:Machida Hisanari
{{short description|Japanese samurai and statesman}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Machida Hisanari
|native_name = 町田久成
|native_name_lang = ja
|image = Machida Hisanari (2).jpg
|birth_date = {{dob|1838|01|27}}
|birth_place = Kagoshima, Japan
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1897|09|15|1838|01|27}}
|death_place = Tokyo, Japan
|other_names = Ueno Ryōtarō
|nationality = Japanese
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
{{family name hatnote|Machida|lang=Japanese}}
{{nihongo|Machida Hisanari|町田久成}} ({{dob|1838|1|27|}} – {{Death date|1897|9|15}}), also known as Ueno Ryōtarō, was a Japanese samurai and statesman of the Meiji period (1868–1912). He was the first director of the Tokyo National Museum.
Biography
= Youth =
Machida Hisanari was born in 1838 in Shinshōin, an ancient village of the old Satsuma Province which became a district of Kagoshima in 1883. He was the eldest son of Machida Hisanaga, head of a samurai family in the service of Shimazu Narioki, the daimyō of the Satsuma Domain.{{cite web|language=Japanese|publisher=Kagoshima Convention Visitors Bureau & City.Kagoshima|script-title=ja:町田久成|trans-title=Machida Hisanari|year=2013|url=https://www.kagoshima-yokanavi.jp/rekishi/ijin/036.html|access-date=14 November 2016}}.{{cite book |last=Satō |first=Dōshin |date=2011 |title=Modern Japanese Art and the Meiji State: The Politics of Beauty |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5u33A3EXskC |publisher=Getty Publications |page=62 |isbn=978-1606060599}} At the age of 19, he left his hometown and moved to Edo, the capital, in order to continue his studies.{{Cite web|website=Tokyo National Museum|title=Museum Garden and Teahouses|at=Memorial of Machida Hisanari|url=http://www.tnm.jp/modules/r_free_page/index.php?id=121|access-date=14 November 2016}}. Before his return to Satsuma, he spent more than three years at the Shōhei-zaka Gakumonjo (昌平坂学問所), a state-run academy under the control of the shogunate where Bakufu officials were trained.{{Cite web|publisher=British Museum|title=Machida Hisanari (Biographical details)| url=http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=204131|access-date=14 November 2016}}.
= Travel to Europe =
In 1863, he was promoted to Ōmetsuke and participated as a military officer in the Anglo-Satsuma War where he had the future admiral Tōgō Heihachirō under his command. In the following year, he led a troop of 600 men to defend the Imperial Palace against a group of insurgents.
In 1865, as a member of an official Japanese delegation, he spent a two-year study period in Europe enrolling as a student at University College London.{{cite web |title=Choshu and Satsuma Papers |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/digital-collections/collections/records/choshu-satsuma |website=University College London, History of UCL |date=4 September 2018 |publisher=University College London |access-date=17 December 2023}} As well as frequent visits to the British Museum his travels also took him to Paris where he visited both the Louvre and National Museum of Natural History. He also participated in the International Exposition of 1867.{{cite encyclopedia|author1=Jennifer Robertson|author2=Walter Edwards|title=Archeology and cultural properties management|editor1=Jennifer Robertson|editor2=Katsumi Nakao|editor3=Walter Edwards|editor4=Tomomi Yamaguchi|display-editors=etal|encyclopedia=A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=New York|year=2008|series=Blackwell Companions to Anthropology|oclc=899164876|isbn=9781405141451}}. During his European journey, he became familiar with the concept of cultural heritage and the impact of museums and educational programs on the public.
= Return to Japan =
Back in Japan at the beginning of the Boshin War (January 1868 – June 1869), he was called to Kyoto with the mission of thwarting the plans of the Satchō Alliance, a military coalition dedicated to overthrowing the Tokugawa shogunate.
In 1870 he entered the service of the Meiji government, and became Secretary of State in the newly formed Ministry of Education.{{cite journal|language=French|author1=Takashi Inada|translator=Laurent Nespoulous|editor=Maison franco-japonaise|location=Tokyo|volume=52|issue=52|pages=21–46 |title=L'évolution de la protection du patrimoine au Japon depuis 1950: sa place dans la construction des identités régionales|script-title=ja:1950年からの日本文化財保護法の展開と地域アイデンティティの形成|journal=Ebisu, études Japonaises|year=2015|issn=1340-3656|doi=10.4000/ebisu.1576|doi-access=free}}. In this influential position, he strove to stop the devastation of the national historic heritage caused by the Meiji policy of separating Shinto and Buddhism and the violent anti-Buddhist movement (Haibutsu kishaku) it triggered.{{Cite encyclopedia|language=French|author=Christophe Marquet|title=Le Japon moderne face à son patrimoine artistique
|editor1=François Macé|editor2= Mieko Macé|editor3= Ishii Kōsei|editor4= Cécile Sakai|editor5= Christophe Marquet |display-editors=etal|encyclopedia=Cipango : cahiers d'études japonaises: Mutations de la conscience dans le Japon moderne|location=Paris|publisher=INALCO Publications Langues'O|oclc=491367667|year=2002|isbn=2858311056|pages=19–22|url=http://marquet.inalco.free.fr/cours/Licence3-pensee_Japon_moderne/texte2.pdf}}.
In 1874, he accepted the position of director of office of the first official World's Fair in the United States, the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
In 1882 he became the first director of the Imperial Museum in Tokyo (now called the Tokyo National Museum), but retired from this position later that year.
= Retirement and death =
In 1885 he joined the Chamber of Elders. In 1889 he left the state apparatus and retired to the Buddhist monastery Mii-dera in Shiga Prefecture. Machida died 15 September 1897 in Tokyo. His tomb is located within the grounds of Kan'ei-ji, a Buddhist temple in the Ueno district of Tokyo, which was the Bodaiji of the Tokugawa dynasty during the Edo period (1603–1868).
See also
References
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Category:People from Satsuma Domain
Category:People from Kagoshima