Portal:Tokyo/Selected biography/March

Count Kiyotaka Kuroda (黒田 清隆), (16 October 1840 - 23 August 1900), also known as Kuroda Ryōsuke (黒田 了介), was a Japanese politician of the Meiji era, and the second Prime Minister of Japan from 30 April 1888 to 25 October 1889.

Kuroda was born to a samurai-class family serving the Shimazu daimyōof Kagoshima, Satsuma domain in Kyūshū.

In 1862, Kuroda was involved in the Namamugi Incident, in which Satsuma retainers killed a British national who refused to bow down to the daimyō's procession. This led to the Anglo-Satsuma War in 1863, which Kuroda played an active role. Immediately after the war, he went to Edo where he studied gunnery.

Returning to Satsuma, Kuroda became an active member of the Satsuma-Chōshū joint effort to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. Later, as a military leader in the Boshin War, he became famous for sparing the life of Enomoto Takeaki, who had stood against Kuroda's army at the Battle of Hakodate.

Under the new Meiji government, Kuroda became a pioneer-diplomat to Karafuto, claimed by both Japan and Russia in 1870. Terrified of Russia's push eastward, Kuroda returned to Tokyo and advocated quick development and settlement of Japan's northern frontier.