Viscount was a statesman in
Meiji period Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
[Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Yuri Kimimasa" in .] During the
Meiji Restoration he used the alias
Life and career
Yuri was a ''
samurai'' born in
Fukui
is a Japanese name meaning "fortunate" or sometimes "one who is from the Fukui prefecture". It may refer to:
Places
* Fukui Domain, a part of the Japanese han system during the Edo period
* Fukui Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in ...
,
Echizen Province (present-day
Fukui Prefecture).
He studied under the Confucian scholar
Yokoi Shōnan. He worked towards the financial reform and modernizing of the
Fukui domain and received preferential treatment from ''
daimyō''
Matsudaira Yoshinaga
, also known as Matsudaira Keiei,Beasley, William G. (1955). ''Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853–1868'', p. 335. or better known as Matsudaira Shungaku (春嶽) was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Edo period. He was head of the ...
due to his great ability.
Yuri 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 with
Fukuoka Takachika
Viscount was a Japanese statesman of the Meiji period.
Early life
Fukuoka was born in Tosa District in present-day Kōchi Prefecture, and served the Yamauchi daimyō of Tosa as a domain official. Together with fellow Tosa ''samurai'' Gotō S ...
, he was the principal author of the
Charter Oath
The was promulgated on 6 April 1868 in Kyoto Imperial Palace. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization. This also set up a process of u ...
. Yuri was involved in the issuance of Japan's first national paper
banknotes in 1868.
In 1871, he became the fourth governor of
Tokyo. Yuri left the role the following year, but was selected as one of the members of the
Iwakura Mission on its around-the-world voyage to the
United States and
Europe.
After his return to Japan, he joined
Itagaki Taisuke in petitioning for a representative
national assembly.
In 1875, he was appointed to the
Genrōin.
In 1887 he was elevated to the rank of ''shishaku'' (
viscount) in the ''
kazoku'' peerage system. He was nominated to serve in the
House of Peers of the
Diet of Japan
The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...
in 1890.
In 1891, Yuri quit government service, moved to
Kyoto, and founded the ''Yurin Seimeihoken K.K''., one of Japan's first
life insurance
Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...
companies. The company later merged with ''Meiji Seimei'', the predecessor to
Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company.
Notes
References
*
;
OCLC 185681292*
OCLC 579232*
OCLC 12311985*
OCLC 58053128
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yuri, Kimimasa
1829 births
1912 deaths
People from Fukui Prefecture
Japanese businesspeople
Members of the House of Peers (Japan)
Kazoku
People of Meiji-period Japan
Meiji Yasuda Life