Murata Seifū

was a Japanese samurai who served as karō of Chōshū Domain in the late Edo period. Known as a prominent economic reformer, his policies greatly strengthened the domain and enabled it to carry out many of its military reforms which led to the Meiji restoration.

Biography Murata was born in Sawae, Misumi Village, Otsu District, Nagato Province as the eldest son of Murata Mitsukata, a 91 koku retainer of the Chōshū Domain. He attended the han school Meirinkan, where he had outstanding records, and in 1808, served as a page to Mōri Narifusa, the daimyō of Chōshū Domain. After that, he successively held important posts under the five daimyō from Mōri Narihiro to Mōri Takachika. In Edo, he further broadened his knowledge by learning the art of warfare and coastal defense from Hanawa Hokiichi and others, and economics from the writings of Kaiho Seiryō. In 1819, he inherited the headship of Murata family.

In 1838, Murata took over the real power of the administration of Chōshū Domain, and concurrently serving as Omote-ban-gashira and Edo Shikakukake. Under Mōri Takachika, he worked on the financial reconstruction policy accompanying the Tenpō Reforms, an array of economic policies introduced between 1841 and 1843 by the Tokugawa shogunate under the direction of Mizuno Tadakuni. Chōshū Domain suffered from severe debts, and in 1843 Murata calculated a method of paying off the debt and interest over a 37 year period. Partly to pay for this reform, he lifted the domain's monopoly on wax and allowed merchants to trade in it freely. He also imposed taxes on shipping passing through the Kanmon Straits separating Honshu and Kyushu as well as developing a domain-owned financial and warehousing hub in the port of Shimonoseki itself. Due to his reforms, the finances of Chōshū Domain began to recover. In addition, Murata devoted his efforts to popularizing education, recommending education to the common people, and in 1849 he expanded the Meirinkan. The Murata Seifu Memorial Museum is nearby.