resort in Nasu highlands. This villa was costly restored in recent years and entered the list of Important Cultural Properties of Japan.[8] Matsugasaki won Aoki as first president of the newly established Society of Japanese Architects in 1888.[9]

Awards and decorations

Peerages and titles
  • Viscount (7 May 1887)

Decorations

Order of precedence
  • Third rank (20 October 1886)
  • Senior second rank (16 February 1914; posthumous)

Foreign

See also

References
  1. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Aoki Shūzō" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 35, p. 35, at Google Books.
  2. "VISCOUNT AOKI COMING AS JAPAN'S AMBASSADOR.; Twice Foreign Minister and Twice Envoy to Germany. VISCOUNTESS IS A GERMAN The Appointment of an American Ambassador to Japan Is to be Made in a Few Days". The New York Times. 27 December 1905. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  3. "AOKI REACHES WASHINGTON.; First Ambassador from Japan Ready to Take Up Duties". The New York Times. 25 April 1906. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  4. Times, Special to The New York (21 June 1907). "JAPANESE NOT SO PATRIOTIC---AOKI; Ambassador Would Like Them to Become Naturalized and Intermarry. DENIES ANY "SITUATION " Says There Is Nothing of a Diplomatic Character Now Under Consideration". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  5. Rolle, Andrew F.; Arthur C. Verge (2015). California: a history (Eighth ed.). Chichester, West Sussex. ISBN 978-1-118-70104-1. OCLC 879642525.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. Japan Times, Weekly Edition. Volume 34 (1913), p. 885
  7. "VISCOUNT AOKI DIES.; Former Ambassador from Japan Passes Away at 70 In Tokio". The New York Times. 17 February 1914. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  8. See Japanese link of this page
  9. see Okada

Further reading
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