- Ume Kenjirō
nihongo|Ume Kenjiro|梅 謙次郎|Ume Kenjirō; (
24 July 1860 –26 August 1910 ) was a legal scholar inMeiji period Japan , and a founder ofHosei University .Life and career
Ume was born as the second son of the domain doctor of
Matsue domain,Izumo Province (present-dayShimane Prefecture ). He was sent to study French at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and upon graduation was employed by the Ministry of Justice. He also taught atTokyo Imperial University .He was sent by the government for advanced studies to the
University of Lyon inFrance in 1889, and after receiving adoctorate of law in 1891, he studied for an additional year at theHumboldt University of Berlin inGermany .On his return, he became embroiled in the
Civil Code controversy, and urged the immediate adoption of the code as drawn up by French foreign advisor to the government,Gustave Emile Boissonade . When the adoption of the code was delayed in 1892, he appealed to Prime MinisterItō Hirobumi to establish a committee to prepare the new draft, and was chosen to be a member of the new committee in 1893. Together withHozumi Nobushige andTomii Masaaki , he is regarded as the father of Japan's civil law, which was put into effect in 1898.In 1894, Ume was one of a group of lawyers who established the Tokyo Law School, the forerunner of present-day
Hosei University , of which he served as president in 1899.In 1906, he was asked by Itō to help codify the laws for the Japanese protectorate of
Korea . He died in Keijo (Seoul ) in 1910, oftyphoid fever at the age of 51. He was awarded theOrder of the Sacred Treasure (1st class) on his deathbed, one day before he died.References & further reading
*Hozumi, Nobushige. "The new Japanese civil code,: As material for the study of comparative jurisprudence". Maruzen 1912. ASIN: B000870Z46
*Marshall Byron K. "Professors and Politics: The Meiji Academic Elite". "Journal of Japanese Studies", Vol. 3, No. 1 (Winter, 1977), pp. 71-97
*Oda, Hiroshi. "Japanese Law". Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN. 0199248109
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