Background
Taruhito no-miya-Arisugawa was born on 17 March 1835 in Kyoto, he was the eldest son of imperial prince Arisugawa-no-miya Takahito. His mother was of the Saeki family. In his youth he went by the name Yoshi-no-miya.
有栖川宮 熾仁親王
Taruhito no-miya-Arisugawa was born on 17 March 1835 in Kyoto, he was the eldest son of imperial prince Arisugawa-no-miya Takahito. His mother was of the Saeki family. In his youth he went by the name Yoshi-no-miya.
After the Hamaguri Gate incident of 1864, when the Choshu forces attempted to seize control of Kyoto, he was relieved of his office as kokuji-goyogakari and placed under house confinement. In 1868, when the shogunate was abolished and power restored to the emperor, he was appointed president of the new government.
In the Boshin War, which broke out between the imperial forces and the forces remaining loyal to the shogunate, he was appointed governor-general of the eastern expedition. He led the imperial forces to Edo, where he took control of Edo Castle, and then proceeded to put down resistance in the Tohoku region. In 1870 he was made minister of military affairs. Shortly after, when it came to light that the domain of Fukuoka was counterfeiting currency, the central government executed the officials of the domain who were responsible. When the domains were abolished in 1871, the lord of the domain became governor of Fukuoka. He was removed from this post by the central government, which fearing opposition from the people, appointed Prince Arisugawa to fill the position.
In 1875 he became a member of the Genroin (Senate), and the following year became president of the Genroin. When the internal uprising known as the Seinan War broke out in 1877, he was appointed commander of the expeditionary forces dispatched to put down the resistance, and in recognition of his accomplishments in doing so, was made a general of the army. In 1880 he became minister of the left. In 1882 he journeyed to Russia to represent Japan at the coronation of the czar, and thereafter toured Europe and America.
In 1885 he became head of the General Staff Office, and in 1894, with the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, acted in his capacity as head of the General Staff Office to set up the imperial headquarters in Hiroshima, but died of illness before the formal conclusion of the war.
Though the tendency of the court at the time was to act in concord with the shogunate, the prince supported the sonno-joi movement, which sought to overthrow the shogunate and restore power to the einperor.