Ōkuma Shigenobu
Junior First Rank | |
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| Prime Minister of Japan | |
| In office April 16, 1914 – October 9, 1916 | |
| Monarch | Taishō |
| Preceded by | Yamamoto Gonnohyōe |
| Succeeded by | Terauchi Masatake |
| In office June 30, 1898 – November 8, 1898 | |
| Monarch | Meiji |
| Preceded by | Itō Hirobumi |
| Succeeded by | Yamagata Aritomo |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 11, 1838 Saga, Japan |
| Died | January 10, 1922 (aged 83) Tokyo, Japan |
| Political party | Rikken Kaishintō (1882–1896) Shimpotō (1896–1898) Kensei Hontō (1898–1908) Independent (1908–1914) Rikken Dōshikai (1914–1922) |
| Spouse | Ōkuma Ayako |
| Signature |  |
Early life
Ōkuma Hachitarō was born on March 11, 1838, in
At the age of seven, he entered the domain school Kōdōkan and studied mainly Confucian literature, the teachings of Cheng–Zhu school in particular. In 1854, he rebelled against the education of the school with his fellow students. He was expelled the next year for rioting.[2] At this point, he had moved to a Dutch studies institution.[1]
The Dutch school was merged with the provincial school in 1861, and Ōkuma took up a lecturing position there shortly afterward. Ōkuma sympathized with the sonnō jōi movement, which aimed at expelling the Europeans who had started to arrive in Japan. However, he also advocated mediation between the rebels in Chōshū and the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo.[citation needed]
During a trip to
Ōkuma frequently traveled between Nagasaki and
Meiji period political life
Following the
In 1873, the Japanese government removed the ban on Christianity.[citation needed]
He was soon given an additional post as head of Japan's monetary reform program. He made use of his close contacts with
He also unified the nation's currency, created the national mint, and a separate Minister of Industry; however, he was dismissed in 1881 after a long series of disagreements with members of the Satsuma and Chōshū clique in the Meiji oligarchy, most notably Itō Hirobumi, over his efforts to secure foreign loans, to establish a constitution, and especially over his exposure of illicit property dealings involving Prime Minister Kuroda Kiyotaka and others from Satsuma.
In 1882, Ōkuma co-founded the Constitutional Progressive Party (Rikken Kaishintō) which soon attracted a number of other leaders, including Ozaki Yukio and Inukai Tsuyoshi. That same year, Ōkuma founded the Tokyo Senmon Gakkō (東京専門学校) in the Waseda district of Tokyo. The school later became Waseda University, one of the country's most prominent institutions of higher education.[9]
Despite their continuing animosity, Itō again appointed Ōkuma to the post of
However, he returned to politics in 1896 by reorganizing the Rikken Kaishintō into the Shimpotō (Progressive Party).[citation needed] In 1897, Matsukata Masayoshi convinced Ōkuma to participate in his second administration as Foreign Minister and Agriculture and Commerce Minister, but again, he remained in office for only one year before resigning as a result of intrigues involving the prime minister.[8]
In June 1898, Ōkuma co-founded the
After his political retirement, Ōkuma became president of Waseda University and chairman of the Japan Civilization Society, from which scholars' many translations of European and American texts were published. He also gathered support for Japan's first expedition to Antarctica.
Taishō period political life
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At the request of the Emperor, Ōkuma returned to politics during the constitutional crisis of 1914, when the government of Yamamoto Gonnohyōe was forced to resign in the wake of the Siemens scandal.[11] The 2nd Ōkuma administration was noted for its active foreign policy. Later that year, Japan declared war on the German Empire, thus entering World War I on the Allied side. However, the government suffered defeat in December, over the army budget.[11]
In 1915, Ōkuma and
Ōkuma returned to Waseda, and died there in 1922.[12] An estimated 300,000 people attended his funeral in Tokyo's Hibiya Park. He was posthumously conferred with the Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, the nation's highest honour. He was buried at the temple of Gokoku-ji in Tokyo.
Ōkuma Shigenobu former residence
Ōkuma Shigenobu's house in the city of Saga still exists, and is part of the Okuma Shigenobu Memorial Museum complex. This building was purchased by Ōkuma Kumanosuke in 1838, and was the residence of Ōkuma Shigenobu's from his birth until the time he departed Saga for Tokyo in 1868. The structure consists of a single-story tatch-roof portion and a two-story tile-roof portion. It is said that the second floor was added by Shigenobu's mother to provide her son with a study. Although the house is in good preservation, there are signs of remodeling at the entrance, and the kitchen has been removed and an administration room added at a later date. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1965.[13]
Honours
From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia
Peerages
- Count (May 9, 1887)
- Marquess (July 14, 1916)
Decorations
- Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (November 2, 1877)
- Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers (April 29, 1910)
- Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (January 10, 1922, posthumous; Grand Cordon: July 14, 1916)
Court order of precedence
- Fifth rank, junior grade (1867)
- Fourth rank, junior grade (1868)
- Senior fourth rank (1870)
- Third rank (July 22, 1871)
- Senior third rank (December 26, 1887)
- Second rank (February 17, 1888)
- Senior second rank (June 20, 1898)
- Junior First Rank (January 10, 1922)[14]
Notes
- ^ a b c d Borton, p. 91.
- ^ OCLC 1201259749.
- ^ "大隈重信 | 近代日本人の肖像". National Diet Library (in Japanese). Retrieved December 10, 2021.
- ^ Brownas, heading "A Wider Window on the West"
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 61.
- ^ Tokugawa, p. 161. Unlike all 14 previous Tokugawa shōguns, Yoshinobu never set foot in Edo during his tenure.
- ^ Borton, p. 78.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 62.
- ^ Beasley, p. 105.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4780-1121-7.
- ^ a b c Chisholm 1922.
- ^ Beasley, p. 220.
- ^ "大隈重信旧宅" (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
- ^ "叙従一位位記:正二位大勲位侯爵大隈重信". Waseda University Library. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
References
- Beasley, W.G. (1963). The Making of Modern Japan. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
- Borton, Hugh (1955). Japan's Modern Century. New York: The Ronald Press Company.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 61–62.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 31 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 1174.
- Idditti, Smimasa. Life of Marquis Shigenobu Okuma: A Maker of New Japan. Kegan Paul International Ltd. (2006). ISBN 0-7103-1186-9
- Idditti, Junesay. Marquis Shigenobu Okuma – A Biographical Study in the Rise of Democratic Japan. Hokuseido Press (1956). ASIN: B000IPQ4VQ
- Lebra-Chapman, Joyce. Okuma Shigenobu: statesman of Meiji Japan. Australian National University Press (1973). ISBN 0-7081-0400-2
- Oka Yoshitake, et al. Five Political Leaders of Modern Japan: Ito Hirobumi, Okuma Shigenobu, Hara Takashi, Inukai Tsuyoshi, and Saionji Kimmochi. University of Tokyo Press (1984). ISBN 0-86008-379-9
- Tokugawa Munefusa (2005). Tokugawa yonhyakunen no naisho-banashi: raibaru bushō-hen Tokyo: Bungei-shunju
- Brownas, Sidney DeVere. Nagasaki in the Meiji Restoration: Choshu Loyalists and British Arms Merchants. http://www.uwosh.edu/home_pages/faculty_staff/earns/meiji.html Retrieved on August 7, 2008.
External links
- Yomiuri Shimbun: Less than 30% of primary school students in Japan know historical significance of Ōkuma, 2008.
- Photograph of Rabindranath Tagore and Count Okuma in Japan in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
- . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
- Newspaper clippings about Ōkuma Shigenobu in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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