Ōkubo Toshimichi (大久保 利通) (26 September 1830 – 14 May 1878) was a Japanese statesman and one of the Three Great Nobles regarded as the main founders of modern Japan.

Following his return from the Iwakura Mission in 1873, Ōkubo became Lord of Home Affairs and used his office's authority to rapidly expand his influence within the Restoration government.

[2][3] In this capacity, he enacted numerous structural reforms, pacified disputes within the Meiji regime at the Osaka Conference of 1875, and suppressed several rebellions threatening the survival of the empire.

As a result of his autocratic style of government, Ōkubo became the focus of deep animosity within Japan and was ultimately assassinated in 1878 by a former member of Saigo Takamori's rebel army.

When Nariakira died that year, Ōkubo joined the plot to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate, the de facto military dictatorship that had ruled Japan as a feudal state since 1600.

As head of the department of internal affairs, Ōkubo had a huge amount of power through his control of all local government appointments and the police force.

[citation needed] Most of the people he appointed as governors were young men; some included friends such as Matsukata Masayoshi while others were rare Japanese who had gained some education in Europe or the United States.

As Finance Minister in 1871, Ōkubo enacted a Land Tax Reform, the Haitōrei Edict, which prohibited samurai from wearing swords in public, and ended official discrimination against the outcasts.

[7][8] As Home Lord (内務卿), Ōkubo promoted industrial development building roads, bridges, and ports—all things that the Tokugawa shogunate had refused to do.

[citation needed] In response to calls for a representative assembly, he presided over the Osaka Conference of 1875 to reconcile opposing views on the subject within the Meiji oligarchy.

[citation needed] In 1877, Okubo was faced with the prospect of open rebellion when forces in Satsuma under the command of his old friend, Saigo Takamori, took up arms against the Meiji regime to end its nationwide campaign of enforced modernization.

On his way to seek Kenshin's answer on that day, he is supposedly assassinated by Seta Sōjirō, Shishio's right-hand man, and the Ichirō clan desecrates his corpse and claim they killed him.