Background
Tetsunen Ozu was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1834.
哲然 小津
Tetsunen Ozu was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1834.
He entered priesthood after his father died when he was four years old.
Tetsunen presented a petition to the Choshu Clan (Yamaguchi Prefecture) to reform the administration of Shinshu temples. Around 1868, priests Mokurai Shimaji and Renjo Akamatsu and he carried out a reform of the Shinshu Sect headquarters. He participated in the establishment of the Education Ministry of the Imperial Government.
He was received in audience by Emperor Meiji (1877) and lectured on the condition of his sect. He was appointed as adviser to the Shinshu headquarters (1900). In cooperation with Shinsaku Takasugi, Ozu organized the Shimbutai Group of Loyalists in his native province (1835). He organized also the Gokokudan Group which trained youths in martial arts and loyalist ideas.