Kentaro Kaneko

Japanese: 金子堅太郎 - かねこ・けんたろう

Year of death: May 16, 1942
Year of birth: 1853.3.13 (Kaei 6.2.4)
He was a bureaucrat and politician in the Meiji, Taisho and early Showa periods. His father was Kaneko Seizo, a feudal lord of the Fukuoka domain, and his mother was Yasuko. His pen name was Keisui. After studying at the domain school Shuyukan, he was ordered by the domain to travel to Edo in 1870 to study English. In 1871, he accompanied Dan Takuma and others on a study abroad trip for the former domain lord Kuroda Nagatomo, and departed with the Iwakura Mission. In 1878, he majored in law at Harvard University, and lived and ate with Komura Jutaro. He graduated in 1878. His classmate was the future president Theodore Roosevelt. After returning to Japan in 1882, he taught at the University of Tokyo Preparatory School, while also joining the Kyozon Doshu and Oumeisha groups to discuss current affairs, and taught law at night school with Megata Tanetaro, Tajiri Inajiro and others. This is what later became Senshu College (Senshu University). When the Institutional Investigation Bureau was established in the Imperial Court in 1882, he worked under Ito Hirobumi with Inoue Tsuyoshi, Ito Shiyoji and others to draft the Constitution, the House of Peers Act, the House of Representatives Election Act and other documents. After this, he served as Minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Justice as an Ito-affiliated bureaucrat and politician, and participated in the founding of the Rikken Seiyukai party. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), he traveled to the United States and was in charge of manipulating public opinion. In his later years, as a Privy Councilor, he criticized the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the London Naval Treaty, the Emperor Organ Theory and other such treaties, while also playing a central role in compiling the Chronicle of the Meiji Emperor. In 1934, he was awarded the title of Count. <References> Fujii Shinichi, "The Imperial Constitution and Kaneko Kentaro"

(Junichi Nagai)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：昭和17.5.16(1942)
生年：嘉永6.2.4(1853.3.13)
明治大正,昭和初期の官僚。政治家。父は福岡藩士金子清蔵,母は安子。号は渓水。藩校修猷館で学んだのち,明治3(1870)年藩命により江戸に遊学し,英語を学ぶ。4年旧藩主黒田長知の留学に団琢磨らと随行,岩倉遣外使節団と共に出発した。1878年ハーバード大学で法律学を専攻し,小村寿太郎と寝食を共にした。1878年卒業。級友にはのちの大統領セオドア・ルーズベルトがいた。11年帰国後東大予備門の教員をしながら,共存同衆,嚶鳴社に入会し時事を論じ,目賀田種太郎,田尻稲次郎らと共に夜学で法律を教えた。のちの専修学校(専修大学)である。17年宮中に制度取調局が新設されると伊藤博文の下で井上毅,伊東巳代治らと共に憲法,貴族院令,衆院議員選挙法などの起草に当たった。これ以後,伊藤系の官僚,政治家として農商務,司法各大臣を務め,立憲政友会の創立に参画。日露戦争(1904～05)の際には渡米し世論工作を担当。晩年は枢密顧問官として不戦条約,ロンドン海軍軍縮条約,天皇機関説などを批判するかたわら,『明治天皇紀』編修の中心となった。昭和9(1934)年伯爵叙爵。<参考文献>藤井新一『帝国憲法と金子堅太郎』

(長井純市)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

<<: Fumiko Kaneko

>>: Kaneko Kunen