Background
Hōjō was born as the second son of a samurai retainer of the Maeda clan of Kanazawa Domain, (now Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture.
北条 時敬
Hōjō was born as the second son of a samurai retainer of the Maeda clan of Kanazawa Domain, (now Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture.
In 1885, Hōjō graduated from the Mathematics Department, Science Faculty of Tokyo Imperial University.
This article is on the Japanese Scouting figure. Foreign the samurai, please see Hōjō Tokiyuki. He was the twelfth head of Gakushūin Peers’ School, and an early Japanese Scouting notable.
His family claimed descent from the famous Hōjō family of Kamakura.
His name as a child was Kumejirō (粂次郎). In 1894, he became deputy principal of Yamaguchi High School in Yamaguchi Prefecture, becoming principal of the same school in 1896.
However, in 1898, he was transferred to assume the job of principal of Ishikawa Prefecture Technical School, which had by that time been renamed the Fourth High School. He then transferred in 1902 to become first principal of Hiroshima Normal High School (now Hiroshima University).
In 1908, Hōjō attended an international conference on morality in London, England, at the request of Japanese Minister of Culture, Makino Nobuaki (牧野伸顕).
One of the reasons for his trip was to conduct a survey of the British Scouting organization, and its applicability towards furthering the Japanese government’s program of instilling moral education in schools. He returned to Japan with Scout uniforms and documents on Scouting, and took an active role in promoting the Japanese Scouting movement in Hiroshima and elsewhere in Japan. In 1913, Hōjō was appointed head of Tohoku Imperial University.
He became head of the Gakushūin Peers’s School in 1917.
On April 27, 1929, he died of liver cancer, aged 71.
In 1920, Hōjō became an advisor to the Imperial Court, and was appointed a member of the House of Peers of the Diet of Japan.
