Taguchi Shunpei (田口俊平)
Shunpei TAGUCHI (1818 - November, 1867) was an engineer of gunnery and surveying in the end of Edo period. Although he was born in a doctor family in a village located in a mountain area, he advanced his career to 'hatamoto' (direct retainers of the bakufu, which is a form of Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun). He studied surveying, gunnery, Western studies, and Mechanical Engineering, etc., directed many disciples, and significantly contributed to modernization of Japan in the end of Edo period. For his great achievement, he was raised to Jugoinojo (Junior Fifth Rank) after his death in 1928. His father was the third son of a doctor 安江隆庵 (his childhood name was 安江大二郎).
Biography
He was born in Kurokawa Village, Kamo County, Mino Province (present Kurokawa, Shirakawa-cho, Kamo-gun, Gifu Prefecture) in 1818.
In 1833, he became a student of Ryohei YANAGIDA, a disciple of Asai, in Nagoya to study medical science.
In 1838, he practiced in Nagasaki to study Western studies and Dutch medical science. He quit studying medical science and began to study gunnery in the Western style military drill court. After coming back home from Nagasaki, he was offered a post as hojutsuka (a ballistic specialist) of Naegi domain of Mino Province, which was his home town, but he rejected it. He entered his father's birthplace, the Taguchi family, village headman in Tsukechi Village, Mino Province (present Tsukechi-cho, Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture) and called himself Shunpei Taguchi. He sought to become an officer of Owari domain, but failed.
Around 1847, he left for Edo (at age 29). On the way, he studied gunnery in a Western style private military school focusing on gunnery, Egawa juku (a Western style military school started by Tanan EGAWA, a disciple of Shuhan TAKASHIMA, a hojutsuka) in Nirayama. Later, he became a disciple of Kinsaburo SHIMOZONE, the only grand master of gunnery in bakufu.
In 1851, he was invited to become a professor of Western gunnery in Seki-juku. In 1859, he was promoted to Monogashira-kaku Otsukaiban (a person responsible for order and patrol in the battlefield, at Military Commanders status) with a stipend of 100 koku by a roju (senior councilor) Hirochika KUZE and became a grand master of Western gunnery and Western studies in bakufu.
In 1858, he worked in Bakufu kobusho (military training school), and since October of the year, he worked in Nagasaki Learning Place to study mechanics. He acted with Kaishu KATSU, Takeaki ENOMOTO, etc. there.
In 1859, as Nagasaki Learning Place was closed due to Ansei no Taigoku (suppression of extremists by the Shogunate), he returned to Edo, worked in Warship Training Center, and became a crew of Kanrin Maru (the first Japanese ship ever to cross the Pacific) (he did not join the Kanrin Maru missionary to go to America).
In 1862, Shunpei was chosen as one of the engineers, who were dispatched to the Netherlands by the Tokugawa shogunate when building Kaiyo Maru Warship was ordered.
In June of the same year, he left Shinagawa on Kanrin Maru. He changed to a Dutch ship in Nagasaki and arrived at the Netherlands in May of the following year. In the Netherlands, he supervised shipbuilding of Kaiyo Maru and as well studied surveying, Western gunnery, and so on.
In 1867, he returned to Japan. After returning to Japan, he became a hatamoto with a stipend of 300 koku and a Goyogakari (professor) of Navy Training Center, but died of illness in November or December of the same year (November in old lunar calendar).
(50 years old)