Guido Verbeck was one of the most important foreign advisors serving the Meiji government and contributed to many major government decisions during the early years of the reign of Emperor Meiji.
19 Facts About Guido Verbeck
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At the age of twenty-two, on the invitation of his brother-in-law, Guido Verbeck traveled to the United States to work at a foundry located outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin, which had been developed by Moravian missionaries to build machinery for steamboats.
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Guido Verbeck stayed in Wisconsin for almost a year, during which time he changed the spelling of his name from "Verbeek" to "Guido Verbeck" in the hope that Americans could better pronounce it.
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Guido Verbeck then decided to work as a civil engineer in Arkansas, and designed bridges, structures and machines.
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Guido Verbeck graduated in 1859, and moved to Nagasaki as a missionary for the Dutch Reformed Church.
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In 1862 Wakasa Murata, retainer of Nabeshima Naomasa, the 10th and final daimyo of Saga Domain in Hizen Province, sent three young men to study English with Guido Verbeck, beginning a deep relation between Guido Verbeck and the Saga domain.
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Guido Verbeck taught foreign languages, politics, and science at the Yogakusho in Nagasaki, from August 1864.
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Guido Verbeck's pupils included Okuma Shigenobu, Ito Hirobumi, Okubo Toshimichi, Sagara Tomoyasu, and Soejima Taneomi.
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Guido Verbeck cooperated with Takahashi Shinkichi to publish the Satsuma Dictionary.
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In 1869, recommended by Okubo, Guido Verbeck received an appointment as teacher at the Kaisei School.
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Guido Verbeck served as a counselor of the Meiji government under Sanjo Sanetomi.
12.
In close cooperation with Sagara Tomoyasu, one of his former pupils, Guido Verbeck recommended German medicine as a model for modern medical education and practice in Japan.
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Guido Verbeck was often consulted about the establishment of the prefectural system of local administration and influential in encouraging the dispatch of the Iwakura mission, the first Japanese diplomatic mission to the United States and Europe.
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In 1871 Guido Verbeck assisted in bringing William Elliot Griffis of Rutgers University to Japan to teach at the Fukui Domain academy Meishinkan per the invitation of daimyo Matsudaira Norinaga.
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In September 1871 the Ministry of Education was established and Guido Verbeck became an advisor, providing inspiration for the Education Order of 1872 and the Conscription Ordinance of 1873.
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Guido Verbeck made a trip to Europe on 6 months' leave given by the Japanese government and traveled to meet up with the Iwakura Mission.
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In 1887, Guido Verbeck translated the Old Testament Psalms and Book of Isaiah into Japanese.
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Guido Verbeck attempted to return to the United States in 1890 with his daughter, but was refused by the American government, as he could not prove his Dutch nationality and his application for American nationality based on his previous stay in the United States was denied.
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Guido Verbeck died in Tokyo of a heart attack in 1898 and was buried in the foreign section of the Aoyama Cemetery in central Tokyo.