ITAGAKI, Taisuke, COU NT,Japanese statesman: b. Tosa province, island of Shikoku, 1837. He received a mili tary education, and in the War of the Restora tion (1868) was prominent in the imperial army. From 1871 until his resignation in 1873 he was a privy councillor to the emperor. He then became the centre of a movement for con stitutional government which in 1877 addressed to . the government a memorial asking for a representative assembly and broaching popular rights. Itagalci aimed at a system based on that of Great Britain or the United States, as opposed to the system based on that of Ger many, drafted by the Marquis Ito and promul gated in 1890. But he would have been satis fied at first, it is said, with an assembly which quite excluded the popular element. He organ ized the Jiyuto, or Liberals, the first Japanese political party, which rapidly increased in num bers. In 1878 he became Minister of Public Works, in 1880 Minister of the Interior, and in 1898 the Liberals united with the Progressists, led by Count Okuma, to form the so-called Con stitutional party, which had a large majority in the lower House of Parliament. At the
Mikado's request Itagaki and Okuma formed a cabinet, with Itagaki as Minister of the In terior. The cabinet resigned after six months, and the Constitutional party was separated into its original parts. In 1887 he was made a count. Itagaki was not only the founder of the first political party in Japan, but the most steadfast propagandist for political freedom and a liberal constitutional government in Japan. In 1882 an unsuccessful attempt was made to assassinate him, and although severely wounded, his remark