Aritomo Yamagata (1838-1922) was a Japanese general and a member of the oligarchy which dominated Meiji Japan. He was instrumental in building a modern army, strengthening the power of the civil and military bureaucracy, and checking the development of popular influences on the government.

Aritomo Yamagata was born the son of a low-ranking samurai family on April 22, 1838, in Hagi, the castle town of Choshu domain. Like Hirobumi Ito Yamagata studied at the private academy of Shoin Yoshida, who advocated revolt against unworthy rulers and severely criticized the shogunate's weak response to the Western nations. Not surprisingly, Yamagata became an active participant in the imperial loyalist movement in Choshu. As an officer of the Kiheitai, a militia force made up of both peasants and samurai, he fought under the leadership of Shinsaku Takasagi in engagements with the Westerners at shimonoseki, in the Choshu civil war, and in the wars...