Background
Yamada Akiyoshi was born in what is now the city of Hagi, Yamaguchi, as the son of a 102-koku samurai official of the Choshuu Navy.
山田 顕義
Yamada Akiyoshi was born in what is now the city of Hagi, Yamaguchi, as the son of a 102-koku samurai official of the Choshuu Navy.
After studies at the domain's Meirinkan academy (where he studied the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu school of Japanese swordsmanship), he joined the Shoka Sonjuku run by Yoshida Shoin in June 1857.
Yamada Akiyoshi was in the retinue of Mori Motonori in Kyoto in the autumn of 1862. A strong supporter of the sonno joi movement, he signed his name in blood to a petition to rid Japan of the foreigners. After the Choshu forces were driven from Kyoto by supporters of the kobu gattai movement, he went into exile with Sanjo Sanetomi.
During this period, he studied western military science under Omura Masujiro. He soon had the opportunity to put his training to practical use during the Kinmon incident, Shimonoseki Campaign, and Second Choshu expedition. He subsequently played a major role in the Boshin War, commanding a group of 700 men under the authority of Choshu daimyo Mori Takachika, starting with the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, and also commanding Satchō Alliance naval forces in Mutsu Bay.
In June 1869, Yamada was received in an audience and appointed Hyobu no dai-jo (senior staff officer in the Ministry of War). On 22 October 1871, he set sail for the United States as a member of the Iwakura Mission. Visiting San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Chicago, and Washington DC, he also went to Philadelphia to view naval shipyards. He then returned to Japan via Paris, Berlin, the Netherlands, Belgium, Lausanne, Bulgaria and Russia.
Yamada Akiyoshi also visited the 1873 Vienna World Exposition, returning to Japan 2 June 1873. On his return, he was named Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Qing China to negotiate diplomatic relations. On 5 July 1874 he was appointed Justice Lord under the daijo-kan system, which he held to 10 September 1879. He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class in 1875, and was promoted to lieutenant general in November 1878.
The following year, Yamada was appointed a sangi (councillor), and served as head of the Minister of Industry (1879-1880), Home Minister (1881-1883) and Minister of Justice under the first Ito, Kuroda, first Yamagata and Matsukata cabinets (1883-1891). In addition, he helped develop the modern Japanese legal code and helped establish both the Koten Kokyusho (present-day Kokugakuin University) and the Nihon Horitsu Gakko)(present-day Nihon University).
Yamada was elevated to count (hakushaku) in the kazoku peerage on July 7, 1884, and served in the House of Peers (Japan) from its establishment in 1890. On January 28, 1892, he was appointed to a seat in the Privy Council of Japan but died in November of the same year at the age of 49, while inspecting the Ikuno Silver Mine in Asago, Hyogo. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Paulownia Flowers.