Editing Takahashi Korekiyo (section)

==Early life and education==
Takahashi was born in [[Edo]] (modern-day Tokyo), while Japan was still under the [[Tokugawa shogunate]].<ref>Bank of Japan (BOJ), [http://www.boj.or.jp/en/about/outline/history/pre_gov/sousai07.htm/ 7th Governor]</ref> He was the illegitimate son of a court painter in residence at [[Edo Castle]], and adopted as the son of Takahashi Kakuji, a low-ranking ''[[samurai]]'' in the service of the [[Date clan|Date]] ''[[daimyō]]'' of [[Sendai Domain]]. He studied the [[English language]] and American culture in a private school run by the missionary [[James Curtis Hepburn|James Hepburn]] (the forerunner of [[Meiji Gakuin University]]). On 25 July 1867, he set sail from Japan to [[Oakland, California]], in the [[United States]],<ref>Smethurst, p. 22</ref> and found employment as a menial laborer. Another version of the story has it that he went to the United States to study, but was sold as a slave by his landlord and only with some difficulty was he able to return to Japan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.minato-ala.net/details/guide2/e/0228.html|title = Minato City Sightseeing database}}</ref>