Prince Arisugawa Taruhito

Prince Arisugawa Taruhito (有栖川宮熾仁親王) became the 9th head of Arisugawa-no-miya (有栖川宮家) line of shinnōke cadet branches of the Imperial Family of Japan on September 9, 1871. He was a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army.

Early life
Prince Arisugawa Taruhito was born in Kyoto in 1835, as the son of Prince Arisugawa Takahito by Yūko (d. 1841), the eldest daughter of Saeki Yūjō. He was adopted by Emperor Ninkō as a potential heir to the throne, thus making Prince Taruhito, the adopted brother of Osahito Shinnō (the future Emperor Kōmei). Prince Arisugawa was a close advisor to both Emperor Kōmei and his nephew by adoption, Emperor Meiji.

Prince Arisugawa became engaged to Princess Kazu-no-Miya Chikako the eighth daughter of Emperor Ninkō on August 8, 1861. However, the engagement was cancelled by the Tokugawa bakufu so that the princess could marry Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi, thus politically sealing the reconciliation between the Shogunate and the Imperial Court. Ironically, Prince Arisugawa's first wife Sadako (1850–1872) was the eleventh daughter of Tokugawa Nariaki, daimyō of Mito Domain. His second wife was Tadako (1855–1923), daughter of Count Mizoguchi Naohiro, the former daimyō of Shibata Domain. Neither of these marriages produced any children.

Meiji Restoration
In 1867, Emperor Meiji appointed Prince Arisugawa sōsai (a title equivalent to chief minister), and placed him in command of the Imperial Army sent to against the last partisans of the Tokugawa bakufu in the Boshin War of 1868-1869. He fought at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, and later traveled up the Tōkaidō, to accept the surrender of Edo Castle on May 3, 1867, from his ex-fiancée Princess Kazu.

Prince Arisugawa later led the central government army against the forces of Saigo Takamori in the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. He was given the honorary rank of general in 1878.

From 1870 until the adoption of the Cabinet system in 1885, Prince Arisugawa served as Daijō Daijin or lord president of the Council of State. In 1871, he was appointed governor of Fukuoka. From 1876, he was the chairman of the Genrōin. In 1882, he traveled to St Petersburg, Russia, and met with Tsar Alexander III, as the official envoy from Emperor Meiji.

From 1889 to 1895, the prince served as chief of staff of the Imperial Japanese Army and a member of the Supreme War Council. In 1894, Prince Arisugawa was officially commander-in-chief of Japanese forces in the First Sino-Japanese War, and established his command center at the Hiroshima garrison. However, he contracted typhoid fever (or possibly malaria) and returned to the Arisugawa palace at Maiko near Kobe to recover. He died there on January 15, 1895. On his death, Emperor Meiji awarded him the first ever Collar of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum. He was accorded a state funeral in Tokyo on January 29, 1895.

His half-brother, Prince Arisugawa Takehito, succeeded as the tenth head of the house of Arisugawa-no-miya.

Legacy
The Arisugawa Memorial Park in Minami-Azabu, Minato, Tokyo occupies the site of the Arisugawa palace and its extensive gardens are open to the public. Although Imperial Prince Taruhito had intended to spend his last days in this palace, he died without ever occupying it. A statue of the Prince on horseback was made with donations by Oyama Iwao, Saigo Tsugumichi and Yamagata Aritomo, and first erected in 1903 by the gate of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff headquarters; it was moved to this park in 1962.