Enomoto Takeaki Viscount was a samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan , who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate who fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War . He later served in the Meiji government as one of the founders of the Imperial Japanese Navy . Biography . Early life . Enomoto was born as a member of a samurai family in the direct service of the Tokugawa clan in the Shitaya district of Edo ( modern Taito , Tokyo ) . Enomoto started learning Dutch in the 1850s , and after Japan ' s forced " opening " by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854 , he studied at the Tokugawa shogunate ' s Naval Training Center in Nagasaki and at the Tsukiji Warship Training Center in Edo . At the age of 26 , Enomoto was sent to the Netherlands to study western techniques in naval warfare and to procure western technologies . He stayed in Europe from 1862 to 1867 , and became fluent in both the Dutch and English languages . Enomoto returned to Japan on board the , a steam warship purchased from the Netherlands by the Shogunal government . During his stay in Europe , Enomoto had realized that the telegraph would be an important means of communication in the future , and started planning a system to connect Edo and Yokohama . Upon his return , Enomoto was promoted to , the second highest rank in the Tokugawa Navy , at the age of 31 . He also received the court title of . Boshin War and Meiji Restoration . During the Meiji restoration , after the surrender of Edo in 1868 during the Boshin War to forces loyal to the Satchō Alliance , Enomoto refused to deliver up his warships , and escaped to Hakodate in Hokkaidō with the remainder of the Tokugawa Navy and a handful of French military advisers and their leader Jules Brunet . His fleet of eight steam warships was the strongest in Japan at the time . Enomoto hoped to create an independent country under the rule of the Tokugawa family in Hokkaidō , but the Meiji government refused to accept partition of Japan . On 25 December , the Tokugawa loyalists declared the foundation of the Republic of Ezo and elected Enomoto as president . The next year , the Meiji government forces invaded Hokkaidō and defeated Enomoto ' s forces in the Naval Battle of Hakodate . On 18 May 1869 , the Republic of Ezo collapsed , and Hokkaidō came under the rule of the central government headed by the Meiji Emperor . As a Meiji politician . After his surrender , Enomoto was arrested , accused of high treason and imprisoned . However , the leaders of the new Meiji government ( largely at the insistence of Kuroda Kiyotaka ) pardoned Enomoto in 1872 , realizing that his various talents and accumulated knowledge could be of use . Enomoto became one of the few former Tokugawa loyalists who made the transition to the new ruling elite , as politics at the time was dominated by men from Chōshū and Satsuma , who had a strong bias against outsiders in general , and former Tokugawa retainers in particular . However , Enomoto was an exception , and rose quickly within the new ruling clique , to a higher status than any other member of the former Tokugawa government . In 1874 , Enomoto was given the rank of vice - admiral in the fledgling Imperial Japanese Navy . The following year , he was sent to Russia as a special envoy to negotiate the Treaty of St . Petersburg . The successful conclusion of the treaty was very well received in Japan and further raised Enomoto ' s prestige within the ruling circles , and the fact that Enomoto had been chosen for such an important mission was seen as evidence of reconciliation between former foes in the government . In 1880 , Enomoto became . In 1885 , his diplomatic skills were again called upon to assisting Itō Hirobumi in concluding the Convention of Tientsin with Qing China . Afterwards , Enomoto held a series of high posts in the Japanese government . He was Japan ' s first Minister of Communications ( 1885 – 1888 ) after the introduction of the cabinet system in 1885 . He was also Minister of Agriculture and Commerce from 1894 – 1897 , Minister of Education from 1889 – 1890 and Foreign Minister from 1891 - 1892 . In 1887 , Enomoto was ennobled the rank of viscount under the " kazoku " peerage system , and was selected as a member of the Privy Council . Enomoto was especially active in promoting Japanese emigration through settler colonies in the Pacific Ocean and South and Central America . In 1891 , he established - against the will of the cabinet of Matsukata Masayoshi - a ' section for emigration ' in the Foreign Ministry , with the task of encouraging emigration and finding new potential territories for Japanese settlement overseas . Two years later , after leaving the government , Enomoto also helped to establish a private organization , the ' Colonial Association ' , to promote external trade and emigration . Enomoto died in 1908 at the age of 72 . His grave is at the temple of Kisshō - ji , Bunkyo - ku , Tokyo . ( )