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Yamagata Aritomo | |
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山縣 有朋 | |
President of the Japanese Privy Council | |
In office 26 October 1909 – 1 February 1922 | |
Monarchs | |
Preceded by | Itō Hirobumi |
Succeeded by | Kiyoura Keigo |
In office 21 December 1905 – 14 June 1909 | |
Monarch | Meiji |
Preceded by | Itō Hirobumi |
Succeeded by | Itō Hirobumi |
In office 11 March 1893 – 12 December 1893 | |
Monarch | Meiji |
Preceded by | Oki Takato |
Succeeded by | Kuroda Kiyotaka |
Prime Minister of Japan | |
In office 8 November 1898 – 19 October 1900 | |
Monarch | Meiji |
Preceded by | Ōkuma Shigenobu |
Succeeded by | Itō Hirobumi |
In office 24 December 1889 – 6 May 1891 | |
Monarch | Meiji |
Preceded by | Sanjō Sanetomi (Acting) |
Succeeded by | Matsukata Masayoshi |
Personal details | |
Born | Kawashima, Chōshū, Japan | 14 June 1838
Died | 1 February 1922 Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan | (aged 83)
Political party | Independent |
Spouse | |
Domestic partner | Yoshida Sadako (1893–1922) |
Children | Funakoshi Matsuko (daughter) |
Relatives | Yamagata Isaburō (nephew) |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Empire of Japan |
Branch/service | Imperial Japanese Army |
Years of service | 1868–1905 |
Rank | Field Marshal (Gensui) |
Battles/wars | |
Awards | Order of the Golden Kite (1st class) Order of the Rising Sun (1st class with Paulownia Blossoms, Grand Cordon) Order of the Chrysanthemum Member of the Order of Merit Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George |
Prince Yamagata Aritomo (山縣 有朋, 14 June 1838 – 1 February 1922) was a Japanese politician and general who served as prime minister of Japan from 1889 to 1891, and from 1898 to 1900. He was a leading member of the genrō, a group of senior statesmen who dominated politics during the Meiji era. As the Imperial Japanese Army's inaugural Chief of Staff, he was the chief architect of the Empire of Japan's military and its reactionary ideology;[1] some historians consider him the "father" of Japanese militarism.[2]
Yamagata was born in the Chōshū Domain to a low-ranking samurai family, and after the opening of Japan in 1854 became active in the movement to overthrow the shogunate. As a member of the new government after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, he went overseas to study military systems, and from 1873 headed the Army Ministry. Yamagata was instrumental in drafting the Conscription Ordinance of 1873 and quelling the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. He also was involved in the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors of 1882 and the Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890. In 1900, he enacted a law permitting only generals and admirals on active duty to hold a cabinet post as army or navy minister, which gave the military control over the formation of future cabinets. Yamagata held senior military positions in the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, achieving the rank of field marshal (Gensui) and later the title of prince in 1907. From 1900, he vied against Itō Hirobumi for influence over national policy. After Ito's assassination in 1909, Yamagata emerged as the most powerful genrō[3][4][5] until a political scandal related to his meddling in Crown Prince Hirohito's engagement resulted in him losing power shortly before his death in 1922.[4][6][7]
After the death of [Itō] Hirobumi in 1909, Yamagata became the most influential [Japanese] politician and remained so until his death in 1922. As president of the Privy Council from 1909 to 1922, Yamagata remained the power behind the [Japanese] government and dictated the selection of future prime ministers. To strengthen the grip of the state on citizens [,] Yamagata instituted a military circumscription system that relied on militarily trained loyal subjects, expanded its control on local entities by directly or indirectly appointing prefectural governors, city mayors and district heads and by establishing and extending the power of police.
YAMAGATA ARITOMO (1838-1922)–leader of the Chōshū faction of genrō; called the 'Father of Japan's Army'; often Premier and Home Minister; controlled the government after the death of Itō in 1909.
Yamagata served in the Privy Council for seventeen years and continuously as President from 1909 (when Itō was assassinated in Korea) until 1922 when he died. He was even more successful than Itō in insinuating his bureaucratic allies into the Privy Council. He placed his protégés strategically within each of the institutions he sought to control: the civilian bureaucracy, the military, the House of Peers, the colonial administrations, the Privy Council. He was never reluctant to use and reward his supporters or, conversely, to punish his opponents by intervening in elections, by excluding them from important posts, or by dissolving political groups altogether...He tried to control the House of Peers to assure support for military expansion and favorable budgets. But he constructed his most influential network around the emperor, both in the Privy Council and in the imperial household. By the time he was done, Yamagata had outlived his competitors, and had completed institutional arrangements to preclude the rise of others. He was genrō of the genrō, oligarch of the oligarchs.