Early career , Tani Otoi (young boy), Yamaji Motoharu. Middle row, from left: Tani Shigeki (Sinbei),
Tani Tateki (Moribe), Yamada Kiyokado (Heizaemon), Yoshimoto Sukekatsu (Heinosuke). Top row, from left: Kataoka Masumitsu (Kenkichi), Manabe Masayoshi (Kaisaku), Nishiyama Sakae, Kitamura Shigeyori (Chobei), Beppu Hikokuro.) Yamaji was born in
Tosa Domain (present day
Kōchi Prefecture) in what is now part of the city of
Kōchi, where his father was an upper-ranked
samurai in the service of the
Yamauchi clan. At the age of 13, he lost sight in one of his eyes, but notwithstanding his disability, he was appointed a company commander of the
Jinshotai, a Tosa-Domain
shock force, during the
Boshin War of the
Meiji Restoration, participating in the
Battle of Toba–Fushimi, and in subsequent campaigns in northern Japan against the pro-Tokugawa
Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei. During the course of the conflict, he was promoted to company commander, and awarded a stipend of 150
koku. After the war, Yamaji went to
Tokyo, and was appointed by the
Meiji government as a
lieutenant colonel in the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army. During the
Seikanron debate, he supported his fellow Tosa clansmen
Itagaki Taisuke and
Gotō Shōjirō, at one point resigning his commission and returning to Tosa to participate in the
Freedom and People's Rights Movement, but eventually he had a falling out with Itagaki and returned to military service, receiving a position with the
Guards Division. During the
Satsuma Rebellion Yamaji commanded the
IJA 4th Infantry Regiment from March to October 1877, served as chief of staff of the IJA 3rd Infantry Brigade and subsequently commanded the IJA 3rd Infantry Regiment and IJA 12th Infantry Regiment.
As general Yamaji was promoted to the rank of
major general in February 1881, and commander of the Kumamoto Garrison. He subsequently served as commander of the Osaka Garrison, IJA 2nd Infantry Brigade, Kumamoto Garrison (second term), and was promoted to
lieutenant general in December 1886. In May 1887, he was elevated to the title of
baron (
danshaku) in the
kazoku peerage system by
Emperor Meiji. In May 1888, with the reorganization of the Imperial Japanese Army into
divisions per the advice of
Prussian
military advisor Jakob Meckel, Yamaji was made commander of the new
IJA 6th Division, and later of the
IJA 1st Division. During the
First Sino-Japanese War, he saw combat at the
Battle of Jinzhou and later at the
Battle of Lushunkou. After the fall of Lushunkou, soldiers under his command were involved in the
Port Arthur massacre. Yamaji is reported to have brought two
camels back from Lushunkou as
spoils of war. He presented one to the crown prince (the future
Emperor Taishō) and the other to
Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. In August 1895, Yamaji's title was elevated to
viscount (
shishaku). After the war, he was appointed as commander of the Western Japanese Training District. He died in 1897 in what is now part of the city of
Hōfu, Yamaguchi. He was posthumous awarded the honorific title of Junior Second
Court Rank His grave was recorded as being located in
Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo; however, on August 11, 1971, the
Kochi Newspaper reported that Yamaji's gravestone had been found abandoned by a man taking a walk at the corner of the three-way intersection along the Koshū Kaidō (
Japan National Route 20), near the
National Observatory and
Chōfu Airport, on what is now the grounds of
Ajinomoto Stadium. A movement to purchase the monument by the citizens of Kōchi failed to raise the needed funds, and the monument is now used as an ornamental stone bridge in the
Japanese garden of the head office of the Seikadō company in Tokyo. It is not known how the gravestone came to be abandoned, and the location of Yamaji's grave is now unknown. ==Decorations==