Ito Hirobumi

Ito came from the region now known as Yamaguchi. His family adopted the Ito name after his father, Hayashi Juzo, entered a lower-ranking samurai household of the Hagi domain. He studied at Yoshida Shoin's Shoka Sonjuku and participated in the movement to restore imperial authority alongside Kido Takayoshi and Takasugi Shinsaku.

In 1871 he joined the Iwakura Mission as a vice-envoy. Overseas investigation became part of a career that also involved domestic administration. After Okubo Toshimichi's death he succeeded him as home minister, consolidating his place among the leaders of the Meiji government.

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He returned to Europe in 1882 to study constitutional arrangements, with particular attention to Prussia. Inoue Kowashi and others undertook drafting and legal work. French public-law studies also contributed to the wider intellectual preparation. When the cabinet system was established in 1885, Ito became its first prime minister; he later chaired the Privy Council.

The constitution was promulgated in 1889, followed by the first Imperial Diet in 1890. Ito's coordinating role was substantial, but the project involved officials, advisers and arguments generated by the contemporary rights movement. He served four terms as prime minister and also presided over the House of Peers.

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After the Russo-Japanese War, Japanese control over Korean affairs intensified. The second Japan–Korea agreement of 1905 was followed by the resident-general's administration, which began operating in Korea in 1906 with Ito as its first head. This appointment places his career within the expansion of Japanese imperial power.

Korean independence activist An Jung-geun assassinated him at Harbin station in 1909. Japan's formal annexation of Korea occurred the following year, after his death. The resident-generalship and annexation are related stages but should remain distinct in an account of his life and the institutions he served.

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