Arichi was born in
Chōshū Domain (now
Yamaguchi Prefecture. His younger brother was Admiral
Nashiba Tokioki. As a
samurai youth, he fought in the
Boshin War to overthrow the
Tokugawa shogunate, participating in combat in the northern Tohoku campaign. He was then dispatched by the domain to Europe for studies, observing military operations in the
Franco-Prussian War first-hand. On his return to Japan, he was commissioned as a
major in the new
Imperial Japanese Army in 1871. Under the new
Meiji government, he served in the
Ministry of War, and transferred to the fledgling
Imperial Japanese Navy in 1873 with the rank of
lieutenant commander. He was thus was of the few men from Chōshū Domain to choose the navy over the army as a career. It is not certain why he made this choice, but some historians theorize it was part of a strategy by the Chōshū clan leaders to ensure that the navy did not become a
Satsuma monopoly. Arichi was captain of the
frigate in 1878 and
corvette in 1881. After his promotion to the rank of captain in 1882, he was assigned as commanding officer of the corvette , followed by
Tsukuba. In 1884, while captain of
Tsukuba, the ship suffered from an outbreak of
beriberi in which 23 crewmen died. Subsequently,
Tsukuba was used as the basis of a successful experiment by naval doctor
Takaki Kanehiro into the sailors' diet, which later eliminated beriberi as an issue within the Japanese navy. Arichi was promoted to
rear admiral on 15 June 1886 and became commandant of the
Imperial Japanese Naval Academy from 1887 to 1889. He was Chief of the
Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff from 1889 to 1891. From 1891 to 1892, Arichi served as
commander in chief of the
Readiness Fleet. He was promoted to
vice admiral in 1892. During the
First Sino-Japanese War, he was initially commander in chief of
Kure Naval District, and became commander in chief of the
Combined Fleet from May to October 1895, overseeing in the
Japanese invasion of Taiwan. During this campaign, the captain of the cruiser provoked a
diplomatic incident with the
United Kingdom when he stopped and boarded the British-flagged
merchant ship SS Thales in
international waters off of
Amoy on the morning of 21 October 1895 in search of
Liu Yongfu, the fugitive president of the
Republic of Formosa. Due to the
diplomatic protest over the violation of British neutrality, the Japanese government was forced to issue an official apology and forced Arichi into retirement. On 5 June 1896, Arichi was ennobled with the title of
baron (
danshaku) under the
kazoku peerage system. Arichi served in the
House of Peers from 1897 to 1917. He retired in 1911, but continued to serve as a member of the
Privy Council from 1917 until his death in 1919. His grave is at
Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo. ==References==