Background
Nobushige Hozumi was born on 23 April 1855 in Uwajima. He was a son of a samurai of the domain of Uwajima in Shikoku and the elder brother of Hozumi Yatsuka.
穂積 陳重
Nobushige Hozumi was born on 23 April 1855 in Uwajima. He was a son of a samurai of the domain of Uwajima in Shikoku and the elder brother of Hozumi Yatsuka.
He was among the first Japanese to hold the degree of doctor of law; for a time he bore the surname Irie. He studied at the Meirinkan, the official school of his native domain. In 1870 he was selected by the domain to go to Tokyo for further study, where he entered the Daigaku Nankd, the forerunner of Tokyo Imperial University. In 1876 he was sent to England by the Ministry of Education, where lie studied at the Middle Temple. Upon his graduation in 1879 he received the title of barrister at law. The same year he went to Germany, where he studied at Berlin University, and returned to Japan in 1881.
He was immediately appointed an instructor in the Law School of Tokyo Imperial University, and the following year advanced to the rank of professor, a position that he held until 1912.
In 1890 he was appointed a member of the Upper House of the Diet, and in 1893, as a member of the Code Investigation Commission, he joined with Ume Kenjiro and others in drafting the Meiji Civil Code. At a time when the legal world in Japan was dominated by French concepts of law, he helped to introduce the empirical approach of English law.
In 1912 he became an advisor to the Privy Council and a member of the Imperial Academy (later head of the Academy); in 1925 he became president of the Privy Council.
His wife was the eldest daughter of the financier Shibusawa Eiichi. His eldest son, Hozumi Shigcto (1883-1951), was also a professor of Tokyo University, specializing in civil law, and in addition served as a Supreme Court judge.