| Honorific prefix | Count |
|---|---|
| Native name | 寺島 宗則 |
| Office | Vice President of the Privy Council |
| Monarch | Meiji |
| President |
|
| Term start | 10 May 1888 |
| Term end | 10 September 1891 |
| Predecessor | Office established |
| Successor | Soejima Taneomi |
| Office 1 | Chairman of the Genrōin |
| Monarch 1 | Meiji |
| Term start 1 | 21 October 1881 |
| Term end 1 | 13 July 1882 |
| Predecessor 1 | Ōki Takatō |
| Successor 1 | Sano Tsunetami |
| Office 2 | Minister of Education |
| Term start 2 | 10 September 1879 |
| Term end 2 | 28 February 1880 |
| Chancellor 2 | Sanjō Sanetomi |
| Predecessor 2 | Saigō Jūdō |
| Successor 2 | Kōno Togama |
| Office 3 | Minister for Foreign Affairs |
| Term start 3 | 18 October 1873 |
| Term end 3 | 10 September 1879 |
| Chancellor 3 | Sanjō Sanetomi |
| Predecessor 3 | Soejima Taneomi |
| Successor 3 | Inoue Kaoru |
| Office 4 | Member of the Privy Council |
| Monarch 4 | Meiji |
| Term start 4 | 10 September 1891 |
| Term end 4 | 7 June 1893 |
| Monarch 5 | Meiji |
| Term start 5 | 30 April 1888 |
| Term end 5 | 10 May 1888 |
| Office 6 | Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture |
| Monarch 6 | Meiji |
| Term start 6 | 5 November 1868 |
| Term end 6 | 28 May 1869 |
| Predecessor 6 | Higashikuze Michitomi |
| Successor 6 | Moritome Iseki |
| Birth date | 21 June 1832 |
| Birth place | Akune, Satsuma, Japan |
| Death date | 21 June 1893 (aged 61) |
Count Terashima Munenori (寺島 宗則) was a Japanese politician and diplomat during the Meiji period. He served as President of the Chamber of Elders and Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Early life
Terashima was born to a samurai family in Satsuma Domain (in what is now part of Akune, Kagoshima Prefecture). He studied rangaku and was appointed as a physician to Satsuma daimyō Shimazu Nariakira. In 1862, he was chosen as a member of the group of students selected by the Tokugawa bakufu to study at the University College London in Great Britain. He also visited France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia and Portugal. He returned to Japan in 1863, and participated in the defense of Satsuma during the Anglo-Satsuma War.
Meiji bureaucrat
After the Meiji Restoration, Terashima was appointed a san'yo (junior councilor) in the new Meiji government. In 1873, he was appointed foreign minister, and negotiated the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), which fixed the national boundaries between Japan and the Russian Empire. His efforts to re-negotiate the unequal treaties with the United States failed at the last minute due to British opposition. Terashima was also responsible for the negotiations during the Maria Luz Incident involving a Peruvian ship carrying indentured labor Chinese laborers stopping in Japan.
As Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture, he was responsible for connecting Tokyo and Yokohama by telegraph in 1868.
He later served in the Genrōin (Chamber of Elders), and as the president of Genrōin between 1881 and 1882. He was minister to the United States from 1882 to 1884. In 1888, he became vice president of the Privy Council. He served in that position until 1891.
References
- Auslin, Michael R. (2004). Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01521-0; OCLC 56493769
- Cobbing, Andrew. The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain. RoutledgeCurzon, London, 1998. ISBN 978-1-873410-81-3
- Jansen, Marius B. (2000). The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674003347; OCLC 44090600
- Keene, Donald. (2002). Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-12340-2; OCLC 46731178