diff --git a/lib/open-uri.rb b/lib/open-uri.rb
index b09c18efd9..a68413e8f8 100644
--- a/lib/open-uri.rb
+++ b/lib/open-uri.rb
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ module OpenURI
     :ssl_verify_mode => nil,
     :ftp_active_mode => false,
     :redirect => true,
+    :encoding => nil,
   }
 
   def OpenURI.check_options(options) # :nodoc:
@@ -141,6 +142,12 @@ module OpenURI
       encoding, = $1,Encoding.find($1) if $1
       mode = nil
     end
+    if options.has_key? :encoding
+      if !encoding.nil?
+        raise ArgumentError, "encoding specified twice"
+      end
+      encoding = Encoding.find(options[:encoding])
+    end
 
     unless mode == nil ||
            mode == 'r' || mode == 'rb' ||
diff --git a/test/open-uri/test_open-uri.rb b/test/open-uri/test_open-uri.rb
index 49b3e3da06..3feed423a0 100644
--- a/test/open-uri/test_open-uri.rb
+++ b/test/open-uri/test_open-uri.rb
@@ -604,6 +604,24 @@ class TestOpenURI < Test::Unit::TestCase
         assert_equal(content_ej, f.read)
         assert_equal("text/plain", f.content_type)
         assert_equal("euc-jp", f.charset)
+        assert_equal(Encoding::EUC_JP, f.read.encoding)
+      }
+      open("#{url}/ej/", 'r:utf-8') {|f|
+        # override charset with encoding option
+        assert_equal(content_ej.dup.force_encoding('utf-8'), f.read)
+        assert_equal("text/plain", f.content_type)
+        assert_equal("euc-jp", f.charset)
+        assert_equal(Encoding::UTF_8, f.read.encoding)
+      }
+      open("#{url}/ej/", :encoding=>'utf-8') {|f|
+        # override charset with encoding option
+        assert_equal(content_ej.dup.force_encoding('utf-8'), f.read)
+        assert_equal("text/plain", f.content_type)
+        assert_equal("euc-jp", f.charset)
+        assert_equal(Encoding::UTF_8, f.read.encoding)
+      }
+      assert_raise(ArgumentError) {
+        open("#{url}/ej/", 'r:utf-8', :encoding=>'utf-8') {|f| }
       }
       open("#{url}/nc/") {|f|
         assert_equal("aa", f.read)