ÅŒkuma Shigenobu
ÅŒkuma Shigenobu | |
---|---|
大隈 é‡ä¿¡ | |
5th Prime Minister of Japan | |
In office 16 April 1914 – 9 October 1916 | |
Monarch | TaishÅ |
Preceded by | Yamamoto GonnohyÅe |
Succeeded by | Terauchi Masatake |
In office 30 June 1898 – 8 November 1898 | |
Monarch | Meiji |
Preceded by | ItÅ Hirobumi |
Succeeded by | Yamagata Aritomo |
Personal details | |
Born |
Saga, Japan | 11 March 1838
Died |
10 January 1922 83) Tokyo, Japan | (aged
Political party |
Rikken KaishintÅ (1882–1896) ShimpotÅ (1896–1898) Kensei HontÅ (1898–1908) Independent (1908–1914) Rikken DÅshikai (1914–1922) |
Spouse(s) | ÅŒkuma Ayako |
Signature |
Marquess ÅŒkuma Shigenobu (大隈 é‡ä¿¡, March 11, 1838 – January 10, 1922) was a Japanese politician in the Empire of Japan and the 8th (June 30, 1898 – November 8, 1898) and 17th (April 16, 1914 – October 9, 1916) Prime Minister of Japan. ÅŒkuma was also an early advocate of Western science and culture in Japan, and founder of Waseda University.
Early life
ÅŒkuma was born HachitarÅ, the first son of an artillery officer, in Saga, Hizen Province (modern day Saga Prefecture) in 1838. During his early years, his education consisted mainly of the study of Confucian literature and derivative works such as Hagakure. However, he left school in 1853 to move to a Dutch studies institution.[1]
The Dutch school was merged with the provincial school in 1861, and ÅŒkuma took up a lecturing position there shortly afterward. ÅŒkuma sympathized with the sonnÅ jÅi movement, which aimed at expelling the Europeans who had started to arrive in Japan. However, he also advocated mediation between the rebels in ChÅshÅ« and the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo.
During a trip to Nagasaki, ÅŒkuma met a Dutch missionary named Guido Verbeck, who taught him the English language and provided him with copies of the New Testament and the American Declaration of Independence.[2] These works are often said to have affected his political thinking profoundly, and encouraged him to support efforts to abolish the existing feudal system and work toward the establishment of a constitutional government.
ÅŒkuma frequently traveled between Nagasaki and Kyoto in the following years and became active in the Meiji Restoration. In 1867, together with Soejima Taneomi, he planned to recommend resignation to the Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu.[1] Leaving Saga Domain without permission, they went to Kyoto, where the Shogun then resided.[3] However, ÅŒkuma and his companions were arrested and sent back to Saga. They were subsequently sentenced to one month imprisonment.
Meiji period political life
Following the Boshin War of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Okuma was placed in charge of foreign affairs for the new Meiji government. At this time, he negotiated with British diplomat, Sir Harry Smith Parkes on the ban of Christianity and insisted on maintaining the government's persecution on Catholics in Nagasaki.
In 1873, the Japanese government removed the ban on Christianity.
He was soon given an additional post as head of Japan's monetary reform program. He made use of his close contacts with Inoue Kaoru to secure a positions in the central government in Tokyo. He was elected to the first Diet of Japan in 1870 and soon became Minister of Finance, in which capacity he instituted property and taxation reforms that aided Japan's early industrial development.[4]
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 ChÅshÅ« clique in the Meiji oligarchy, most notably ItÅ 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, ÅŒkuma co-founded the Constitutional Progressive Party (Rikken KaishintÅ) which soon attracted a number of other leaders, including Ozaki Yukio and Inukai Tsuyoshi. That same year, ÅŒkuma founded the Tokyo Semmon GakkÅ in the Waseda district of Tokyo. The school later became Waseda University, one of the country's most prominent institutions of higher education.[5]
Despite their continuing animosity, ItÅ again appointed ÅŒkuma to the post of Foreign Minister in February 1888 to deal with the difficult issue of negotiation revisions to the "unequal treaties" with the Western powers. The treaty he negotiated was perceived by the public as too conciliatory to the Western powers, and created considerable controversy. ÅŒkuma was attacked by a member of the Gen'yÅsha in 1889, and his right leg was blown off by a bomb.[6] He retired from politics at that time.
However, he returned to politics in 1896 by reorganizing the Rikken KaishintÅ into the ShimpotÅ (Progressive Party). In 1897, Matsukata Masayoshi convinced ÅŒkuma 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.
In June 1898, ÅŒkuma co-founded the KenseitÅ (Constitutional Government Party), by merging his ShimpotÅ with Itagaki Taisuke's JiyÅ«tÅ, and was appointed by the Emperor to form the first partisan cabinet in Japanese history. The new cabinet survived for only four months before it fell apart due to internal dissension. ÅŒkuma remained in charge of the party until 1908, when he retired from politics.
After his political retirement, ÅŒkuma 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.
TaishÅ period political life
At the request of the Emperor,[7] ÅŒkuma returned to politics during the constitutional crisis of 1914, when the government of Yamamoto GonnohyÅe was forced to resign in the wake of the Siemens scandal. ÅŒkuma organized his supporters, together with the Rikken DÅshikai and ChÅ«seikai organizations, into a coalition cabinet. The 2nd ÅŒkuma administration was noted for its active foreign policy. Later that year, Japan declared war on the Empire of Germany, thus entering World War I on the Allied side. In 1915, ÅŒkuma and KatÅ Takaaki drafted the Twenty-One Demands on China.
However, ÅŒkuma’s second administration was also short-lived. Following the ÅŒura scandal, ÅŒkuma's cabinet lost popular support, and its members held mass resignation in October 1915. In 1916, after a long argument with the GenrÅ, ÅŒkuma resigned as well, and retired from politics permanently, although he remained a member of the Upper House of the Diet of Japan until 1922. He was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum in 1916, and was elevated to the title of kÅshaku (侯爵) (marquis) in the kazoku peerage system the same year.
ÅŒkuma returned to Waseda, and died there in 1922.[8] An estimated 300,000 people attended his funeral in Tokyo's Hibiya Park. He was buried at the temple of Gokoku-ji in Tokyo.
Honours
From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia
- Count (May 9, 1887)
- Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (July 14, 1916)
- Marquess (July 14, 1916)
- Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (January 10, 1922; posthumous)
Notes
- 1 2 Borton, p. 91.
- ↑ Brownas, heading "A Wider Window on the West"
- ↑ Tokugawa, p. 161. Unlike all 14 previous Tokugawa Shoguns, Yoshinobu never set foot in Edo during his tenure.
- ↑ Borton, p. 78.
- ↑ Beasley, p. 105.
- ↑ Beasley, p. 159.
- ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Okuma (Shigenobu), Marquess". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York.
- ↑ Beasley, p. 220.
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.
- 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 bushÅ-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
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shigenobu ÅŒkuma. |
- Yomiuri Shimbun: Less than 30% of primary school students in Japan know historical significance of ÅŒkuma, 2008.
- Photograph of Rabindranath Tagore and Count Okuma in Japan in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
Political offices | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by ItÅ Hirobumi |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1888–1889 |
Succeeded by Aoki ShūzŠ|
Preceded by Saionji Kinmochi |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1896–1897 |
Succeeded by Nishi TokujirÅ |
Preceded by Nishi TokujirÅ |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1898 |
Succeeded by Aoki ShūzŠ|
Preceded by KatÅ Takaaki |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1915 |
Succeeded by Ishii KikujirÅ |
Preceded by Hara Takashi |
Minister of Home Affairs 1914–1915 |
Succeeded by ÅŒura Kanetake |
Preceded by ÅŒura Kanetake |
Minister of Home Affairs 1915 |
Succeeded by Ichiki KitokurÅ |
Preceded by Enomoto Takeaki |
Minister of Agriculture and Commerce 1897 |
Succeeded by Yamada Nobumichi |
Preceded by ItÅ Hirobumi |
Prime Minister of Japan 1898 |
Succeeded by Yamagata Aritomo |
Preceded by Yamamoto GonnohyÅe |
Prime Minister of Japan 1914–1916 |
Succeeded by Terauchi Masatake |
Academic offices | ||
New office | President of Waseda University 1907–1922 |
Succeeded by Masasada Shiozawa |
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