Kido Takayoshi

Kido Takayoshi (木戸孝允), also referred as Kido Koin (1833-77) was a Japanese politician during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji Restoration. During the shogunate he was known as Katsura Kogorō (桂小五郎).

He was born in Chōshū (present-day Yamaguchi prefecture) as the second son of Wada Masakage (和田昌景), a clan doctor. Together with Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi, he is counted among what was known as the Ishin-no-Sanketsu (維新の三傑), which means, roughly, "three nobles of the restoration". His younger sister's grandson was Tokyo politician Koichi Kido (木戸幸一).

He was a representative of the Sonnō jōi movement in Chōshū. He represented Chōshū in the Satsuma-Chōshū alliance, or Satchōdōmei (薩長同盟).

He was a member of the Iwakura mission that toured America and Europe to study Western forms of government.

During the height of the southwestern revolt of 1877 (led by Saigo Takamori), he died of natural causes. He was 45.

External link

Photograph of Kido