Yamagata, Aritomo, 1838–1922, Japanese soldier and statesman, chief founder of the modern Japanese army. A samurai of Choshu, he took part in the Meiji restoration. He studied military science...

Tsuruoka, city (1990 pop. 99,889), Yamagata prefecture, NE Honshu, Japan. An agricultural center, Tsuruoka produces candles, textiles, sake, and agricultural machines.

Katsura, Taro, 1847–1913, Japanese statesman. A Choshu clansman, and a protégé of Aritomo Yamagata, he served as war minister, then (1901–6) as prime minister. During that administration, with...

Ito, Hirobumi, 1841–1909, Japanese statesman, the outstanding figure in the modernization of Japan. As a young Choshu samurai, he was a xenophobe. In 1863 he visited Europe, studied science in...

Meiji, 1852–1912, reign name of the emperor of Japan from 1867 to 1912; his given name was Mutsuhito. He ascended the throne when he was 15. A year later the shogun fell, and the power that ha...

Genro [ Jap.,=elder statesmen], a group that exercised collective leadership in Japan from the end of the Meiji period until c.1932. After the Meiji restoration (1868), Westernizers from the f...