A report on Imperial Japanese Army, Yamagata Aritomo and Chōshū Domain

The ensign of the Imperial Japanese Army

Ukiyo-E, depicting the retreat of shogunate forces in front of the Imperial Army (Kangun). Yodo Castle is shown in the background.

The Koishikawa Arsenal in Tokyo, inaugurated in 1871, soon after the Meiji restoration.

Prince Aritomo Yamagata, a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army and twice Prime Minister of Japan. He was one of the main architects of the military foundations of early modern Japan. Yamagata Aritomo can be seen as the father of Japanese militarism.

Yamagata during his years as Prime Minister

Map of Japanese provinces (1868) with Nagato Province highlighted

Barrack of the Imperial Guard, circa 1940

Prince Katsura Tarō, thrice Prime Minister of Japan. He was Yamagata's protégé and close ally.

Marquis Nozu Michitsura, a field marshal in the early Imperial Japanese Army. He was appointed as chief of staff of the Imperial Guard (Japan) in 1874.

Prince Yamagata Aritomo in his later years.

Marquis Jutoku Saigo, a general in the early Imperial Japanese Army. He is the nephew of Saigō Takamori, the leader of Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Many of the rebels were incorporated into the Imperial Army after the failure of the armed uprising.

The Chōshū Kiheitai fought against the shogunate in the Second Chōshū expedition and the Boshin War.

Commander-in-chief Saigō Tsugumichi (sitting at the center) pictured with leaders of the Seqalu tribe.

Count Nogi Maresuke, a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the third governor of Taiwan

Type 13(Top) & Type 22(bottom) Murata rifle. Murata rifle was the first indigenously produced Japanese service rifle adopted in 1880.

Hagi Castle, the seat of the Mōri Lords of Chōshū

Japanese troops during the Sino-Japanese War

Count Akiyama Yoshifuru, served as a cavalry regimental commander in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, he led his troops against the Cossack cavalry divisions of the Imperial Russian Army.

Prince Katsura Tarō, three times Prime Minister of Japan. Katsura was the Vice-Minister of War during the period. He commanded the IJA 3rd Division under his mentor, Field Marshal Yamagata Aritomo, during the First Sino-Japanese War.

Type 30 rifle was the standard infantry rifle of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1897 to 1905.

Ōshima Ken'ichi, Minister of War during the period

Japanese riflemen during the Russo-Japanese War

The Type 38 rifle was adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1905

Commanding Officers and Chiefs of Staff of the Allied Military Mission to Siberia, Vladivostok during the Allied Intervention

IJA amphibious assault ship Shinshū Maru, the world's first landing craft carrier ship to be designed as such.

Army uniforms between 1941 and 1945 (US Army poster)

Type 97 Chi-Ha, the most widely produced Japanese medium tank of World War II

Indonesian child recruits being trained by Japanese officers as human shield, 1945

Many thousands of Indonesian were taken away as forced labourers (romusha) for Japanese military projects, including the Burma-Siam and Saketi-Bayah railways, and suffered or died as a result of ill-treatment and starvation. Pictured is an internment camp in Jakarta, c. 1945

Disposition of the Imperial Japanese Army in Japan at the time of its capitulation, 18 August 1945

IJA Taiwanese soldier in Philippines during World War II

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.

- Yamagata Aritomo

The domains of Satsuma and Chōshū came to dominate the coalition against the shogunate.

- Imperial Japanese Army

He had his coming of age ceremony (genpuku) at age 15, and started off as a petty official at the Chōshū Domain and then at the Meirinkan.

- Yamagata Aritomo

The domains' military forces of 1867 through 1869 also formed the foundation for the Imperial Japanese Army.

- Chōshū Domain

Ōmura's views for modernizing Japan's military led to his assassination in 1869 and his ideas were largely implemented after his death by Yamagata Aritomo.

- Imperial Japanese Army

Yamagata Aritomo (1838–1922), prime minister and field marshal of the Imperial Japanese Army

- Chōshū Domain

3 related topics with Alpha

Empire of Japan

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Historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent formation of modern Japan.

The Empire of Japan at its peak in 1942:
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The Naval Battle of Hakodate, May 1869; in the foreground, and of the Imperial Japanese Navy

Prominent members of the Iwakura mission. Left to right: Kido Takayoshi, Yamaguchi Masuka, Iwakura Tomomi, Itō Hirobumi, Ōkubo Toshimichi

Emperor Meiji, the 122nd emperor of Japan

Interior of the Japanese Parliament, showing the Prime Minister speaking addressing the House of Peers, 1915

Prince Aritomo Yamagata, who was twice Prime Minister of Japan. He was one of the main architects of the military and political foundations of early modern Japan.

Baron Masuda Tarokaja, a member of the House of Peers (Kazoku). His father, Baron Masuda Takashi, was responsible for transforming Mitsui into a zaibatsu.

The Tokyo Industrial Exhibition, 1907 (Mitsubishi pavilion and Exhibition halls)

Marunouchi District in 1920, looking towards the Imperial Palace

Thomas Blake Glover was a Scottish merchant in Bakumatsu and received Japan's second highest order from Emperor Meiji in recognition of his contributions to Japan's industrialization.

Prince Katsura Tarō, thrice Prime Minister and the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan. Katsura commanded the IJA 3rd Division under his mentor, Field Marshal Yamagata Aritomo, during the First Sino-Japanese War.

Map of the Japanese Empire in 1895. This map was issued shortly after the Japanese invasion of Taiwan and is consequently one of the first Japanese maps to include Taiwan as a possession of Imperial Japan.

Marquess Komura Jutaro, 1911. Komura became Minister for Foreign Affairs under the first Katsura administration, and signed the Boxer Protocol on behalf of Japan.

French illustration of a Japanese assault on entrenched Russian troops during the Russo-Japanese War

Count Tadasu Hayashi was the resident minister to the United Kingdom. While serving in London from 1900, he worked to successfully conclude the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and signed on behalf of the government of Japan on January 30, 1902.

Port Arthur viewed from the Top of Gold Hill, after its capitulation in 1905. From left are the wrecks of Russian pre-dreadnought battleships Peresvet, Poltava, Retvizan, Pobeda and the protected cruisers Pallada

Emperor Taishō, the 123rd emperor of Japan

Topographic map of the Empire of Japan in November, 1918

Native Micronesian constables of Truk Island, circa 1930. Truk became a possession of the Empire of Japan under a mandate from the League of Nations following Germany's defeat in World War I.

Groundbreaking ceremony of Ginza Line, the oldest subway line in Asia, 1925. Front row, right to left: Rudolf Briske, Noritsugu Hayakawa, Furuichi Kōi, Ryutaro Nomura.

Count Itagaki Taisuke is credited as being the first Japanese party leader and an important force for liberalism in Meiji Japan.

Count Katō Komei, the 14th Prime Minister of Japan from June 11, 1924, until his death on January 28, 1926

Emperor Shōwa during an Army inspection on January 8, 1938

Tokyo Kaikan was requisitioned as the meeting place for members of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Taisei Yokusankai) in the early days.

Rebel troops assembling at police headquarters during the February 26 Incident

A bank run during the Shōwa financial crisis, March 1927

Political map of the Asia-Pacific region, 1939

Japanese troops entering Shenyang, Northeast China during the Mukden Incident, 1931

The Japanese occupation of Peiping (Beijing) in China, on August 13, 1937. Japanese troops are shown passing from Peiping into the Tartar City through Zhengyangmen, the main gate leading onward to the palaces in the Forbidden City.

IJN Special Naval Landing Forces armed with the Type 11 Light Machine Gun during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937

Signing ceremony for the Axis Powers Tripartite Pact

Founding ceremony of the Hakkō ichiu (All the world under one roof) monument in 1940

A map of the Japanese advance from 1937 to 1942

Victorious Japanese troops march through the city center of Singapore following the city's capture in February 1942 (Photo from the Imperial War Museum)

Imperial Japanese Army paratroopers are landing during the Battle of Palembang, February 13, 1942.

A model representing the attack by dive bombers from USS Yorktown (CV-5) and USS Enterprise (CV-6) on the Japanese aircraft carriers, and in the morning of June 4, 1942, during the Battle of Midway

Group of Type 2 Ka-Mi tanks on board of 2nd class transporter of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1944–1945

The rebuilt battlecruiser sank at her moorings in the naval base of Kure on July 24 during a series of bombings.

The Japanese archipelago and the Korean Peninsula in 1945 (National Geographic)

A drawing depicting a speech in the Imperial Japanese Diet on November 1, 1945, the end of the Second World War. In the foreground there are several Allied soldiers watching the proceedings from the back of the balcony.

From left to right: Marshal Admiral Heihachirō Tōgō (1848–1934), Field Marshal Oku Yasukata (1847–1930), Marshal Admiral Yoshika Inoue (1845–1929), Field Marshal Kageaki Kawamura (1850–1926), at the unveiling ceremony of bronze statue of Field Marshal Iwao Ōyama

Population density map of the Empire of Japan (1920).

Population density map of the Empire of Japan (1940).

In 1947, with American involvement, a new constitution was enacted, officially bringing the Empire of Japan to an end, and Japan's Imperial Army was replaced with the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

The nomenclature Empire of Japan had existed since the anti-Tokugawa domains, Satsuma and Chōshū, which founded their new government during the Meiji Restoration, with the intention of forming a modern state to resist Western domination.

Prince Yamagata Aritomo

On the far left is Ito Hirobumi of Choshu Domain, and on the far right is Okubo Toshimichi of Satsuma Domain. The two young men in the middle are the sons of the Satsuma clan daimyo. These young samurai contributed to the resignation of the Tokugawa shogunate to restore imperial rule.

Meiji Restoration

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Political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji.

A teenage Emperor Meiji with foreign representatives at the end of the Boshin War, 1868–1870.

The Tokyo Koishikawa Arsenal was established in 1871.

Allegory of the New fighting the Old, in early Japan Meiji, around 1870

The main leaders of this were Itō Hirobumi, Matsukata Masayoshi, Kido Takayoshi, Itagaki Taisuke, Yamagata Aritomo, Mori Arinori, Ōkubo Toshimichi, and Yamaguchi Naoyoshi.

The foundation of the Meiji Restoration was the 1866 Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance between Saigō Takamori and Kido Takayoshi, leaders of the reformist elements in the Satsuma and Chōshū Domains at the southwestern end of the Japanese archipelago.

This rebellion was, however, put down swiftly by the newly formed Imperial Japanese Army, trained in Western tactics and weapons, even though the core of the new army was the Tokyo police force, which was largely composed of former samurai.

Kiheitai

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Illustration of Cavalry, Infantry and Soldiers Retreating (Kiheitai, hoheitai, daichōren no zu)

The Kiheitai (奇兵隊) was a volunteer militia raised by Takasugi Shinsaku of the Chōshū domain during the Bakumatsu period of Japan.

In October the Kiheitai was taken over again by Akane Taketo as the third leader with Yamagata Aritomo as the commander.

The success of the socially mixed unit and its Western armaments and tactics was an important influence on the development of the Imperial Japanese Army, and on the later system of universal military conscription in Japan.