Kido Takayoshi (redirected from Takayoshi Kido)

Kido Takayoshi

 or Kido Koin

(born Aug. 11, 1833, Choshu, Nagato province, Japan—died May 26, 1877, Tokyo) With Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi, one of the three giants of the Meiji Restoration of 1868. He became head of the government of the han (domain) of Choshu and in that capacity plotted with Saigo and Okubo of Satsuma to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. In the new government, Kido was responsible for transferring the capital from Kyoto to Edo (renamed Tokyo) and for persuading the heads of the large han to return their domains to the emperor. He visited Europe in 1871 and on returning helped block a plan to invade Korea. In the late 1870s he worked for establishing a Western-style constitution.