Viscount was the 7th and final '' daimyō'' of

Gujō Domain reconstructed ''tenshu'' of Gujō-Hachiman Castle was a '' fudai'' feudal domain of Edo period Japan. It was located in northern Mino Province and southern Echizen Province, in central Honshū. The domain was centered at Gujō Hachiman Castle, lo ...

under the Bakumatsu period Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan. He was the 11th hereditary chieftain of the Gujō-Aoyama clan. During the Meiji period, he was a politician and member of the House of Peers of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

Biography

Aoyama Yukiyoshi was the eldest son of the 6th ''daimyō'' of Gujō Domain, Aoyama Yukishige. He became ''daimyō'' in 1863 on the death of his father. The following year, the shogunate ordered the domain to reply troops against the Mito Rebellion, but by the time the order reached the domain, the rebel forces had already passed. In the Bakumatsu period, as with most domains, the samurai were divided between a pro-shogunate faction and a pro-'' sonnō jōi'' faction whose goal was to restore political power to the throne. Aoyama Yukiyoshi refused to support either side, and many of the pro-Tokugawa samurai rallied around the son of his chief retainer and formed a type of freikorps which joined the defenders at the

Battle of Aizu The Battle of Aizu (Japanese: 会津戦争, "War of Aizu") was fought in northern Japan from October to November in autumn 1868, and was part of the Boshin War. History Aizu was known for its martial skill, and maintained at any given time a s ...

in the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

. The new Meiji government awarded Aoyama for his inactivity, and appointed him imperial governor of Gujō-Hachiman in 1868. With the

abolition of the han system The in the Empire of Japan and its replacement by a system of prefectures in 1871 was the culmination of the Meiji Restoration begun in 1868, the starting year of the Meiji period. Under the reform, all daimyos (, ''daimyō'', feudal lords) ...

in 1871 he relocated to Tokyo. With the establishment of '' kazoku'' peerage on July 8, 1884, he was made a viscount (''shishaku'').『官報』第308号、July 9, 1884。 He later served as president of Nippon Printing Company, and as a director on the Iwakura Railway School. He was appointed to the House of Peers in 1890. Aoyama was married three times. His first wife, Setsuko, was the daughter of the

kuge The was a Japanese aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese Imperial Court in Kyoto. The ''kuge'' were important from the establishment of Kyoto as the capital during the Heian period in the late 8th century until the rise of the Kamakur ...

, Tadaaya Hirohata. His second wife, Machiko, was the daughter of the famed Ii Naosuke. His third wife, Fumiko, was the daughter of Todo Tadakuni of Hisai Domain. Aoyama Yukiyoshi died on February 5, 1930. He is 77 years old. His grave is at the temple of Baiso-in in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aoyama, Yukiyoshi Fudai daimyo Kazoku 1854 births 1930 deaths People of Meiji-period Japan Members of the House of Peers (Japan)