Tachibana Shuta (橘周太)
Shuta TACHIBANA (November 3, 1865 - August 31, 1904) was a military man of the Japanese Army. He died in the Battle of Liaoyang during the Russo-Japanese War, and since then, he was worshiped as the god of war. His highest official rank was the first Daitaicho (Battalion Chief) of the 34th Infantry Regiment and the Lieutenant Colonel, ranked Shorokui (Senior Sixth Rank) and decorated with the Orders of the Rising Sun and the Order of Golden Kite.
Career
In October 1865 (表記の変更),he was born as the second son of Sueyasu JODAI (according to another theory, Sueyasu TACHIBANA), a shoya (village headman) in Nagasaki, and after studying at Katsuyama Elementary School, Nagasaki Prefectural Nagasakinishi High School, and Nishogakusha school, he was admitted as a cadet in the Army War College (Japan) in 1881(表記の変更). Since then, he consistently proceeded the career as a military man, and held the post of military officer to Togu (the Crown Prince) at as well as the posts of company commander of the 36th Infantry Regiment and the president of Nagoya Army Cadet School. When the Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904 (表記の変更), he was appointed the Managing Director of the Second Army (Japanese Army), which was a newly created position. In August of the same year, he was assigned to the first Daitaicho (Battalion Chief) of the 34th Infantry Regiment, and led the attack on Shuzanpo. Tachibana died in this battle, and posthumously he was promoted to the Lieutenant Colonel of the Infantry Regiment of Army and conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette and the Order of Golden Kite, Fourth Class.
After Tachibana's death, those who missed him gathered and set up a construction committee of his bronze statue in 1912 (表記の変更), and his bronze statue was constructed in 1918 (表記の変更). The committee also studied the possibility of founding Tachibana-jinja Shrine to enshrine him as the deity, and the practical steps toward the construction started in 1928 (表記の変更). Although the acitivity was suspended temporarily, foundation of the shrine was permitted in 1937 and an enshrinement festival was celebrated in May 1940 (表記の変更). Shuta's first son, Ichirozaemon TACHIBANA (the 26th course of private), who became the Army Captain later, assumed the position of chief priest of Tachibana-jinja Shrine.
The 34th Infantry Regiment later came to be commonly called Tachibana Rentai (Tachibana Regiment), and this alias has been handed down to date as the another name of the 34th Infantry Regiment of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF), because it is stationed exactly in the same army post numbered 34.
The Tachibana family was a descendent family of TACHIBANA no Moroe, the great-great-grandson (according to another theory, great-grandchild) of Prince Naniwa, the Imperial prince of Emperor Bidatsu, and it was originally from the same family line as Masashige KUSUNOKI, a busho (Japanese feudal commander) who lived during the end of Kamakura period. Masashige's younger brother Masauji used the family name WADA, and his descendent Yoshizumi WADA moved to Chijiwa-mura Village, Shimabara Domain, Hizen Province (later Unzen City, Nagasaki Prefecture) and began using the family name JODAI.
Shuta TACHIBANA also used the family name JODAI at first, but since his older brother Tokoha took the reigns of the family, he began using the family name 'TACHIBANA.'
Tachibana-wan Bay was originally called Chijiwa-nada Open Sea or Chijiwa-wan Bay, but in 1919 when TACHIBANA's statue was constructed in Chijiwa-cho (present Chijiwa-cho, Unzen City, Nagasaki Prefecture), the persons concerned submitted a petition to change the denomination of Chijiwa-nada Open Sea to Tachibana-wan Bay. The Hydrographic Department (of the Imperial Japanese Navy), which was compiling a nautical chart at that moment, officially adopted the entry 'Tachibana-wan Bay' on the chart.