Mori Arinori

In this *anese name, the surname is Mori.

Viscount Arinori Mori (森有礼, August 23, 1847 – February 12, 1889) was a Meiji period *anese statesman, diplomat, and founder of *an's modern educational system.

1 Early life
2 Meiji statesman
3 In popular culture
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Early life

Mori was born in the Satsuma domain (modern Kagoshima prefecture) from a samurai family, and educated in the Kaisenjo School for Western Learning run by the Satsuma domain. In 1865, he was sent as a student to University College London in Great Britain, where he studied western techniques in mathematics, physics, and naval surveying. He returned to *an just after the start of the Meiji Restoration and took on a number of governmental positions within the new Meiji government.

Meiji statesman

Mori was the first *anese amb*ador to the United States, from 1871-1873. During his stay in the United States, he became very interested in western methods of education and western social ins*utions. On his return to *an, he organized the Meirokusha, *an's first modern intellectual society.

Mori was a member of the Meiji Enlightenment movement, and advocated freedom of religion, secular education, equal rights for women (except for voting), international law, and most drastically, the abandonment of the *anese language in favor of English.

In 1875, he established the Shoho Koshujo (*an's first commercial college), the predecessor of Hitotsubashi University. Thereafter, he successively served as amb*ador to Qing Dynasty China, Senior Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, amb*ador to Great Britain, member of Sanjiin (legislative advisory council) and Education Ministry official.

He was recruited by Itō Hirobumi to join the first cabinet as Minister of Education and continued in the same post under the Kuroda administration from 1886 to 1889. During this period, he enacted the "Mori Reforms" of *an's education system, which included six years of compulsory, co-educational schooling, and the creation of high schools for training of a select elite. Under his leadership, the central ministry took greater control over school curriculum and emphasized Neo-Confucian morality and national loyalty in the lower schools while allowing some intellectual freedom in higher education.

He has been denounced by post-World War II liberals as a reactionary who was responsible for *anese elitist and statist educational system, while he was equally condemned by his contemporaries as a radical who imposed unwanted westernization on *anese society at the expense of *anese culture and tradition. For example, he advocated the use of English. He was also a known Christian.

Mori was stabbed by an ultranationalist on the very day of promulgation of the Meiji Cons*ution in 1889, and died the next day. The **in was outraged by Mori's alleged failure to follow religious protocol during his visit to Ise Shrine two years earlier; for example, Mori was said to have not removed his shoes before entering and pushed aside a sacred veil with a walking stick.

Selected portions of his writings may be found in W.R. Braisted's book Meiroku Z*hi: Journal of the *anese Enlightenment which were originally published in a magazine en*led Meiroku z*hi.

In popular culture

Mori appears as a minor character in the alternate history novel The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, as an enthusiast of modernity and a protégé of Laurence Oliphant.

References

External links

Media related to Mori Arinori at Wikimedia Commons
Mori, Arinori | Portraits of Modern *anese Historical Figures (National Diet Library)

Mori Arinori Is A Member Of

122 Year Olds

Mori Arinori

Mori

Mori Arinori

Contents

Early life

Meiji statesman

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Mori Arinori Is A Member Of