Ōishi Masami

Ōishi Masami
大石 正巳
Minister of Agriculture and Commerce
In office
30 June 1898 – 8 November 1898
Prime MinisterŌkuma Shigenobu
Preceded byKaneko Kentarō
Succeeded bySone Arasuke
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
10 August 1898 – 25 December 1914
Preceded byYatsuchi Kazuyuki
Succeeded byIshimoto Kantaro
ConstituencyMie 4th (1898–1902)
Mie Counties (1902–1903)
Kōchi Counties (1903–1914)
Personal details
Born(1855-05-26)26 May 1855
Died12 July 1935(1935-07-12) (aged 80)
Resting placeAoyama Cemetery
PartyRikken Dōshikai (1913–1915)
Other political
affiliations
Liberal (1881–1882)
Shimpotō (1896–1898)
Kensei Hontō (1898–1910)
Rikken Kokumintō (1910–1913)

Ōishi Masami (大石 正巳; 26 May 1855 – 12 July 1935) was a politician and cabinet minister in the pre-war Empire of Japan.

Biography

Ōishi was a native of Tosa Province (modern-day Kōchi Prefecture), where his father was a samurai in the service of Tosa Domain. In 1873, he joined with Itagaki Taisuke and became an important member of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. He became one of the leaders of the Jiyūtō political party in 1881. However, he had a falling out with Itagaki in 1882 and left the party. He subsequently joined with Gotō Shōjirō’s daidō danketsu (coalition) movement in 1887. In 1892, he was appointed to the Japanese legation in Seoul, Korea. He was back in Japan by 1896, and was one of the founding members of the Shimpotō political party. Under the short-lived 1st Ōkuma Shigenobu administration in 1898, Oishi was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Commerce.

Ōishi later joined the Rikken Kokumintō and was at one point a contender against Inukai Tsuyoshi for its leadership. In 1913, he broke with Inukai, and joined Katsura Tarō’s new Rikken Dōshikai, where he was ranked as one of its five leaders. He retired from politics in 1915, after having been elected to the Lower House of the Diet of Japan for six terms.