Editing Yamagata Aritomo (section)

==Early career==
[[File:Aritomo Yamagata.jpg|thumb|left|upright|158px|Yamagata in his early years]]
'''Yamagata Tatsunosuke''' was born on 14 June 1838, in Kawashima, [[Abu District, Yamaguchi|Abu]], below [[Hagi Castle]] (present-day [[Hagi, Yamaguchi|Hagi]], [[Yamaguchi Prefecture]]), the eldest son of [[samurai]] foot soldier (''[[ashigaru]]'') Yamagata Aritoshi. His father was a low-ranking samurai who carried weaponry during wartime and was a petty official at the town magistrate office (''[[machi-bugyō]]-sho'') during peacetime. Yamagata's mother died when he was 4 years old, and he was raised by his strict grandmother. Although Aritoshi was a petty town magistrate official, he studied ''[[kokugaku]]'', wrote poetry, and excelled in academics. Yamagata was taught academics by his father Aritoshi. He had his coming of age ceremony (''[[genpuku]]'') at age 15, and started off as a petty official at the [[Chōshū Domain]] and then at the [[Meirinkan]]. Later, he served the territorial magistrate (''[[daikan]]''), going from village to village learning general duties of a samurai official.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Itō |first1=Yukio |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/310394344 |title=Yamagata Aritomo : guchoku na kenryokusha no shōgai |last2=伊藤之雄 |date=2009 |publisher=Bungei Shunjū |isbn=978-4-16-660684-9 |pages=11, 20–22 |oclc=310394344}}</ref> His childhood name was Tatsunosuke, after which he was briefly known as Kosuke and Kyōsuke, before changing his name to Aritomo after the [[Meiji Restoration]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Nihon dai hyakka zensho |publisher=Shōgakkan |year=1989 |isbn=4-09-526001-7 |at=山県有朋 |oclc=14970117}}</ref>

He went to ''[[Shōkasonjuku Academy|Shokasonjuku]]'', a private school run by [[Yoshida Shōin]], where he was active in the growing underground movement to overthrow the [[Tokugawa shogunate]]. He was a commander in the ''[[Kiheitai]]'', a paramilitary organization created on semi-western lines by the Chōshū domain. During the [[Boshin War]], the revolution of 1867 and 1868 often called the [[Meiji Restoration]], he was a staff officer.

After the defeat of the [[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa]], Yamagata together with [[Saigō Tsugumichi]] was selected by the leaders of the new government to go to Europe in 1869 to research European military systems. Yamagata like many Japanese was strongly influenced by the striking success of [[Prussia]] in transforming itself from an agricultural state to a leading industrial and military power. He accepted Prussian political ideas, which favored military expansion abroad and authoritarian government at home. On returning he was asked to organize a national army for Japan, and he became [[Ministry of War of Japan|War Minister]] in 1873. Yamagata energetically modernized the fledgling [[Imperial Japanese Army]], and modeled it after the Prussian Army. He began a system of military conscription in 1873.<ref name="Hackett, 1971">Hackett, ''Yamagata Aritomo in the Rise of Modern Japan 1838–1922'' (1971).</ref>{{Page needed|date=May 2020}}