Yamaji Akiyoshi (山路彰善)
Akiyoshi YAMAJI (1841 - June 5, 1888) was an astronomer in the late Edo period. He was a legitimate son of Akitsune YAMAJI, who was the last member of Tenmonkata (officer in charge of astronomy). He was the father of Aizan YAMAJI, who was a historian. His common name was Ichiro.
He worked as an apprentice at Tenmonkata under his father and was good at English and Mathematics; and his father, following the suggestion of Akiyoshi's grandaunt Fukiko OKUTOME (a biological daughter of his great-grandfather, Yoshitsugu YAMAJI), ordered him to marry Fukiko's daughter Keiko (real mother of Aizan). This worsened the relationship with his father, and this situation did not improve even after Keiko's death due to illness (August 4, 1867).
When Edo-jo Castle was surrendered, he joined Shogitai (a group of former Tokugawa retainers opposed to the Meiji government who fought in the battle of Ueno) and was defeated at the Battle of Ueno. Akiyoshi came back home briefly, but after a short time he left Edo together with the former navy of bakufu led by Takeaki ENOMOTO; after that, he moved from place to place to fight at various places together with the former Army of bakufu. They were defeated at the Battle of Hakodate, and he was captured and taken into custody in the Tsuyama Domain. He was pardoned in 1872 and was taken by his father to Shizuoka City, where his son was waiting for him. However, while working in despair at Yokouchi Kankosho, a vocational aid center for former retainers of the shogun, he educated his son Aizan through teaching practice of calligraphy and English, but simultaneously Ichiro began to give himself over to drinking. It is said that Ichiro had lost the family property due to his debauchery so that Aizan had to quit the senior elementary school in his third year and study by himself while actually working. It is said that in his later years, Ichiro became to believe in Christianity influenced by Aizan, quit drinking alcohol, and eventually died as a 'typical fatherly Tokugawa samurai' (from remembrance of Aizan).