Editing Matsukata Masayoshi (section)

==Early life education==
Matsukata Masayoshi was born on 25 February 1835, in Arata, [[Kagoshima District, Kagoshima|Kagoshima]], [[Satsuma Province]] (present-day Shimoarata, [[Kagoshima]], [[Kagoshima Prefecture]]),<ref>[http://www.city.kagoshima.lg.jp/_1010/kanko/database/category/shiseki/area_central/yojirou/_34833.html 松方正義誕生地] (Matsukata Masayoshi birth place) - Kagoshima City 鹿児島市. Retrieved 2013-05-26.</ref> the fourth son of Matsukata Masayasu and his wife Kesaku.<ref name=":0" /> His family was of the ''[[samurai]]'' warrior nobility class. Both his parents died when he was 13 years old.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Reischauer |first=Haru Matsukata |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/18743960 |title=Kinu to bushi |date=1987 |others=Wakako Hironaka, 広中和歌子 |isbn=4-16-341850-4 |pages=55 |publisher=文藝春秋 |oclc=18743960}}</ref>

At the age of 13, he entered the ''Zoshikan'', the Satsuma domain's [[Confucianism|Confucian academy]], where he studied the teachings of [[Wang Yangming]], which stressed loyalty to the Emperor. He started his career as a bureaucrat of the [[Satsuma Domain]]. In 1866, he was sent to [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]] to study western science, mathematics and surveying. Matsukata was highly regarded by [[Ōkubo Toshimichi]] and [[Saigō Takamori]], who used him as their liaison between [[Kyoto]] and the domain government in Kagoshima.

Knowing that war was coming between Satsuma and the Tokugawa, Matsukata purchased a ship available in Nagasaki for use in the coming conflict. This ship was then given the name [[Japanese warship Kasuga (1862)|Kasuga]]. The leaders of Satsuma felt the ship was best used as cargo vessel and so Matsukata resigned his position as captain of the ship he had purchased. Just a few months later the Kasuga did become a warship and it fought in the [[Boshin War]] against the Tokugawa ships.