No. 121, September 2001

Selections from NDL Collection

Documents relating to Ito Hirobumi
(Ito Hirobumi Kankei Monjo)

by Hisae Murayama
Modern Japanese Political Documents Division

Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909) was a famous politician in the Meiji era. He served as the first Prime Minister, president of the Privy Council and president of the House of Peers. He helped draft the constitution of the Empire of  Great Japan (promulgated in 1889), and played a crucial role in the building of modern Japan. He formed cabinet four times. At the end of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), he became ambassador plenipotentiary in making peace. He founded the Rikken Seiyukai (Friends of Constitutional Government Party) in 1900 and became president.  In 1905, he became the first resident general in Korea and finally he was assassinated by a Korean, An Chung-gun, in Harbin, Manchuria, China, in 1909.

1. Portrait of Ito Hirobumi
From "Ito Hirobumi den" (A biography of Ito Hirobumi) Vol. 1, Shunpo-ko tsuisho-kai, 1941

The National Diet Library has many documents about Ito Hirobumi. We would like to introduce some documents here.

The Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room (Kensei Shiryo Shitsu) of the NDL has the biggest collection of documents relating to Ito Hirobumi (For Modern Japanese Political History Materials, please see the article "Tsurumi Yusuke Monjo" in NDL Newsletter No. 115). This collection is divided into four parts according to their acquisition history.

	Purchase year	Letters	Papers
Documents from the Ito family	1950	5,500	450
Documents previously owned by Furusawa Masaomi	1952	95	4
Other documents	1962-1980	27	2
Ito Hirobumi Kankei Monjo, Part 2	1999	114	19

All of these documents are searchable by a provisional index "Ito Hirobumi Kankei Monjo" in the Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room.

Letters written by Ito Hirobumi are found in over 60 other collections. These are searchable by sender index. The major collections are below:

Collection name	Number of letters
Ito Miyoji Kankei Monjo (Ito Miyoji papers)	217
Matsukata Masayoshi Kankei Monjo (Matsukata Masayoshi papers)	147
Sanjo-ke Monjo (The Sanjo papers)	114

Kensei Shiryo Shitsu Shushu Monjo (Documents acquired by the Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room) also has 51 letters to Ito and 28 letters from Ito himself.

2. Written Opinion by Ito Hirobumi, August 2, 1871 ("Inoue Kaoru Kankei Monjo" 308-1)

This written opinion is about restructuring the Ministry of Finance. Addressees are Okuma Shigenobu (1838-1922, a statesman who twice served as prime minister), Inoue Kaoru (1835-1915, a member of the oligarchy that ruled Japan during the Meiji period) and Shibusawa Eiich (1840-1931, a government official who helped establish the reforms that put Japan on a firm financial footing in the Meiji period). 

3. Notes by Ito Hirobumi ("Ito Hirobumi Kankei Monjo", Part 2, Papers 1) 

From 1871 to 1873, Ito was dispatched to Europe and America as deputy head of the Iwakura Mission. He wrote down his experiences in Prussia. A description titled "Regime and government" in an article of March 13, 1873, is significant because it shows his early interest in parliamentary systems including constitution and election system.

4. Imperial Letter on Dispatch of a Special Envoy to Europe to research Constitutional Government, March 3, 1882 ("Ito Hirobumi Kankei Monjo", Papers 209)

In 1881, the Meiji government promulgated a mandamus that the Diet should be established in 1890 and started to prepare for the establishment of a constitution. In 1882, Ito was dispatched to Europe to study various constitutional systems.

5. Draft of the Constitution of the Empire of Great Japan, March 1888 ("Ito Hirobumi Kankei Monjo", Papers 233)

This is the final draft of the Constitution of the Empire of Great Japan. It is assumed that Ito brought this draft when he attended constitutional assembly in the Privy Council. His signature, Hirobumi, is written at the lower right-hand corner of cover sheet and there are notes by him in the text (on this page, he rewrote "Japan" as "Great Japan").

6. Record of the meeting of Ito Hirobumi, Okuma Shigenobu and Itagaki Taisuke, June 25, 1898 ("Ito Miyoji Kankei Monjo" Papers 350)

On June 22, 1898, the Jiyuto (Liberal Party) and the Shimpoto (Progressive Party) united to form the Kenseito (Constitutional Party). Ito Hirobumi was prime minister then and recommended Okuma Shigenobu and Itagaki Taisuke (1837-1919; founder of Japan's first political party, the Jiyuto) of the Kenseito to succeed him as premiers and asked them to organize cabinet. As a result, the first party cabinet in Japan came into being. Okuma became prime minister and foreign minister, and Itagaki became interior minister. This material is minutes of tripartite meeting written down by Ito Miyoji (1857-1934), a close associate of Ito Hirobumi.

To see other images, click here. 

7. Album of Ito's assassination ("Shichijo Kiyomi Kankei Monjo", 76) 

This album contains photographs related to Ito's assassination such as snapshots before and after the assassination, and the judgement. 

7-1. This is a snapshot of Ito's arrival at Harbin station, Manchuria, on October 26, 1909, for a meeting with Russian finance minister Kokovtsov. Just after this, he was shot and killed by a Korean, An Chung-gun (1879-1910). 

7-2. After the assassination, Ito was taken away in a horse-drawn carriage.