Utsumi Tadakatsu

Baron was a Japanese bureaucrat, statesman and cabinet minister, active in Meiji period Empire of Japan.

Biography Utsumi was born to a samurai family in Chōshū Domain, in what is now part of the city of Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefecture). As a youth, he participated in the Kinmon Incident in Kyoto, where pro-sonnō Jōi Chōshū forces sought to seize control of the Emperor to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.

After the Meiji Restoration, he went to Tokyo and entered into service of the new Meiji government, and was selected as a member of the 1871 Iwakura Mission, visiting the United States, Great Britain and other European countries. After his return to Japan, he was appointed governor of Nagasaki Prefecture (1877–1883), Mie Prefecture (1884–1885), Hyōgo Prefecture (1885–1889), Nagano Prefecture (1889–1891), Kanagawa Prefecture (1891–1893), Osaka Prefecture (1895–1897), and Kyoto Prefecture (1897–1900). He then served as chairman of the Board of Audit from 1900 to 1901.

While Utsumi was Governor of Nagasaki, he hosted former United States President Ulysses S. Grant on his visit to Japan.

Utsumi was ennobled with the kazoku peerage title danshaku (baron) in 1887. He also served as a member of the House of Peers from its inception in 1890.

Utsumi was selected to become Home Minister in the cabinet of the 1st administration of Prime Minister Katsura Tarō in 1901.