Yonosuke Osuga (大須賀庸之助)
Yonosuke Osuga (December 7, 1850 - April 17, 1906) was a statesman in the Meiji era. He was born at Isoyama, Katori County, Shimousa Province (present-day Katori City [former Sawara City], Chiba Prefecture).
Career
He was born to a wealthy farmer, and when he was twenty-six years old, he worked as a Kocho (an officer in charge of the family register) of his local village Isoyama and made every effort to carry out the land-tax reform. Then, he served as a member of the prefectural assembly of Chiba Prefecture, and in 1881, he assumed the post of Guncho (governor of a county) of Katori County, and made every effort to take measures for flood control of the Tone-gawa River and to realize the conferral of a posthumous rank to Tadataka INO whose hometown was Sawara. In those days, while the people of Katori County including Yonosuke were requiring the measures to prevent floods of the Tone-gawa River, the people of the Boso Peninsula who were not able to enjoy the benefit of the Tone-gawa River and were suffering from water shortages were reacting against this, so that the confrontation between the districts had arisen. Therefore, in 1884, the members of the prefectural assembly of Ibaraki Prefecture who were dissatisfied with the measures for flood control of the Chiba Prefecture side and those elected in the Boso Peninsula of Chiba Prefecture cooperated to launch the campaign for changing the prefectural border in which, in exchange for offering the region of Chiba Prefecture on the northern side of the Tone-gawa River to Ibaraki Prefecture, Ibaraki Prefecture should pay some of the expenses of the construction for flood control of the Tone-gawa River. And it was Yonosuke who was Guncho of Katori County which would be divided by the central line of the county into the north and south parts, that strongly opposed to this campaign. He started the opposition movement together with the local peasants, but the results were poor.
In 1890, Yonosuke who had resigned the post of Guncho ran in the first general election of the members of the House of Representatives from the then third constituency (Katori County, etc.) of Chiba Prefecture, and elected as a member of the House of Representatives for the first time. On the other hand, the members of the House of Representatives elected in Ibaraki Prefecture prepared the bill for changing the prefectural border and attended the Imperial Diet. Yonosuke accused the unreasonableness of artificially dividing the living area of the residents without considering it in the Diet, and cooperated the residents of Katori County who came to make a petition to raise the opposing argument against changing the prefectural border inside and outside the Diet. But Yonosuke was once an independent statesman or otherwise belonged to the relatively small parties like the Dokuritsu Kurabu (Independent Club) or the Rikken Kakushinto (Constitutional Reformist Party) and roved from one party after another, he was made to drink a bitter cup in the third and the fifth general election by the candidates of the Jiyuto (Liberal Party). Meanwhile, the political maneuvering by the Ibaraki Prefecture side was advanced, and the maneuvering to conciliate Yonosuke was also attempted by presenting the alternate plan to change the prefectural border around Sawara to the Yokotone-gawa River which was to the north of the mainstream of the Tone-gawa River.
Although Yonosuke resisted this, as a result of the maneuvering to break up the opposing group being also carried out in the local districts, the bill for changing the prefectural border got to pass the Diet at last in 1899
After that, he belonged to the Rikken Seiyukai (Friends of Constitutional Government), but soon he had made up his mind to retire from politics after serving four terms in all.