Ichiki graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University in 1887 and entered the Home Ministry in the same year. In 1890, he was sent to Germany for further studies, returning to Japan in 1894. On his return, he became a professor of law at Tokyo Imperial University, and in 1906 became a member of the prestigious Imperial Academy. Meanwhile, in September 1900, he was appointed as a life-term member of the House of Peers by imperial order.
From 1902 to 1906, Ichiki also served as Director-General of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau. He served again in the same capacity from 1912 to 1913. He joined the cabinet under the 2nd Ōkuma administration first as Minister of Education in 1914 and then as Home Minister in the following year. Although it wasn't required by the law, he gave up the life-term upper-house seat in August 1917 when he was appointed as a member of the Privy Council. In 1925, Ichiki became Imperial Household Minister.
From 1934 to 1936, Ichiki was president of the Privy Council. This coincided with a period of considerable controversy over the role of the monarchy in Japan, especially centered around the works of Tatsukichi Minobe, a professor of constitutional law at Tokyo Imperial University and one of Ichiki’s former students.
After the assassination of Saitō Makoto, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal and the former prime pinister in the February 26 Incident in 1936, Ichiki acted as Lord Keeper for one day on 6 March 1936, in order to have the successor formally appointed by the emperor. Then he was effectively forced into retirement by Kiichirō Hiranuma, the right-wing former Prosecutor General and his political nemesis, who took over the presidency of the Privy Council. Ichiki retired to his native Kakegawa, and on his death was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum. His grave is at the Yanaka Cemetery in Tokyo.
References
Conners, Leslie. The Emperor's Adviser: Saionji Kinmochi and Pre-War Japanese Politics. Routledge Kegan & Paul. ISBN0-7099-3449-1
Miller, Frank Owen. (1965). Minobe Tatsukichi: Interpreter Of Constitutionalism in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. OCLC 562979985
