Background
Juan Saga was born in Kaga Province (Ishikawa Prefecture), Japan (1840). His given name was Kazumasa, the second son of Kenju.
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Juan Saga
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also known as
Kazumasa
physician Russian language expert
Education
He went to Edo and studied medicine and pharmacology. He was ordered by the lord of his clan to study in Petrograd (1869).
Career
Reading in a book by Kumpei Gamo that Russia had territorial ambitions toward Japan, he went to Hakodate, Hokkaido, and exchanged language lessons with Bishop Nikolai of the Greek Orthodox Church. From Novgorod he traveled by railroad to the Russian capital. He was the first Japanese to cross Siberia. Because the feudal system was abolished, remittances from Kanazawa stopped but he continued to study under adversity.
Returning to Japan (1874), he was employed by the Hokkaido Development Office and participated in the Education Ministry's compilation of a Japanese-Russian dictionary.
Personality
He liked drinking and died a poor man.
