Kido Takayoshi

Kido Takayoshi (木戸 孝允, August 11, 1833 – May 26, 1877), also referred as Kido Kōin was a Japanese statesman during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji Restoration. He used the alias Niibori Matsusuke (新堀 松輔) when he worked against the Shogun.

Early life

Kido was born in Hagi, in Chōshū Domain (present-day Yamaguchi prefecture) as the latest son of Wada Masakage (和田 昌景), a samurai physician. He was adopted into the Katsura family at age seven, and until 1865 was known as Katsura Kogorō (桂 小五郎). He was educated at the academy of Yoshida Shōin, from whom he adopted the philosophy of Imperial loyalism.

In 1852, he went to Edo to study swordsmanship, established ties with radical samurai from Mito domain, learned artillery techniques with Egawa Tarōzaemon, and (after observing the construction of foreign ships in Nagasaki and Shimoda), returned to Chōshū to supervise the construction of the domain's first western-style warship.

Overthrow of the Tokugawa

After 1858, Kido was based at the domain's Edo residence, where he served as liaison between the domain bureaucracy and radical elements among the young, lower-echelon Chōshū samurai who supported the Sonnō jōi movement. Coming under suspicion by the Shogunate for his ties with Mito loyalists after the attempted assassination of Andō Nobumasa, he was transferred to Kyōto. However, while in Kyōto, he was unable to prevent the 30 September 1863 coup d'état by the forces of the Aizu and Satsuma domains, who drove the Choshu forces out of the city. He was involved in the unsuccessful attempt by Satsuma to regain control of the city on 20 August 1864, and forced into hiding with a geisha by the name of Ikumatsu, who later became his wife.