Editing Ōkuma Shigenobu (section)

==Early life and education==
'''Ōkuma''' '''Hachitarō''' was born on March 11, 1838, in [[Saga, Saga|Saga]], [[Hizen Province]] (modern-day [[Saga Prefecture]]),<ref name="Borton, p. 91">Borton, p. 91.</ref> the first son of Ōkuma Nobuyasu and Miiko.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Itō |first=Yukio |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1201259749 |title=Ōkuma Shigenobu |last2=伊藤之雄 |date=2019 |isbn=978-4-12-102550-0 |pages=17–18 |publisher=中央公論新社 |oclc=1201259749}}</ref> His father was a [[samurai]]-class [[artillery]] officer of the [[Saga Domain]],<ref name="Borton, p. 91"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=大隈重信 {{!}} 近代日本人の肖像 |url=https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/datas/33.html |access-date=2021-12-10 |website=National Diet Library |language=ja}}</ref> and the family was a high-ranking samurai family who had a 300-''[[koku]]'' territory.<ref name=":0"/>

At the age of seven, he entered the domain school Kōdōkan and studied mainly [[Confucian]] [[Chinese literature|literature]], the teachings of [[Cheng–Zhu school]] in particular. In 1854, he rebelled against the education of the school with his fellow students. He was expelled the next year for rioting.<ref name=":0"/> At this point, he had moved to a [[rangaku|Dutch studies]] institution.<ref name="Borton, p. 91"/>

The Dutch school was merged with the provincial school in 1861, and Ōkuma took up a lecturing position there shortly afterward. Ōkuma sympathized with the ''[[sonnō jōi]]'' movement, which aimed at expelling the Europeans who had started to arrive in Japan. However, he also advocated mediation between the rebels in [[Nagato Province|Chōshū]] and the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] in [[Edo]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2007}}

During a trip to [[Nagasaki]], Ōkuma met a Dutch missionary named [[Guido Verbeck]], who taught him the [[English language]] and provided him with copies of the [[New Testament]] and the American [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]],<ref>Brownas, heading "A Wider Window on the West"</ref> as well as works on scientific subjects. The political works are often said{{who|date=October 2011}} to have affected his political thinking profoundly,{{Citation needed|date=December 2007}} and encouraged him to support efforts to abolish the existing [[feudal system]] and work toward the establishment of a [[constitution]]al government.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=61}}

Ōkuma frequently traveled between Nagasaki and [[Kyoto]] in the following years and became active in the [[Meiji Restoration]]. In 1867, together with [[Soejima Taneomi]], he planned to recommend resignation to the ''[[shōgun]]'' [[Tokugawa Yoshinobu]].<ref name="Borton, p. 91"/> Leaving [[Saga Domain]] without permission, they went to Kyoto, where the ''shōgun'' then resided.<ref>Tokugawa, p. 161. Unlike all 14 previous Tokugawa ''shōguns'', Yoshinobu never set foot in Edo during his tenure.</ref> However, Ōkuma and his companions were arrested and sent back to Saga. They were subsequently sentenced to one month imprisonment.