Japanese statesman, a samurai of Satsuma, one of the five great nobles who led the revolution in 1868 against the shogunate. He became one of the mikado’s principal ministers, and in the Satsuma troubles which followed he was the chief opponent of Saigō Takamori. But the suppression of the Satsuma rebellion brought upon him the personal revenge of Saigō’s sympathizers, and in the spring of 1878 he was assassinated by six clansmen. Okubo was one of the leading men of his day, and in 1872 was one of the Japanese mission which was sent round the world to get ideas for organizing the new régime.
