Background
Yuri Kimimasa was born on 11 November 1829 in the domain of Fukui. He was a son of a lower-ranking samurai. His family name was originally Mitsuoka, and he went by the common name Ishigoro and later Hachiro.
由利 公正
Yuri Kimimasa was born on 11 November 1829 in the domain of Fukui. He was a son of a lower-ranking samurai. His family name was originally Mitsuoka, and he went by the common name Ishigoro and later Hachiro.
In 1847 he studied with the Confucian thinker Yokoi Shonan, who was visiting the domain of Fukui, and carried out a survey of the domain’s finances.
In 1859, Hashimoto Sanai, a samurai of Fukui w'ho had worked in cooperation with Yuri to carry out reforms in the domain, was put to death in the purge of political opponents carried out by Ii Naosuke. Yuri, however, was ordered to carry out a general survey of the shogunate’s finances in Edo. He was active as an exponent of mercantilism.
For a time his fortunes did not prosper, but with the formation of the new imperial government in 1867, he was taken into service as a councilor and put in charge of the handling of money and grain. He worked to raise funds for the military expenses of the new government and, in 1868, in his capacity as an official in the Bureau of Accounts, supervised the printing of Japan’s first paper currency.
In 1869 he returned to Fukui, where he was active in the movement to abolish the feudal domains and return their lands to the direct control of the central government. In 1871 he became governor of Tokyo Prefecture and in 1872 accompanied Iwakura Tomomi on his tour of Europe.
In 1874 he joined Itagaki Taisuke and others in petitioning the government for the creation of an elected assembly.