- Yuri Kimimasa
nihongo|Yuri Kimimasa|由利公正| Yuri Kimimasa; (
11 November 1829 –28 April 1912 ) was a statesman inMeiji period Japan . During theMeiji Restoration he used the alias nihongo|Mitsuoka Hachiro|三岡八郎Life and career
Yuri was a samurai born in
Fukui ,Echizen Province (present-dayFukui Prefecture ), and studied under the Confucian scholarYokoi Shonan . He worked towards the financial reform and modernizingFukui domain and received preferential treatment from "daimyo "Matsudaira Yoshinaga due to his great ability.He joined the new
Meiji government as a "san'yo" (senior councillor), and took charge of the financial and monetary policy of the new government. Together withFukuoka Takachika , he was the principal author of theCharter Oath . He was also involved in the issuance of Japan's first national paperbanknote s in 1868.In 1871, he became the fourth governor of
Tokyo .He left government the following year, but was selected to accompany the
Iwakura Mission on its around-the-world voyage to theUnited States andEurope . After his return to Japan, he joined Itagaki Taisuke in petitioning for a representativenational assembly . In 1875 he was appointed to theGenroin .In 1887 he was elevated to the rank of "shishaku" (
viscount ) in the "kazoku " peerage system. He was later nominated to serve in theHouse of Peers .In 1891, he quit government service, moved to
Kyoto , and founded the "Yurin Seimeihoken K.K"., one of Japan's firstlife insurance companies. The company later merged with "Meiji Seimei", the predecessor to modernMeiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company .References & further reading
* Beasley, W. G. "The Rise of Modern Japan: Political, Economic and Social Change Since 1850." St. Martin's Press, New York 1995.
* Beasley, W. G. "The Meiji Restoration." Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972.
* Jansen, Marius B. and Gilbert Rozman, eds. "Japan in Transition: From Tokugawa to Meiji." Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.External links
* [ http://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/e/datas/215.html?c=0 National Diet Library photo & bio]
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