Ritsumeikan University is a private university in Kyoto, Japan, tracing its roots to 1869. With the Kinugasa Campus in Kyoto, and Kyoto Prefecture. the university also has a satellite called Biwako-Kusatsu Campus The history of Ritsumeikan dates back to 1869 when Prince Kinmochi Saionji, an eminent international statesman of modern Japan, founded "Ritsumeikan" as a private academy on the site of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. In 1900, Kojuro Nakagawa, former secretary of Prince Saionji, established Kyoto Hosei School, an evening law school that was open to working people. This school formally adopted the name Ritsumeikan in 1913 and was finally given the status of a university in 1922.