29 Facts About Yamagata Aritomo

Prince Yamagata Aritomo was a Japanese politician and general who served as prime minister of Japan from 1889 to 1891, and from 1898 to 1900.

Yamagata Aritomo was a leading member of the genro, a group of senior courtiers and statesmen who dominated the politics of Japan during the Meiji era.

Yamagata Aritomo was born in the Choshu Domain to a low-ranking samurai family, and after the opening of Japan in 1854 became active in the movement to overthrow the shogunate.

Yamagata Aritomo was involved in the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors of 1882 and the Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890.

Yamagata Aritomo held senior military positions in the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, achieving the rank of field marshal and later the title of prince in 1907.

From 1900 onwards, Yamagata Aritomo vied against Ito Hirobumi for supremacy among the Meiji oligarchy.

Yamagata Aritomo Tatsunosuke was born on 14 June 1838, in Kawashima, Abu, below Hagi Castle, the eldest son of samurai foot soldier Yamagata Aritomo Aritoshi.

Yamagata Aritomo's father was a low-ranking samurai who carried weaponry during wartime and was a petty official at the town magistrate office during peacetime.

Yamagata Aritomo's mother died when he was 4 years old, and he was raised by his strict grandmother.

Yamagata Aritomo had his coming of age ceremony at age 15, and started off as a petty official at the Choshu Domain and then at the Meirinkan.

Yamagata Aritomo went to Shokasonjuku, a private school run by Yoshida Shoin, where he was active in the growing underground movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.

Yamagata Aritomo was a commander in the Kiheitai, a paramilitary organization created on semi-western lines by the Choshu domain.

Yamagata Aritomo accepted Prussian political ideas, which favored military expansion abroad and authoritarian government at home.

Yamagata Aritomo energetically modernized the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army, and modeled it after the Prussian Army.

Yamagata Aritomo began a system of military conscription in 1873.

Yamagata Aritomo prompted Emperor Meiji to write the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors, in 1882.

Yamagata Aritomo was awarded the rank of field marshal in 1898.

Yamagata Aritomo was one of seven elite political figures, later called the genro, who came to dominate the government of Japan.

Yamagata Aritomo held a large and devoted power base among officers in the army and militarists in Japanese society.

Yamagata Aritomo profoundly distrusted all democratic institutions, and constantly strove to undercut their influence as a member of the genro.

Yamagata Aritomo organized a system of local administration, based on a prefecture-county-city structure which is still in use in Japan today.

In 1883 Yamagata Aritomo was appointed to the post of Lord Chancellor, the highest bureaucratic position in the government system before the Meiji Constitution of 1889.

Yamagata Aritomo became prime minister for a second term from November 8,1898, to October 19,1900.

Yamagata Aritomo enacted laws preventing political party members from holding any key posts in the bureaucracy.

Yamagata Aritomo served as President of the Privy Council from 1893 to 1894 and 1905 to 1922.

From 1900 to 1909, Yamagata Aritomo opposed Ito Hirobumi, leader of the civilian party, and exercised influence through his protege, Katsura Taro.

In 1912 Yamagata Aritomo set the precedent that the army could dismiss a cabinet.

Yamagata Aritomo died on 1 February 1922 and he was given a state funeral.

Yamagata Aritomo was a talented garden designer, and today the gardens he designed are considered masterpieces of Japanese gardens.