He was born in Kyoto, the second son of the court noble Tokudaiji Kin'ito. His elder brother Tokudaiji Sanetsune later became Emperor Meiji's grand chamberlain, and a younger brother was Sumitomo Tomoito, who succeeded to the Sumitomo house. Born to a great noble family, he grew up close to the palace.
As a small child he was adopted into the noble Saionji family and became its heir. As a boy he is said to have been one of the playmates of Prince Sachi, the future Emperor Meiji. He acquired a courtier's culture in waka and Chinese learning while watching the changing times up close.
After the restoration of imperial rule he became a councilor of the new government; in the Boshin War he led troops as commander for pacifying the San'in region and then joined the fighting in Hokuetsu. Though a teenage noble, his experience on the battlefield became one base of his later statesmanship.
He went to France and studied law and politics in Paris. In post-Franco-Prussian War Paris he encountered liberal thought and is said to have come to know Clemenceau, later French prime minister. He was also close to fellow student Nakae Chomin. His stay lasted about ten years.
After returning, he started the Toyo Jiyu Shinbun with Nakae Chomin and others and became its president. The paper spread people's rights ideas, but the court, worried at a noble doing such work, had him withdraw by the emperor's private order.
He accompanied Ito Hirobumi on his trip to study constitutions in Europe. Winning Ito's trust on this journey, he afterward walked the path of politics at Ito's side. He later served as minister to Austria and Germany, gaining diplomatic experience.
He became minister of education in Ito's second cabinet and devoted himself to schooling. He is said to have believed that not only patriotism but broad, world-minded culture and the education of girls mattered. He later also served as acting foreign minister.
Having joined the Rikken Seiyukai from its founding by Ito Hirobumi in 1900, he succeeded Ito as its president. Leading a political party, he entered an era of alternating in power with Katsura Taro, heir to Yamagata Aritomo's line.
After the Russo-Japanese War he became prime minister. This period of alternating power with Katsura Taro is called the Keien era. In 1911 he formed a second cabinet, but clashing over the army's demand for more divisions, it resigned the next year.
He attended the Paris Peace Conference after the First World War as Japan's chief plenipotentiary. In the Paris of his youth he faced a conference chaired by his old friend Clemenceau. Japan raised its international standing as one of the victors.
With Matsukata Masayoshi's death, he became the only remaining genro, the elder statesman who recommended prime ministers to the emperor. Valuing party politics, he sought to set the practice of recommending the leader of the majority party. This period is called the normal course of constitutional government.
In his last years he lived at Zagyoso in Okitsu, Shizuoka, worrying as the military grew stronger. As party politics ended and Japan moved toward war, he died at 90. He is remembered as a statesman who wished for international cooperation to the end.
Matsukata MasayoshiYamagata AritomoItō HirobumiNakae ChōminKatsura Tarō
Yamamoto GonbeeTerauchi MasatakeTakahashi KorekiyoInukai TsuyoshiHara TakashiOzaki YukioKatō TakaakiKatō Tomosaburō
People of the Taishō period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.