Ryohei Okada

He was an education bureaucrat and a thinker of virtue who was active from the mid-Meiji period to the early Showa period. He was born on May 4, 1231, as the eldest son of wealthy farmer Okada Ryoichiro in Kurami Village, Sano County, Totomi Province (now Kakegawa City, Shizuoka Prefecture). He graduated from the Faculty of Letters of the Imperial University in 1887 (Meiji 20). In 1889, he became a teacher at the First Higher Middle School, where he attended the ceremony to bestow the Imperial Rescript on Education and denounced his colleague Uchimura Kanzo's disrespectful act. In 1893, he became an inspector at the Ministry of Education, and later held positions such as counselor, director general of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and vice minister. In 1916 (Taisho 5), as Minister of Education in the Terauchi Masatake cabinet, he held a temporary education conference and promoted education reform, and in 1924, as Minister of Education in the Kato Takaaki cabinet, he promulgated the Youth Training Center Order and other laws, solidifying the civic education system based on nationalism. During this time, he served as principal of Yamaguchi Junior and Senior High School, president of Kyoto Imperial University, and acting president of Tohoku Imperial University, while also being appointed as a member of the House of Peers and a Privy Councilor, and also served as president of the Dai Nippon Hotokusha Society.

[Uemura Hachiro]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

明治中期から昭和初期にかけて活躍した文部官僚、報徳思想家。元治(げんじ)元年5月4日、遠江(とおとうみ)国佐野郡倉真(くらみ)村（静岡県掛川市）の豪農岡田良一郎の長男として生まれる。1887年（明治20）帝国大学文科大学卒業。1889年第一高等中学校教諭となり、教育勅語の下賜に臨んで同僚内村鑑三の不敬事件を糾弾した。1893年文部省視学官に就任、のち参与官、総務長官、次官などを歴任、1916年（大正5）には寺内正毅(まさたけ)内閣の文部大臣として臨時教育会議を開いて学制改革を推進、1924年にも加藤高明内閣の文相として青年訓練所令などを公布、国家主義に基づく公民教育体制を固めた。この間、山口高等中学校校長、京都帝国大学総長、東北帝国大学総長事務取扱を務める一方、貴族院議員や枢密顧問官などにも任命され、大日本報徳社社長も兼ねた。

［上沼八郎］

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