Chōshū Domain
Katsura was born on 4 January 1848 in Hagi, Nagato Province (present day Yamaguchi Prefecture) into a "samurai" family of the Chōshū Domain. As a youth, Katsura joined the movement against the Tokugawa shogunate and participated in some of the major battles of the Boshin War that led to the Meiji Restoration in 1868.