Background
Shigetaka Shiga was born in 1863 in the city of Okazaki in present-day Aichi Prefecture; his literary name was Shinsen.
Shigetaka Shiga was born in 1863 in the city of Okazaki in present-day Aichi Prefecture; his literary name was Shinsen.
After graduating from Sapporo Agricultural School (the forerunner of Hokkaido University), he became a middle school teacher in Nagano Prefecture.
In 1886 he sailed on the Japanese warship Tsukaba on a tour of Australia and the islands of the South Pacific. He published an account of the trip in 1887 under the title Nan’yo jiji, which soon won him a reputation as an advocate of Japanese overseas expansion. In 1888 he joined Miyake Setsurci and others in forming a society called the Seikyosha and publishing a magazine, Nihonjin, which called for the preservation of the Japanese national character.
In 1897 he became head of the Forestry Bureau in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and in 1898 became a councilor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
From 1902 on, he was a member of the Lower House of the Diet and an advocate of an uncompromising stance in foreign relations. In 1906, after the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War, he participated in the group that defined the border between Russia and Kara- futo, the Japanese portion of the island of Sakhalin. He made three trips around the world, in 1910, 1922-23, and 1923-24, and in 1912 published a world atlas entitled Sekaisansui zusetsu. He lectured on geography at Waseda University and was an honorary member of the Brazilian Geographical Society and the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain. He is also well known for having given the scenic region in the lower reaches of the Kiso River the name “Japanese Rhine.”
In 1896 he entered political activity as honorary secretary of the Shimpoto (Progressive Party).
