Yuri Kimimasa

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Yuri Kimimasa (由利公正, Yuri Kimimasa^?); (11 November 1829 – 28 April 1912) was a statesman in Meiji period Japan. During the Meiji Restoration he used the alias Mitsuoka Hachiro (三岡八郎, Mitsuoka Hachiro^?)

[edit] Life and career

Yuri was a samurai born in Fukui, Echizen Province (present-day Fukui Prefecture), and studied under the Confucian scholar Yokoi Shonan. He worked towards the financial reform and modernizing Fukui 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 with Fukuoka Takachika, he was the principal author of the Charter Oath. He was also involved in the issuance of Japan's first national paper banknotes in 1868.

In 1871, he became 4th Governor of Tokyo.

He left government the following year, but was selected to accompany 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 Genroin.

In 1887 he was elevated to the rank of shishaku (viscount) in the kazoku peerage system. He was later nominated to serve in the House of Peers.

In 1891, he quit government service, moved to Kyoto, and founded the Yurin Seimeihoken K.K., one of Japan's first life insurance companies. The company later merged with Meiji Seimei, the predecessor to modern Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company.

[edit] 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.