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(10 October 1842 - 10 December 1916) was a Japanese field marshal, and one of the founders of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Contents

Early life

Military career

Political career

Personal life

References

Bibliography

Early life

Ōyama was born in Kagoshima to a ''samurai'' family of the Satsuma han domain. A protegé of Okubo Toshimichi, he worked to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate and thus played a major role in the Meiji Restoration. He served as commander in chief of the Detached First Brigade during the Boshin War. At the Siege of Aizu, Oyama was a commander at the Imperial Japanese Army's artillery positions on Mount Oda. During the course of the siege, he was wounded by the Aizu guerilla force under Sagawa Kanbei.

Military career

In 1870, he went to the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in France to study and he was official Japanese military observer to the Franco-Prussian War. He also spent three years (1870-1873) in Geneva studying foreign languages, and became fluent in Russian. Ōyama Iwao is the first recorded Japanese customer for Louis Vitton, having purchased some luggage during his stay in France. After promotion to major general, he went to France again for further study, together with Kawakami Soroku. On his return home, he helped establish the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army, which was soon employed in suppressing the Satsuma Rebellion, although Ōyama and his elder brother were cousins of Saigō Takamori.
In the Sino-Japanese War, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Japanese Army, which after landing on Liaotung Peninsula, carried Port Arthur by storm, and subsequently crossed to Shantung, where it captured the fortress of Weihaiwei.
For these services Ōyama received the title of marquis, and, three years later, he became field-marshal. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 he was named commander-in-chief of the Japanese armies in Manchuria. After Japan's victory, Emperor Meiji elevated him to the rank of ''kōshaku'' (公爵 = prince).

Political career

As War Minister in several cabinets and as chief of staff he upheld the autocratic power of the oligarchs (''genro'') against democratic encroachments. However, unlike Yamagata Aritomo, Ōyama was reserved and tended to shun politics. From 1914 he served as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal.

Personal life

Ōyama, who spoke and wrote several European languages fluently, also liked European style architecture. During his tenure as Minister of War, he built a house in Tokyo modeled after a German castle. Although very pleased with the design, his wife did not like it at all, and insisted that the children's room be remodeled in Japanese style, so that they would not forget their Japanese heritage. The house was destroyed by American air raids in World War II. Ōyama's wife Yamakawa Sutematsu (sister of former Aizu retainers Yamakawa Hiroshi and Yamakawa Kenjiro) was one of the first female students sent to the United States by the Empress of Japan in the early 1870s. She spent many years there, graduating from Vassar College in 1882.^[1]
In 1906, Ōyama was awarded the Order of Merit by King Edward VII. His Japanese decorations included Order of the Golden Kite (1st class) and Order of the Chrysanthemum.
He died at age 75 in 1916.Ōyama was a very large man, and enjoyed large meals. His weight exceeded 95 kilograms, and his death is now attributed to complications arising from diabetes.

References

1. "Prince Iwao Oyama Is Dead in Japan", ''The New York Times'', December 11, 1916.

Bibliography

★ Bix, Herbert B. ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan''. Harper Perennial (2001). ISBN 0-06-093130-2

★ Dupuy, Trevor N. ''The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1992. ISBN 0-7858-0437-4

★ Jansen, Marius B. and Gilbert Rozman, eds. ''Japan in Transition: From Tokugawa to Meiji.'' Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.

★ Jansen, Marius B. ''The Making of Modern Japan.'' Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000.

★ Morris, Edmund. ''Theodore Rex''. Modern Library; Reprint edition (2002). ISBN 0-8129-6600-7