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Biography of Kimmochi Saionji
Name: Kimmochi Saionji
Birth Date: October 23, 1849
Death Date: November 24, 1940
Place of Birth: Japan
Nationality: Japanese
Gender: Male
Occupations: statesman
Kimmochi Saionji
Kimmochi Saionji (1849-1940) was the last elder statesman, or genro, of Japan. Catapulted by birth into high position, he played a major role in the Japanese government both during and after the Meiji restoration of 1868. He made the final recommendations for premiers until his death.Born on Oct. 23, 1849, the second son of Kinzumi Tokudaiji, Kimmochi was adopted at the age of 2 by the Saionji family, who were court nobles (kuge) close to the imperial family. He served Emperor Komei as boy chamberlain and imperial guard and knew Mutsuhito as prince. When the latter became the Meiji emperor, Saionji at 19 was made a councilor (sanyo) and later was appointed a commander, assisted by Aritomo Yamagata, 10 years his senior.After 10 years in France, imbibing liberal ideas, Saionji returned home in 1881 and was happy to find the Freedom and People's Rights movement in progress. He consented to head the Toyo Jiyu Shimbun (Oriental Liberal …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…Reading A scholarly study, Prince Saionji (trans. 1933), was written by Yosaburo Takekoshi, a noted Japanese historian. A fascinating fictionalized biography published before Saionji's death is Bunji Omura, The Last Genro: Prince Saionji, the Man Who Westernized Japan (1938), which contains glossaries. Although generally accurate and offering much background and personal detail, Omura did not have available the great amount of material that has since been published in Japanese by persons who knew Saionji personally. They include Sakutaro Koizumi, who edited Saionji's autobiography in 1949, and Kumao Harada, his personal secretary and official spokesman, who published a nine-volume work on him between 1950 and 1956, volume 1 of which, Fragile Victory: Prince Saionji and the 1930 London Treaty Issue (trans. 1968), is introduced and annotated by the translator, Thomas Francis Mayer-Oakes.Connors, Lesley, The emperor's adviser: Saionji Kinmochi and pre-war Japanese politics, London; Wolfeboro, N.H.: Croom Helm; Oxford, Oxfordshire: Nissan Institute for Japanese Studies, University of Oxford, 1987.
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