The Commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy ( ja, 大元帥陸海軍大将, Dai-gensui-riku-kai-gun-taishō) was the highest rank of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

and the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

from the 1870s to 1945, when the Empire of Japan was dissolved. The rank was only ever held by the

Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the ...

as commander-in-chief of the Empire's Armed Forces and, separately, the highest-ranking officer in each of the Armed Services. It formally became obsolete in 1947 when the Imperial Japanese armed forces were abolished.

History

The term originated in the Chinese military title (大元帥), a title higher than (元帥, pronounced in Japanese). Decree No. 252 by the ''Dajokan'', dated 7 September 1872 first made formal mention of the rank of ''dai-gensui''; however, no appointments to the rank were made before the rank was abolished along with that of ''gensui'' on 8 May 1873. By "Draft Ordinance No. 142" of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan (Chapter 1 Part 1) of 30 September 1889, the Emperor was officially given the rank of ''dai-gensui'' and installed as supreme commander of the Army and Navy. The ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' characters also refer to a Buddhist deity, Daigensui Myō'ō (大元帥明王), a

Wisdom King A Wisdom King (Sanskrit: विद्याराज; IAST: ''Vidyārāja'', ) is a type of wrathful deity in East Asian Buddhism. Whereas the Sanskrit name is translated literally as "wisdom / knowledge king(s)," the term '' vidyā'' in Vajraya ...

worshipped by the Imperial Court since

Emperor Ninmyō was the 54th emperor of Japan, Emperor Ninmyō, Fukakusa Imperial Mausoleum, Imperial Household Agency according to the traditional order of succession. Ninmyō's reign lasted from 833 to 850, during the Heian period. Traditional narrative Nin ...

and by the

Shingon Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks such as Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra. Kn ...

sect, for its legendary miraculous power to quell foreign enemies and rebellions, just like a military leader.

Insignia

The insignia of a ''dai-gensui'' were identical to those of a full general, with the addition of the gold imperial chrysanthemum. File:Generalissimo collar rank insignia (Japan).png, Army collar insignia File:Generalissimo rank insignia (Japan).png, Army shoulder insignia File:Imperial Japan-Navy-OF-10-shoulder.svg, Naval shoulder insignia File:Imperial Japan-Navy-OF-10-collar.svg, Naval collar insignia File:Imperial Japan-Navy-OF-10-sleeve.svg, Naval sleeve insignia

List of holders

References

* ''This article incorporates information from the corresponding article in the

Japanese Wikipedia The is the Japanese-language edition of Wikipedia, a free, open-source online encyclopedia. Started on 11 May 2001, the edition attained the 200,000 article mark in April 2006 and the 500,000 article mark in June 2008. As of , it has over ar ...

.'' *

Donald Keene Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japane ...

, ''Emperor of Japan, Meiji and his World 1852–1912'' {{Authority control Military ranks of Japan

History

Insignia

List of holders

See also

References