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OKUMA (SHIGENOBU), COUNT

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 62 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OKUMA (SHIGENOBU), See also:COUNT (1838- ); See also:Japanese states-See also:man, was See also:born in the See also:province of Hizen in 1838. His See also:father was an officer in the See also:artillery, and during his See also:early years his See also:education consisted mainly of the study of See also:Chinese literature. Happily for him, however, he was able to acquire in his youth a knowledge of See also:English and Dutch, and by the help of some missionaries he succeeded in obtaining books in those See also:languages on both scientific and See also:political subjects. These See also:works effected a See also:complete revolution in his mind. He had been designed by his parents for the military profession, but the new See also:light which now See also:broke in upon him determined him to devote his entire energies to the abolition of the existing feudal See also:system and to the See also:establishment of a constitutional See also:government. With impetuous zeal he urged his views on his countrymen, and though he took no active See also:part in the revolution of 1868, the effect of his opinions exercised no slight See also:weight in the struggle. Already he was a marked man, and no sooner was the government reorganized, with the See also:mikado as the See also:sole wielder of See also:power, than he was appointed See also:chief assistant in the See also:department of See also:foreign affairs. In 1869 he succeeded to the See also:post of secretary of the See also:joint departments of the interior and of See also:finance, and for the next fourteen years he devoted himself wholly to politics. In 187o he was made a councillor of See also:state, and a few months later he accepted the See also:office of See also:president of the See also:commission which represented the Japanese government at the See also:Vienna See also:Exhibition. In 1872 he was again appointed See also:minister of finance, and when the expedition under See also:General See also:Saigo was sent to See also:Formosa (1874) to chastise the natives of that See also:island for the See also:murder of some shipwrecked fishermen, he was nominated president of the commission appointed to supervise the See also:campaign. By one of those waves of popular feeling to which the Japanese See also:people are peculiarly liable, the nation which had supported him up to a certain point suddenly veered See also:round and opposed him with heated violence. So strong was the feeling against him that on one occasion a would-be See also:assassin threw at him a See also:dynamite See also:shell, which blew off one of his legs.

During the whole of his public See also:

life he recognized the See also:necessity of promoting education. When he resigned office in the early 'eighties he established the Semmon Gako, or school for See also:special studies, at the cost of the 30,000 yen which had been voted him when he received the See also:title of count, and subsequently he was instrumental in See also:founding other See also:schools and colleges. In 1896 he joined the See also:Matsukata See also:cabinet, and resigned in the following See also:year in consequence of intrigues which produced an estrangement between him and the See also:prime minister. On the retirement of See also:Marquis See also:Ito in 1898 he again took office, combining the duties of premier with those of minister of foreign affairs. But dissensions having arisen in the cabinet, he resigned a few months later, and retired into private life, cultivating his beautiful See also:garden at Waseda near See also:Tokyo.

End of Article: OKUMA (SHIGENOBU), COUNT

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