Prince Arisugawa Taruhito

Infobox Military Person
name= HIH Prince Arisugawa Taruhito
lived=13 March 1835 - 15 January 1895
placeofbirth=Kyoto, Japan
placeofdeath=Kobe, Japan


caption= Japanese General Prince Arisugawa Taruhito
nickname=
allegiance=Empire of Japan
branch=
serviceyears=1867-1895
rank=General
commands=Imperial Japanese Army
unit=
battles=Boshin War
First Sino-Japanese War
awards= Collar of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum.
family=
laterwork=

nihongo|Prince Arisugawa Taruhito|有栖川宮熾仁親王|Arisugawa-no-miya Taruhito-Shinnō|extra=13 March 1835 – 15 January 1895 became the 9th head of nihongo|Arisugawa-no-miya| 有栖川宮家| line of "shinnōke" cadet branches of the Imperial Family of Japan on 9 September 1871. He was a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army.

Early life

Prince Arisugawa Taruhito was born in Kyoto in 1835, as the son of Prince Arisugawa Takahito by Yūko (d. 1 December 1841), the eldest daughter of Saeki Yūjō. He was adopted by Emperor Ninko, thus making Prince Taruhito, the adopted brother of Osahito "Shinnō" (the future Emperor Kōmei). Prince Arisugawa was a close advisor to both Emperor Kōmei and his nephew by adoption, the Emperor Meiji.

Prince Arisugawa became engaged to Princess Kazu-no-Miya Chikako the eighth daughter of Emperor Ninko on 8 August 1851. However, the engagement was cancelled by the Tokugawa bakufu so that the princess could marry Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi, thus politically sealing the reconciliation between the Shogunate and the Imperial Court. Ironically, Prince Arisugawa's first wife Sadako (1850-1872) was the eleventh daughter of Tokugawa Nariaki, "daimyo" of Mito. His second wife was Tadako (1855-1923), daughter of Count Mizoguchi Naohiro, the former "daimyo" of Shibata. Neither of these marriages produced children.

Meiji Restoration

In 1867, Emperor Meiji appointed Prince Arisugawa "sosai" (a title equivalent to chief minister), and placed him in command of the Imperial Army sent to against the last partisans of the Tokugawa bakufu (Boshin War, 1868-1869). He fought at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, and later traveled up the Tokaidō, to accept the surrender of Edo Castle on 3 May 1867, from his ex-fiancée Princess Kazu.

He later led the central government army against the forces of Saigo Takamori in the Satsuma Rebellion (1877). He was given the honorary rank of general in 1878.

From 1870 until the adoption of the Cabinet system in 1885, Prince Arisugawa served as "Daijō Daijin" or lord president of the Council of State. In 1871, he was appointed governor of Fukuoka. From 1876, he was the chairman of the "Genroin." In 1882, he traveled to St Petersburg, Russia, and met with Tsar Alexander III, as the official envoy from Emperor Meiji.

From 1889 to 1895, the prince served as chief of staff of the Imperial Japanese Army and a member of the Supreme War Council. In 1894, he was officially commander-in-chief of Japanese forces in the First Sino-Japanese War, and established his command center at the Hiroshima garrison. However, he contracted typhoid fever (or possibly malaria) and returned to the Arisugawa palace at Maiko near Kobe to recover. He died there on 15 January 1895. On his death, Emperor Meiji awarded him the first ever Collar of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum. [Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military Biography] He received a state funeral in Tokyo on 29 January 1895.

His half-brother, Prince Arisugawa Takehito, succeeded as the tenth head of the house of the Arisugawa-no-miya.

Legacy

The Arisugawa Memorial Park in Minami-azabu, Minato, Tokyo occupies the site of the Arisugawa palace and its extensive gardens are open to the public. Although Imperial Prince Taruhito was supposed to spend his last days in this palace, he died without ever occupying it. A statue of the Prince on horseback was made with donations by Oyama Iwao, Saigo Tsugumichi and Yamagata Aritomo, and first erected in 1903 by the gate of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff headquarters; it was moved to this park in 1962.

References

Books

*cite book
last = Dupuy
first = Trevor N.
year = 1992
title = Encyclopedia of Military Biography
publisher = I B Tauris & Co Ltd
location =
id = ISBN 1-85043-569-3
*cite book
last = Jansen
first = Marius B.
year = 2000
title = The Making of Modern Japan
publisher = Balknap Press
location =
id = ISBN 0674009916
*cite book
last = Keane
first = Donald
year = 2005
title = Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852-1912
publisher = Columbia University Press
location =
id = ISBN 0231123418

External links

* [http://uqconnect.net/~zzhsoszy/states/japan/arisugawa.html Genealogy of the Arisugawa family]
* [http://www.lib.city.minato.tokyo.jp/yukari/e/man-detail.cgi?id=6&CGISESSID=5de5859e060d8e4c30985a26fcf6b6ab Bio at Tokyo Minato-ku government site]

Notes