Ōyama Iwao

Prince Ōyama Iwao (大山 巌, 12 November 1842 – 10 December 1916) was a Japanese field marshal, and one of the founders of the Imperial Japanese Army. He was representative of the outstanding military commanders of the late modern period.^[1]

Prince Ōyama Iwao 大山 巌
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office 23 April 1915 – 10 December 1916
Monarch	Taishō
Preceded by	Prince Fushimi Sadanaru
Succeeded by	Matsukata Masayoshi
1st & 3rd Minister of War of the Japanese Empire
In office 22 December 1885 – 17 May 1891
Monarch	Meiji
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Takashima Tomonosuke
In office 8 August 1892 – 20 September 1896
Preceded by	Takashima Tomonosuke
Succeeded by	Takashima Tomonosuke
Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office
In office 4 September 1882 – 13 February 1884
Monarch	Meiji
Preceded by	Yamagata Aritomo
Succeeded by	Yamagata Aritomo
In office 16 May 1889 – 20 June 1904
Preceded by	Kawakami Soroku
Succeeded by	Yamagata Aritomo
In office 20 December 1905 – 11 April 1906
Preceded by	Yamagata Aritomo
Succeeded by	Kodama Gentarō
Personal details
Born	(1842-11-12)12 November 1842 Kagoshima, Satsuma Domain (now Kagoshima, Japan)
Died	10 December 1916(1916-12-10) (aged 74) Tokyo, Japan
Awards	Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers Order of the Golden Kite (1st class) Order of Merit
Military service
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Branch/service	Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1871–1914
Rank	Field Marshal
Battles/wars	Boshin War Battle of Utsunomiya Castle Satsuma Rebellion First Sino-Japanese War Battle of Lüshunkou Battle of Weihaiwei Battle of Pyongyang (1894) Russo-Japanese War Battle of Liaoyang Battle of Shaho Battle of Sandepu Battle of Mukden

In this Japanese name, the surname is Ōyama.

Biography

 

Birthplace in Kagoshima

Early life

Ōyama was born in Kagoshima to a samurai family of the Satsuma Domain. as a younger paternal cousin to Saigo Takamori.^[2] A protégé of Ōkubo Toshimichi, he worked to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate and thus played a major role in the Meiji Restoration. He served as the commander of the Detached First Brigade during the Boshin War. At the Battle of Aizu, Ōyama was the commander of the Satchōdo's field artillery positions on Mount Oda. During the course of the siege, he was wounded by an Aizu guerilla force under Sagawa Kanbei.

Military career

 

Field Marshal Ōyama during the Russo-Japanese War

In 1870, Ōyama was sent overseas to the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in France (August 1870 – March 1871)^[2] to study and was appointed the official Japanese military observer to the Franco-Prussian War. He also spent three years (July 1871 – October 1874)^[2] in Geneva studying foreign languages, and became fluent in Russian. In 1872, he was sent by the Japanese government to the United States to study at Temple Hill Academy in Geneseo, New York.^[3] Ōyama Iwao is the first recorded Japanese customer for Louis Vuitton, 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 Sōroku.^[4] On his return home, he helped establish the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army, which was soon employed in suppressing the Satsuma Rebellion,^[2] although Ōyama and his elder brother were cousins of Saigō Takamori.

In the First Sino-Japanese War, Ōyama was appointed the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Second Army,^[2] which after landing on Liaodong Peninsula, carried Port Arthur by storm, and subsequently crossed to Shandong, where it captured the fortress of Weihaiwei.^[5] After the war, Ōyama was disparaged by American reporter Trumbull White for failing to restrain his troops during the Port Arthur Massacre.^[6]

For his services Ōyama received the title of marquis under the kazoku peerage system, and, three years later in January 1898,^[2] he became a field-marshal. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 he was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese armies in Manchuria.^[5] As Supreme Commander of the Japanese Manchurian Army, Ōyama had complete authority over all Japanese land operations during the war, and personally directed the tactics of Japanese forces in all major battles, winning the Battle of Liaoyang and repulsing Russian counter-attacks at the Battle of Shaho and the Battle of Sandepu. He was replaced by General Kodama Gentarō briefly during early 1905 due to illness, but recovered to direct Japanese forces in the final Battle of Mukden.^[7]

After Japan's victory, Emperor Meiji elevated him in September 1907^[2] to the rank of prince (公爵, kōshaku),^[8] the highest rank of the Empire of Japan.

Political career and death

As the War Minister in several cabinets and as the Chief of the Army General Staff, Ōyama upheld the autocratic power of the oligarchs (genrō) against democratic encroachments. However, unlike Yamagata Aritomo, Ōyama was reserved and tended to shun politics. From 1914 to his death he served as the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal (内大臣, naidaijin),^[2] and in this capacity attended the accession ceremony of the Emperor Taishō, which took place in Kyoto in November 1915.^[9]

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.

Ōyama died at the age of seventy five in 1916, and was accorded a state funeral.^[9] Ōyama was a large man, and enjoyed large meals. His weight exceeded 210 pounds (95 kg), and may have contributed to his death, possibly arising from diabetes.

Personal life

 

Ōyama Sutematsu at Vassar

Family

Ōyama's first wife Sawa died of puerperal disorder. Second wife Sutematsu (a survivor of the Battle of Aizu, a sister of former Aizu retainers Yamakawa Hiroshi and Yamakawa Kenjirō) was one of the first female students sent to the United States as part of the Iwakura Mission in the early 1870s. She spent eleven years there, graduating from Vassar College in 1882.^[10] In the next year she accepted her former enemy's proposal.

Ōyama was Emperor Meiji's first candidate for rearing future emperor Hirohito as a sort of surrogate father in 1901, in accordance with royal customs, but Ōyama declined and the role instead went to Count Kawamura Sumiyoshi.^[11]

Ōyama's first son Takashi, a navy cadet, died in the accidental explosion and sinking of the cruiser Matsushima in 1908. Second son Kashiwa (ja) became an archaeologist after he retired from army.

House

Ōyama, who spoke and wrote several European languages fluently, also liked European-style architecture. During his tenure as the War Minister, he built a large house in Tokyo modelled after a German castle.

Although he was very pleased with the design, his wife Sutematsu did not like it at all, and insisted that the children's room be remodelled in Japanese style, so that they would not forget their Japanese heritage.^[12] The house was destroyed by the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923 or possibly by American air raids during World War II^{[citation needed]}.

Kimigayo

In 1869, the British military band instructor John William Fenton, who was then working in Yokohama as an o-yatoi gaikokujin, told the members of Japan's military band about the British national anthem "God Save the King" and emphasised the necessity of a similar national anthem for Japan. The band members requested artillery Captain Ōyama Iwao, who was well versed in Japanese and Chinese literature, to select appropriate words and Ōyama selected the poem which came to be used in Japan's national anthem kimigayo.^[13]

Honours

 

Statue of General Ōyama Iwao at Kudanzaka in Tokyo.

From the Japanese Wikipedia

Japanese

•   Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (1 November 1882; Second Class: 9 November 1877)
• Count (7 July 1884)
•   Imperial Japanese Constitution Promulgation Commemorative Medal (25 November 1889)
•   Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers (5 August 1895)
• Marquess (5 August 1895)
•   1894–95 Sino-Japanese War Medal (18 November 1895)
•   1904–05 Russo-Japanese War Medal (1 April 1906)
•   Order of the Golden Kite, First Class (1 April 1906; Second Class: 5 August 1895)
•   Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (1 April 1906; Grand Cordon: 3 June 1902)
• Prince (21 September 1907)
•   Imperial Accession Commemorative Medal (10 November 1915)
• Silver gift cup set (1 April 1916)
•   First World War Medal (1 April 1916)

Court order of precedence

• Senior sixth rank (May 1871)
• Senior fifth rank (24 February 1875)
• Fourth rank (16 December 1879)
• Senior fourth rank (24 May 1880)
• Third rank (27 December 1884)
• Second rank (19 October 1886)
• Senior second rank (20 December 1895)
• Junior First Rank (10 December 1916; posthumous)

Foreign

•   Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy (20 March 1883)
•   Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Prussia (4 February 1884)
•   Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus of the Kingdom of Italy (9 February 1885)
•   Knight First Class of the Order of the Iron Crown of Austria-Hungary (9 February 1885)
•   Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the White Eagle of the Russian Empire (1885)
•   Order of the Crown of Thailand, 1st Class (1 May 1891)
•   Order of Osmanieh, 1st Class of the Ottoman Empire (27 May 1891)
•   Knight of the Order of Merit of the Prussian Crown with swords (22 March 1906)
•   Order of Merit (OM) of the United Kingdom (5 April 1906)^[14]
•   Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour of France (27 December 1906; Grand Officer: 13 April 1883)

Other

• Namesake of Oyama, British Columbia, a small town in British Columbia, Canada^[15] and Oyama Regional Park in Saskatchewan, Canada.^[16]

Ancestry

^[17]

Ancestors of Ōyama Iwao
16. Saigō Kakuzaemon 8. Saigō Kichibee 4. Saigō Takamitsu 18. Machida Shizaemon 9. Machida NN 2. Ōyama Tsunamasa 5. Yotsumoto NN 1. Ōyama Iwao 24. Ōyama Tsunahide 12. Ōyama Tsunamichi 6. Ōyama Tsunatake 3. Ōyama Kyōko

See also

• Kimigayo
• Katsura Ōyama

Notes

1. Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618–1905) (in German). Vienna & Leipzig: C. W. Stern. p. 791. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
2. "大山巌関係文書（寄託） | 憲政資料室の所蔵資料 | 国立国会図書館" [Documents related to Iwao Oyama (Deposited)]. The National Archives of Japan, National Diet Library. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
3. Oyama, S. Personal letter. 10 July 1913. Livingston County Historian's Office, Mt. Morris, New York.
4. Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military Biography
5.   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Oyama, Iwao, Prince". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 424.
6. Trumbull White (1895). The War in the East. J. H. Moore and Company. pp. 597–606. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
7. Kowner, Rotem (2006). Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War. The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4927-5.page 276
8. National Diet Library, Portraits of Modern Historical Figures
9.   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Iwao, Ōyama". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 31 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 1226.
10. "Prince Iwao Oyama Is Dead in Japan", The New York Times, 11 December 1916.
11. Bix, Herbert P. (2001). Hirohito and the making of modern Japan (1st Perennial ed.). New York: Perennial. p. 522. ISBN 978-0060931308.
12. Adachi, The Wife of Japan's great General Oyama
13. Aura Sabadus (14 March 2006). "Japan searches for Scot who modernised nation". The Scotsman. Published by Johnston Press Digital Publishing. Archived from the original on 16 December 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2007.
14. The London Gazette, 15 May 1906
15. . vancouverisland.com. 1998. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
16. Barry, B. (October 2003) People Places: Contemporary Saskatchewan Place Names, 1-894022-92-0
17. "大山氏" Ōyama-shi [Oyama clan]. Reichsarchiv (in Japanese). 2 May 2010. Retrieved 5 January 2019.

References

• Bix, Herbert P. (2000). Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019314-0; OCLC 247018161
• Dupuy, Trevor N. (1992). Encyclopedia of Military Biography. I B Tauris & Co Ltd. ISBN 1-85043-569-3.
• Jansen, Marius B. and Gilbert Rozman, eds. (1986). Japan in Transition: from Tokugawa to Meiji. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691054599; OCLC 12311985
• Jansen, Marius B., (2000). The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674003347; OCLC 44090600
• Keene, Donald. (2002). Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-12340-2; OCLC 46731178

Further reading

• Gensui koshaku Oyama Iwao ("元帥公爵大山巌〔本編〕) ", with separate volume of Appendix. Oyama gensuiden kankokai (ed), 1935. Digital. Available only at the NDL and partner libraries.
  • Biography Editors of Field Marshal Oyama (大山元帥伝刊行会) (November 2012). 元帥公爵大山巌 [Biography of Field Marshal Prince Iwao Oyama] (in Japanese) (reprint ed.). Matsuno Bookseller (マツノ書店). JPNO 22185550. Retrieved 25 March 2020. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help); |website= ignored (help) Based on 1940 edition.
• Gensui koshaku Oyama Iwao Nempu ("元帥公爵大山巌 年譜"), by another group Oyama gensuiden kankojo (ed), 1940. Available only at the NDL and partner libraries. **Biography Editors of Field Marshal Oyama (大山元帥伝刊行会) (November 2012). 元帥公爵大山巌年譜 [Timeline, Biography of Field Marshal Prince Iwao Oyama] (in Japanese) (reprint ed.). Matsuno Bookseller (マツノ書店). JPNO 22185551. Retrieved 25 March 2020. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help); |website= ignored (help)
• Chounan, Masayoshi; 長南政義 (December 2007). "Oyama Iwao". In 伊藤隆; 季武嘉也 (eds.). 近現代日本人物史料情報辞典 [Modern Japanese Historical Information Dictionary] (in Japanese). Yoshikawa Kobunkan. JPNO 21340667. Retrieved 25 March 2020. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ōyama Iwao.

• National Diet Library
  • "Documents related to Iwao Oyama (entrusted)". Constitutional Archives, National Diet Library (in Japanese). 19 January 2023. 1,564 Original/microfisch items for Iwao Oyama (1842 – 1916), list of items 2 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine available as pdf format (in Japanese). Some are published on Digital Collection, NDL.
  • "Oyama, Iwao (1842 - 1916)". Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures, National Diet Library.
• Adachi, Kinnosuke (23 July 1905). "The Wife of Japan's Great General Oyama". New York Times. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
• VancouverIsland.com. . Archived from the original on 11 June 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2010.

Political offices
Preceded by none	Minister of War Dec 1885 – May 1891	Succeeded by Takashima Tomonosuke
Preceded by Takashima Tomonosuke	Minister of War Aug 1892 – Sept 1896	Succeeded by Takashima Tomonosuke
Preceded by Prince Fushimi Sadanaru	Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal Apr 1915 – Dec 1916	Succeeded by Matsukata Masayoshi
Military offices
Preceded by post created	Commander, Second Army September 1897 - May 1895	Succeeded by Oku Yasukata
Preceded by post created	Commander-in-Chief, Japanese Manchurian Army June 1904 -October 1905	Succeeded by post abolished
Preceded by Yamagata Aritomo	Chief of Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Sept 1882 – Feb 1884	Succeeded by Yamagata Aritomo
Preceded by Kawakami Soroku	Chief of Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Jan 1888 – May 1899	Succeeded by Yamagata Aritomo
Preceded by Yamagata Aritomo	Chief of Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Dec 1905 – Apr 1906	Succeeded by Kodama Gentarō