Endō Kinsuke, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Endō Kinsuke

Japanese samurai

Date of Birth: 31-Mar-1836

Place of Birth: Kōchi, Japan

Date of Death: 13-Sep-1893

Profession: samurai

Nationality: Japan

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Endo Kinsuke (?? ??, March 31, 1836 – September 13, 1893) was a Japanese statesman in the early Meiji period. Endo was born to a samurai family in Hagi, Choshu Domain (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture.
He was selected by the domain to be a member of the Choshu Five who were smuggled out of Japan in defiance of the Tokugawa bakufu's policy of national seclusion to Great Britain in 1863.
Choshu was desperate to acquire better knowledge of the western nations in order to strengthen the domain in its struggle to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.
Endo returned from England in 1866, just before the start of the Boshin War. When Sir Harry Parkes, the British minister in Japan between 1865 and 1883, visited Choshu in 1866, Endo served as an interpreter, together with Inoue Kaoru, another member of the Choshu Five. After the Meiji Restoration and the establishment of the new Meiji government, Endo served as the head of the new National Mint (???, Zoheikyoku) in Osaka, from 1881-1883.
He is remembered less for his efforts in establishing a unified national currency and more for his policy that the grounds of the Mint should be open for all the people of Osaka in spring, when the sakura trees planted there come into bloom.