Background
Shigenobu Ōkuma was born on 11 March 1838 in the domain of Saga in Kyushu.
大隈 重信
Shigenobu Ōkuma was born on 11 March 1838 in the domain of Saga in Kyushu.
At the age of six entered the Kodokan, the official school of the domain, where he studied the Chu Hsi school of Neo-Confucianism. As a result of his political activities, however, he was forced to withdraw from school in 1855. The same year, he entered the Rangakuryo, a school for Dutch learning, devoting himself to Western and Japanese studies.
After the outbreak of hostilities between the domain of Choshu and the ships of the Western powers in 1863, he urged that Saga assist Choshu and stressed the need for national unity in order to carry out the goals of the sonno-joi movement, but he was not able to persuade the lord of Saga to endorse his views. He then devoted himself to the founding of a school in Nagasaki known as the Chienkan for the purpose of training students in Western learning and himself studied English and mathematics under an American missionary named Guido Verbeck, who was residing in Nagasaki.
In 1866, he joined his fellow clansman Soejima Taneomi in leaving Saga without official permission and journeying to Kyoto, where they hoped to participate in plans to restore power to the emperor, but the scheme failed and Okuma found himself in great difficulty. With the Meiji Restoration in 1868, however, he was given the posts of choshi (domain representative) and Sanyo (junior councilor) in the new government and assigned to foreign affairs.
In 1869 he became lesser assistant in the Treasury Ministry and later chief assistant in the Ministry of the Interior and chief assistant in the Treasury Ministry. In 1870 he became a councilor of state and in 1873 minister of the treasury.
In 1874, when Japanese troops were dispatched to Taiwan, he was appointed chief of the bureau in charge of Taiwan affairs and in 1877 he similarly served as chief of the bureau that directed the government’s measures to put down the revolt that broke out in Kyushu, the so-called Seinan War.
In 1878, in addition to his other duties, he was made president of the bureau in charge of land tax revision. In 1881, when the popular rights movement was gaining momentum, he spoke out in favor of the immediate establishment of a national assembly, a move that placed him in opposition to the other leaders of the government and led to his dismissal from office.
He served as foreign minister in the Ito Hirobumi and Kuroda Kiyotaka cabinets in 1888, negotiating with the foreign powers in an attempt to effect treaty revision, but he was criticized for being too conciliatory in approach and in 1889 was attacked and wounded by a member of a right-wing political organization called the Gen’yosha. He was forced to undergo the amputation of his right leg and retired from office. The same year he was appointed advisor to the Privy Council. In 1896 he formed another political party known as the Shimpoto with himself as head, and through the cooperation of Matsukata Masayoshi, was appointed foreign minister once more. In 1897 he also took on the post of minister of agriculture and commerce, but he resigned his posts because of opposition to the clique of clan leaders that dominated the government.
In 1900 he became head of the Kenseihont5. After resigning from this position in 1907, he became president of Waseda University and was active in cultural affairs as founder of the Bummei Kyokai and the head of an organization to further efforts for the exploration of the South Pole. In 1911 he founded a magazine called Shin Nihon and busied himself in lecturing, writing, and entertaining foreign visitors to Japan. After 1910, for a time he withdrew entirely from political affairs, but returned to political life at the time of the first national movement to preserve the constitution in 1912, resuming his struggle against the old clique of Choshu and Satsuma clan leaders.
In 1914, through the support of the Rikken Doshikai group and the unanimous recommendation of thegenrd (counselors of state), he was able to form his second cabinet, once more with himself as prime minister and foreign minister. He led Japan through the First World War, in 1914 declaring war on Germany. The following year he presented China with the so-called Twenty-one Demands, assuming a more forceful attitude toward China than in the past. In 1916 he and his cabinet resigned. Thereafter he ceased to be active in public life.
As a chief assistant in the Ministry of the Interior and chief assistant in the Treasury Ministry, he worked to stabilize the fiscal standing of the government, establish railway and telegraph systems, and set up the Ministry of Public Works.
As a minister of the treasury he pursued an inflationary fiscal policy and also spoke out against those who advocated a military expedition against Korea.
He also made use of the services of Iwasaki Yataro, the founder of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, in transporting military supplies and assisted in the establishment of the Mitsubishi Steamship Company, laying the foundations for the close relations that would exist between himself and the Mitsubishi interests in later years.
In 1882 he founded Tokyo Semmon Gakko, a school which later became Waseda University.
At the age of sixteen he joined the sonno-joi movement, which advocated restoration of power to the emperor and the expulsion of the foreign traders from Japan.
In 1898 he merged his Shimpoto with Itagaki Taisuke’s Jiyuto, forming a new party called the Kenseito (Constitution Party), and set about to form the first party cabinet in Japanese history with himself as prime minister and foreign minister. Internal dissension, however, led to its rapid dissolution.
In 1882 he formed the Rikken Kaishinto (Progressive Party), which advocated the establishment of a British style constitutional government with regular political parties.
