Kawamura Kageaki

Kawamura was born in Kagoshima in the Satsuma han feudal domain (present day Kagoshima prefecture. He first fought as a samurai in the Anglo-Satsuma War. He was part of the Satsuma forces in the Boshin War to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate. After the Meiji Restoration he was appointed commander of the Imperial Guards. He also served as field commander in the suppression of various insurrections during the early years of the Meiji era, including the Hagi Rebellion and the Satsuma Rebellion.

Kawamura led his Imperial Guards Division in the First Sino-Japanese War and went to the front in Taiwan as field commander. On the conclusion of that war, he was ennobled by Emperor Meiji with the title of danshaku (baron) under the kazoku peerage system.

In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Kawamura succeeded Prince Fushimi Sadanaru as commander of the Japanese 10th Division, and served notably as field commander at the Battle of Yalu River (1904). In January 1905, being promoted to General, he was appointed Commander of the Japanese Fifth Army and took part in the Battle of Mukden.[1] After Japan's victory, Emperor Meiji elevated him to the title of shishaku (viscount).

After the war, Kawamura served as chief of the Tokyo Garrison, and in 1915 he became a field marshal.

His Japanese decorations included the Order of the Golden Kite (1st class), Order of the Rising Sun (1st class with Paulownia Blossoms, Grand Cordon) and the Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum.

Kawamura's grave is at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo. His daughter married Hideyoshi Obata, who served as a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

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• Jansen, Marius B. and Gilbert Rozman, eds. (1986). Japan in Transition: from Tokugawa to Meiji. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691054599; OCLC 12311985
• ____________. (2000). The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674003347; OCLC 44090600
• Keene, Donald. (2002). Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-12340-2; OCLC 46731178
• Kowner, Rotem (2009). The A to Z of the Russo-Japanese War. Scarecrow Press Inc. ISBN 978-0-8108-6841-0.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kawamura Kageaki.

• National Diet Library. "Kawamura Kageaki". Portraits of Modern Historical Figures.