Background
Inagaki was born in Nagasaki, as the son of a samurai of the Hirado Domain.
稲垣 満次郎
Inagaki was born in Nagasaki, as the son of a samurai of the Hirado Domain.
Instead, Inagaki went to Great Britain from January 1888 to December 1890 and studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
As a young man he was a warder of the Satsuma men imprisoned in Nagasaki after the unsuccessful Satsuma Rebellion, and gained their respect and affection. After studying at the clan-established Ishinkan and Kagoshima Shigakko (private school), he entered the Department of Literature of the Tokyo Imperial University in 1882. Sent down from Tokyo University with many others after the “Incident of 1883” when the student body rebelled and boycotted the graduation ceremonies because the time of the ceremony was changed, he never returned as most of the others did.
He also founded the Club at Cambridge University to study the ways of gentlemen.
He also studied classical literature and is the first known to have learned Greek. He became a very popular figure at the University, especially with the Master of Pembroke College and the Vice-Chancellor, the Reverend Doctor Charles Edward Searle.
Later life After graduating Inagaki returned to Japan, and became a temporary professor at Gakushuin Higher Commercial School. He entered the Foreign Ministry and became Japan"s first deputy Minister Resident to the Kingdom of Siam on March 31, 1897.
He was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary on 19 November 1899, and envoy extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in 1903.
He continued in that role until July 1907 when he was transferred to Madrid, Spain, where he died of illness in 1908. Inagaki wrote a number of scholarly books in and on international affairs, but died relatively young with his potential unfulfilled. His writings urging expansionism into the South Pacific were part of the theoretical basis of the Southern Expansion Doctrine of the Imperial Navy and certain factions in the government in the early 20th century.