Yuri Kimimasa

Viscount Yuri Kimimasa (由利 公正, November 11, 1829 – April 28, 1912) was a statesman in Meiji period Japan.^[1] During the Meiji Restoration he used the alias Mitsuoka Hachirō (三岡 八郎)

Yuri Kimimasa
Viscount Yuri Kimimasa
Born	(1829-11-11)November 11, 1829 Fukui, Japan
Died	April 28, 1912(1912-04-28) (aged 82)
Nationality	Japanese
Other names	Yuri Kōsei
Occupation(s)	Politician, Entrepreneur

In this Japanese name, the surname is Yuri.

Life and career

Yuri was a samurai born in Fukui, Echizen Province (present-day Fukui Prefecture).^[1] He studied under the Confucian scholar Yokoi Shōnan. He worked towards the financial reform and modernizing of the Fukui domain and received preferential treatment from daimyō Matsudaira Yoshinaga due to his great ability.

Yuri joined the new Meiji government as a san'yo (senior councillor), and took charge of the financial and monetary policy of the new government. Notably, he was recommended for this position by noted Bakumatsu-era figure Sakamoto Ryōma, in a letter written around five days before he was assasssinated.^[2] Together with Fukuoka Takachika, he was the principal author of the Charter Oath. Yuri was involved in the issuance of Japan's first national paper banknotes in 1868.^[1]

In 1871, he became the fourth governor of Tokyo. Yuri left the role the following year, but was selected as one of the members of the Iwakura Mission on its around-the-world voyage to the United States and Europe.^[1] After his return to Japan, he joined Itagaki Taisuke in petitioning for a representative national assembly.

In 1875, he was appointed to the Genrōin.^[1] In 1887 he was elevated to the rank of shishaku (viscount) in the kazoku peerage system. He was nominated to serve in the House of Peers of the Diet of Japan in 1890.

In 1891, Yuri 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 Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company.