Background
Kume was born in Saga Domain, Hizen (present-day Saga Prefecture), and was active in attempting to assist the administrative reform of Saga domain during the Bakumatsu period.
久米 邦武
historian painter university professor writer
Kume was born in Saga Domain, Hizen (present-day Saga Prefecture), and was active in attempting to assist the administrative reform of Saga domain during the Bakumatsu period.
He had a son, Kume Keiichirō, who was a noted painter. After the Meiji Restoration, he was selected to join the Iwakura mission on its around-the-world voyage in 1871-1873 as the private secretary to Iwakura Tomomi. In 1878 he published the Tokumei Zenken Taishi Bei-O Kairan Jikki ( 「特命全権大使米欧回覧実記」), a five-volume account of the journey, and of what he observed of the United States and Europe.
Kume became a professor at Tokyo Imperial University in 1888, while contributing to Dai Nihon Hennenshi, an encyclopedic comprehensive history of Japan.
In 1889, he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure. Kume continued to write and lecture at the Tokyo Semmon Gakko ( 東京専門学校), the predecessor of Waseda University, after his resignation from Tokyo University.