[3] Born of samurai lineage in what is now Ehime Prefecture, he was the second son of the family.

Thereafter, he moved to Tokyo and worked for the Ministry of Finance for six years before going into the newspaper business.

He was imprisoned twice for challenging the existing free press laws and was instrumental in forming the first national political party.

[3] He wrote a political, proto-science fiction novel Setchūbai (Plum Blossoms in the Snow, 1886).

He would later acknowledge Rizal's influence in another novel, Nanyo no daiharan (The Great Wave in the South Seas).