Suematsu Kenchō
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Viscount Suematsu Kenchō 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 importa
Suematsu Kenchō c. 1898
Itō Hirobumi
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Prince Itō Hirobumi was a Japanese statesman who served as the first prime minister of Japan from 1885 to 1888. Itō held office again as prime minister three times between 1892 and 1901. He was also a
Suematsu Kenchō
…in 1886. Suematsu was elected to the Diet of Japan in 1890. Suematsu served as Communications Minister (1898) and Home Minister in his father-in-law Itō Hirobumi's fourth cabinet, 1900–01. He had married Itō's second daughter Ikuko in 1889 when he was 35 and she was 22. As they were from clans which had fought…
Itō c. 1900
Itō's childhood home in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture
Itō as a young samurai, 1863
The "Chōshū Five", 1863. From left: Inoue Kaoru, Endō Kinsuke, Nomura Yakichi, Yamao Yōzō, and Itō.