Sano Tsunetami

Count Sano Tsunetami 佐野 常民
Japanese Red Cross Society

.

Biography

Sano was born in Hayatsue,

daimyō

of Saga in 1853.

Nabeshima Naomasa had a strong interest in western technology and with the opening of the Nagasaki Naval Training Center in 1855. Sano was selected by the domain as one of its first students. The goal of Saga Domain was to build a western-style steam warship, which Sano helped complete in 1865.

Sano accompanied the Japanese delegation to the

, and stayed on to supervise its construction and to learn of western shipbuilding techniques, but the image of the Red Cross remained in his memory.

After the

. With the start of the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877, Sano created the Hakuaisha ('Philanthropic Society'), a relief organization to provide medical assistance to wounded soldiers from both sides of the conflict. This idea met with tremendous opposition and incomprehension by many members of the government, but Sano was able to enlist the support of Prince Arisugawa Taruhito, nominal head of the Imperial Japanese Army and Prince Komatsu Akihito. Sano’s organization became the Japanese Red Cross Society in 1887, with Sano as its first president.

Sano also created the Ryuchikai, the forerunner of the Japan Art Association in 1879, in an attempt to stem the outflow of Japanese important cultural properties to overseas collectors.

From 1880-1881, he served in the Ministry of Finance, and in 1882 as president of the Genrōin. In 1886, he helped establish the first Red Cross Hospital in Japan.

In 1887, Sano was recognized for his accomplishments with elevation to the

.

In 1895, Sano was elevated to the title of count (hakushaku). On his death at his home in Tokyo in 1902, he was posthumously awarded with the Order of the Rising Sun (1st class with Paulownia Blossoms). His grave is at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.

In 1939, the Japanese government issued a series of four

commemorative postage stamps

honoring the 75th anniversary of the Red Cross Treaty. A portrait of Sano Tsunetami appears on two of the stamps.

References

• Brunton, Richard. Building Japan 1868–1876. RoutledgeCurzon (1995).
  ISBN 1-873410-05-0
• Checkland, Olive. Japan and Britain after 1859: Creating Cultural Bridges. RoutledgeCurzon (2002).
  ISBN 0-7007-1747-1
• Cobbing, Andrew. The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain. RoutledgeCurzon (1989).
  ISBN 1-873410-81-6
  .
• Yoshikawa, Ryuko. Nisseki no soshisha Sano Tsunetami. Yoshikawa Kobunkan (2001).
  ISBN 4-642-05518-5
  (Japanese)
• Asahi, Keiko: Sano Tsunetami - kindai-Kokka no Paionia. In: W. Michel / Y. Torii / M.Kawashima (ed.): No rangaku Kyushu - ekkyō to Koryu. Kyoto: Shinbunkaku Shuppan, 2009 289–296 ( 朝日恵子「佐野常民- -越境と交流」思文閣出版 ). (Japanese)

External links

• Sano Tsunetami Memorial Museum in Saga (Japanese site)

Political offices
Preceded by Kōno Togama	Minister of Agriculture & Commerce July–August 1892	Succeeded by Gotō Shōjirō