Baron was a Japanese entrepreneur and hotelier.
Biography
Baron Kishichiro Okura was son of
Okura Kihachiro Okura may refer to:
* Okura Hotels, an international chain headquartered in Japan
* Okura River in New Zealand
* Okura, New Zealand, a village
* Ōkura school of traditional Japanese comic theater
* Okura, Yamagata, a village in Japan
* the Japa ...
(1837-1928), an entrepreneur who built up the Okura-gumi and founded the giant Okura
Zaibatsu
is a Japanese language, Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertical integration, vertically integrated business conglomerate (company), conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over signi ...
(family owned conglomerate) and the Okura
Shogyo
The commercial high school (Japanese language, Japanese: 商業高等学校, しょうぎょうこうとうがっこう, shōgyō kōtō gakkō / ), simply called (Japanese language, Japanese: 商業高校, しょうぎょうこうこう, shōgy ...
Gakko, which later became
Tokyo Keizai University
(Tokyo University of Economics) is a private university in Tokyo, 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 w ...
(Tokyo University of Economics), in 1949.
Okura studied at
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
from 1903 to 1906 but did not graduate. He competed in the first ever car race held at
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...
in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
on July 6, 1907, where he came in second. Okura was also one of the pioneers who introduced the motor car to Japan. He was President of the
Imperial Hotel Imperial Hotel or Hotel Imperial may refer to:
Hotels Australia
* Imperial Hotel, Ravenswood, Queensland
* Imperial Hotel, York, Western Australia
Austria
* Hotel Imperial, Vienna
India
* The Imperial, New Delhi
Ireland
* Imperial Hotel, D ...
and
Okura luxury hotel chain that is still important in Japan today.
Okura Kishichiro was a primary patron in the establishment of the
Nihon Ki-in
The Nihon Ki-in (), also known as the Japan Go Association, is the main organizational body for Go in Japan, overseeing Japan's professional system and issuing diplomas for amateur dan rankings. It is based in Tokyo. The other major Go associat ...
or Japanese Go Association in 1924, where he organized and supported professional go players in Japan following the
Meiji Restoration
The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
and subsequent ceasing of government support for the
four go houses
In the history of Go in Japan, the four Go houses were four major schools of Go instituted, supported, and controlled by the state, at the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate. (There were also many minor houses.) At roughly the same time shogi w ...
.
He also invented the musical instrument the
Okraulo, a type of vertical flute.
See also
*
Kikuchi Dairoku
Baron was a Japanese mathematician, educator, and education administrator during the Meiji era.
Biography
Early life and family
Kikuchi was born in Edo (present-day Tokyo), as the second son of Mitsukuri Shūhei, a professor at Bansho Shi ...
*
Suematsu Kenchō
Viscount was a Japanese politician, intellectual and author, who lived in the Meiji and Taishō periods. Apart from his activity in the Japanese government, he also wrote several important works on Japan in English. He was portrayed in a nega ...
*
Inagaki Manjirō
was a Japanese diplomat and political theorist who was active during the Meiji period of Japan.
Early life
Inagaki was born in Nagasaki, as the son of a ''samurai'' of the Hirado Domain. As a young man he was a warder of the Satsuma men im ...
*
Anglo-Japanese relations
The Anglo-Japanese style developed in the United Kingdom through the Victorian period and early Edwardian period from approximately 1851 to the 1910s, when a new appreciation for Japanese design and culture influenced how designers and craftspe ...
*
Japanese students in Britain
The first Japanese students in the United Kingdom arrived in the nineteenth century, sent to study at University College London by the Chōshū and Satsuma domains, then the Bakufu (Shogunate). Many went on to study at Cambridge University and a s ...
References
External links
Reminiscencesfrom the website of the Cambridge & Oxford Society, Tokyo
*
', by Noboru Koyama, translated by Ian Ruxton. Lulu Press, September 2004,
*
La Maison Italienne', musical composition in collaboration with Sekiya Toshiko to welcome the Italian Maestro Adolfo Gandino on his visit to Japan, April 1938
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okura, Kish
20th-century Japanese businesspeople
Japanese expatriates in the United Kingdom
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
1882 births
1963 deaths
Businesspeople from Tokyo
Kazoku
Japanese racing drivers
Japanese racehorse owners and breeders
Japanese art collectors