. Hisamitsu was born in
Kagoshima Castle in 1817, the son of
Shimazu Narioki, the 10th
daimyō; Hisamitsu's name at birth was Kanenoshin; his mother was Yura, Narioki's concubine. He was briefly adopted by the
Tanegashima clan as an heir, but was returned to the Shimazu family while still a child. At age eight, he was adopted into the Shigetomi-Shimazu, a branch family of the main Shimazu house. Kanenoshin, now named Matajirō, came of age in 1828, and took the adult name . At age 22, following his marriage to the daughter of the previous Shigetomi lord, Tadakimi, he inherited family headship. He was supported as a candidate for succession to the main Shimazu house during the . His half-brother
Nariakira won the dispute and succeeded their father as lord of Satsuma; however, following Nariakira's death in 1858, Tadayuki's young son Mochihisa (later known as Tadayoshi) was chosen as the next lord of Satsuma. Tadayuki gained a position of primacy in Satsuma, due to his status as the lord's father. He returned to the main Shimazu house in 1861, and it was then that he changed his name to Hisamitsu. In 1862, Hisamitsu went to Kyoto, and took part in the increasingly Kyoto-centered politics of the 1860s; he was a part of the
kōbu-gattai political faction. It was during Hisamitsu's return from a stay in
Edo, when three Englishmen on horseback offended his retainers by refusing to dismount or stand aside. Their failure to observe proper etiquette resulted in some argument, a chase, and one was killed, in what came to be known as the
Namamugi Incident. Hisamitsu remained at the core of the
kōbu-gattai movement in Kyoto, until Satsuma's secret alliance with men of
Chōshu. He supported the Satsuma domain's military actions in the
Boshin War, and retired soon after the
Meiji Restoration. In the Meiji era, he was given the rank of duke (), the highest of the newly created
kazoku nobility and which was awarded for his clan's participation during the Restoration. After this, the government struggled with the treatment of Hisamitsu, but treated him with the highest class in ordination, honours, and conferrals. The government was careful about Hisamitsu, but that too disappeared after the deaths of Saigo and Okubo. It is said that Hisamitsu continued to say until the end, "Saigo was deceived by Okubo."
After the Meiji Restoration After the
Meiji Restoration, Hisamitsu continued to hold real power in the
Satsuma Domain (Kagoshima Domain). In the 4th year of Meiji (1871), the imperial government officials led by
Saigo Takamori and
Okubo Toshimichi, who held government positions, issued an order to abolish the domains, which angered Hisamitsu in Kagoshima, and set off fireworks for an entire day in protest. In the old daimyo, Hisamitsu was the only one who was dissatisfied with the abolition of the domain. The "conspiracy of Choshu" was also outraged by the setting of the capital. In September of the same year, the separation family was created Tamagi Shimazu house。 In Meiji 6 (1873), he served as a cabinet adviser to the government. For 7 years, he served as Minister of left and proposed to restore old customs, but he was completely excluded from the government's policy decision. In the 8th year of Meiji (1875), he resigned as Minister of left and lived a secluded life in
Kagoshima, concentrating on compiling and collecting the history books handed down by the Shimazu family. ==Death==