Arisugawa Taruhito

(1835 –1895), adopted by Emperor Ninkō as a potential heir to the throne, got from Emperor Meiji the command of the Imperial Army sent to combat the last partisans of Tokugawa clan in the Boshin War of 1868-1869. He fought at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, that ended in a decisive defeat for the Tokugawa shogunate. Taruhito later travelled up the Tōkaidō, to accept the surrender of Edo Castle, an important symbol of Tokugawa hegemony over western Japan. From 1889 to 1895 he served as chief of staff of the Imperial Japanese Army and a member of the Supreme War Council. In 1894 Arisugawa was officially commander-in-chief of Japanese forces in the First Sino-Japanese War. He died on typhoid fever or malaria early in 1895.