Mori Arinori

• Born: 1847
• Died: 1889
• Other Names: 沢井鉄馬 (Sawai Tetsuba)
• Japanese: 森有礼 (Mori Arinori)

Mori Arinori is considered the godfather of Japan's Meiji period "modern" education system, and was the first to serve as Minister of Education.

At the age of 19, Mori was one of a number of students sent by Satsuma han secretly to England for study. While in England, he studied naval surveying. Mori then traveled to the United States in 1867/7, and returned to Japan the following year, in 1868/6. He was sent to Washington DC in 1871 as Japan's first minister to the US, and while there oversaw a number of surveys of the American educational system.

He later served terms as ambassador to China, vice-minister of foreign affairs, and ambassador to England, among a number of other positions, before becoming Minister of Education in 1885. He held that position until his assassination in 1889.

Mori's older brother Yokoyama Yasutake was a prominent member of the Meiji government as well.

References

• Marius Jansen, China in the Tokugawa World, Harvard University Press (1992), 114-115.
• Plaque at the monument to the Satsuma students at Kagoshima Chûô train station, Kagoshima.[1]