After serving as the President of the Department of Literature at Tokyo Imperial University (currently the Dean of the Department of Literature at the University of Tokyo), he worked as the Chancellor of the same university, a member of Kizokuin (the House of Peers), and then the Minister of Education successively during the third Ito administration.
東京帝大文科大学長（現在の東大文学部長）を経て同総長・貴族院(日本)議員、第3次伊藤内閣の歴代の文部大臣などを務めた。