Nakamura Koki (中村弘毅)
Koki NAKAMURA (his name can also be called Hirotake) (November, 1838 - July 3, 1887) was a feudal retainer of Tosa Province in the end of Edo period. He held various posts such as Chief Cabinet Secretary of Daijokan (Grand Council of State) and Genroin gikan (councilor of Chamber of Elders) in the Meiji government. He was commonly called Komonji (小文次), Mikinosuke (幹之助) or Teisuke (楨助).
Biography and Personal Profile
He became an assistant professor at a domain school, Chido-kan (Confucian school) as soon as it was established in 1862, and then was promoted to a professor during the year. Since then, he held various posts such as a junior inspector, a county magistrate and Kyoto rusuiyaku (a person representing the master during his absence).
Being called by the new government in 1868, he became an assistant judicial officer in a court. He held various posts such as Minbu taijo (Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Popular Affairs) and Kunai taijo (Senior Secretary of Imperial Household Ministry), but he was later dismissed from his post and forfeited Iki (court rank diploma) for punishment. He later came back to the former post through the mediation of Tomomi IWAKURA, Udaijin (Minister of the Right) and then he became a grand secretary of Daijokan (Grand Council of State) in 1877 and the first Chief Secretary of the Cabinet two years later.
(In those days, however, the cabinet was different from the present system, and was a closed collegiate body within Daijokan.)
In 1880, he was appointed to Genroin gikan (councilor of Chamber of Elders) and received Jushii (Junior Fourth Rank). He re-appointed to Kobu no shoyu (Junior Assistant Minister of Industry) in 1884, but came back to Genro gikan soon. Politically, he belonged to a hard-line conservative emphasizing direct imperial rule (Chuseiha [neutral group]), the same group as Takayuki SASAKI, Tateki TANI, and Hisamoto HIJIKATA. However, he thought that conservatives in Tosa and advocates of Freedom and Popular Rights needed to joined together to change politics led by domain cliques and made efforts for alliance between the both parties, but he died of illness without fulfilling his life ambition.