11 Facts About Mutsu Munemitsu

Mutsu Munemitsu became Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1890 and worked to revise unequal treaties.

Mutsu Munemitsu served as plenipotentiary at the peace conference in Shimonoseki after the First Sino-Japanese War.

Mutsu Munemitsu was born in Wakayama domain, Kii Province as the sixth son of Date Munehiro, a samurai retainer of the Kii Tokugawa Clan.

Mutsu Munemitsu's father was active in the Sonno joi movement, and Mutsu Munemitsu joined forces with Sakamoto Ryoma and Ito Hirobumi in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.

Mutsu Munemitsu conspired to assist Saigo Takamori in the Satsuma Rebellion and was imprisoned from 1878 until 1883.

Mutsu Munemitsu was elected to the House of Representatives of Japan from the 1st Wakayama District for a single term in the 1890 General Election.

Mutsu Munemitsu was the lead Japanese negotiator in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the First Sino-Japanese War.

The Triple Intervention by France, Germany and Russia reversed the gains that Mutsu Munemitsu had negotiated from China in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and the Japanese public blamed Mutsu Munemitsu for the national humiliation.

Mutsu Munemitsu resigned all government posts in May 1896 and moved to Oiso, Kanagawa, where he wrote his personal diplomatic memoirs Kenkenroku after the treaty was signed to explain his views and actions.

Mutsu Munemitsu died of tuberculosis in Takinogawa, Tokyo Prefecture in 1897.

Mutsu Munemitsu was ennobled with the title of hakushaku under the kazoku peerage system at the end of the Sino-Japanese War.