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カテゴリー1： 8. Schools, Groups, and Personalities
カテゴリー2： Personalities
Title
Kamei Koremi
Text (1825-85)
Lord of Tsuwano Domain in Iwami Province (present-day Shimane Prefecture) in the late Edo and early Meiji eras. Son of Arima Yorinori, lord of Kurume Domain in Chikugo Province (present-day Fukuoka Prefecture), Kamei was born in 1825 in the domain's Edo residence. He was declared the adopted son of Kamei Korekata, lord of Tsuwano Domain when he turned fifteen years old (in 1839), and was conferred the Lower Junior Fifth court rank and appointed Oki no kami (lord of the Oki Islands).
When he became lord of the domain, Kamei reformed the domain government and promoted industry while simultaneously fostering education, giving a particular emphasis to National Learning (kokugaku). He appointed first Oka Kumaomi (1783-1851) and then Ōkuni Takamasa (1792-1871) as teachers at the domainal academy, called the Yōrōkan, and entrusted them with the education of lecturers and students. In 1862, Kamei sent his retainer Fukuba Yoshishizu (1831-1907) to Kyoto to warn the court of the impending political crisis, and he himself followed one year later, acting as cortege at the procession of Emperor Kōmei to the Kamo shrines. From this time he acted as consistent supporter of Tsuwano's neighboring domain of Chōshū. While being caught between Chōshū and the shogunate during the shogunate's second punitive expedition against Chōshū, Koremi was able to settle the crisis.
In the first year of the Meiji Restoration (1868) Kamei was appointed Magistrate at the short-lived Bureau of Divinities (Jingi Jimukyoku), and held subsequent posts of Bureau Councilor and then Vice-Governor of the Department of Divinities (Jingikan). Relying greatly on the assistance of Fukuba Yoshishizu, he drafted the ceremonial procedures for promulgation of the Five-Article Charter Oath, the accession ceremony for the new emperor, and ascension of high priests at Imperial Grand Shrines, as well as playing a leading role in the administration of the Department of Divinities. He retired from the Department in May 1869 and was conferred the court position of Jakō no ma Shikō (imperial audience in the palace's Jakō no Ma pavilion). In May 1872 he anticipated the direction to be taken by national policy by abolishing his own feudal domain and establishing a modern prefectural government. Kamei died on March 23, 1885, at the age of sixty-one. He was posthumously conferred the Senior Second court rank in 1915.

- Murata Hideaki

Pronunciation in Japanese/用語音声

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