1. Hayashi Tadasu was born Sato Shingoro in Sakura city, Shimosa Province, as the son of Sato Taizen, a physician practising "Dutch medicine" for the Sakura Domain.
17 Facts About Hayashi Tadasu
1. 2.
Hayashi Tadasu was adopted as a child by Hayashi Dokai, a physician in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate, from whom he received the name Hayashi Tadasu.
3.
Hayashi Tadasu learned English at the Hepburn Academy in Yokohama.
4.
From 1866 to 1868, Hayashi studied in Great Britain at University College School and King's College London as one of fourteen young Japanese students sent by the Tokugawa government on the advice of the then British foreign minister Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby.
5.
Hayashi Tadasu returned home in the midst of the Boshin War of the Meiji Restoration, and joined with Tokugawa loyalists led by Enomoto Takeaki, whom he accompanied to Hokkaido with the remnants of the Shogunate Army and its Navy.
6.
Hayashi Tadasu was captured by the Imperial forces after the final defeat of the Republic of Ezo at the Battle of Hakodate and imprisoned in Yokohama.
7.
Hayashi Tadasu returned home with the staff led by Henry Dyer as the principal, and endeavoured to set up the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo as an officer of the Engineering Institution of the Ministry of Public Works.
8.
Hayashi Tadasu became a master mason in 1904, initiated in 1903 in Empire Lodge No 2108, in London.
9.
Hayashi Tadasu was elevated to the title of baron in the kazoku peerage in 1895.
10.
Hayashi Tadasu was appointed as resident minister to the court of Qing dynasty China at the Japanese legation in Beijing, then resident minister to Russia in St Petersburg, and finally resident minister to Great Britain.
11.
Hayashi Tadasu was elevated to the title of viscount in February 1902.
12.
On 2 December 1905 Hayashi Tadasu became the first Japanese ambassador to the Court of St James's, as diplomatic relations were upgraded between the Empire of Japan and the British Empire.
13.
On becoming Foreign Minister in the first Saionji cabinet in 1906, Hayashi Tadasu concluded agreements with France and Russia.
14.
Hayashi Tadasu served as Minister of Communications in the second Saionji cabinet and as interim Foreign Minister.
15.
Hayashi Tadasu was elevated to the title of count in 1907.
16.
On contracting diabetes, Hayashi Tadasu retired in 1912, and in June 1913 he fractured his thigh in an accident, resulting in an amputation.
17.
Hayashi Tadasu died a month later, and his grave is at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.