Ōyama Iwao
In 1869, the British military band instructor John William Fenton, who was then working in Yokohama as an "o-yatoi gaikokujin", told the members of Japan's military band about the British national anthem "God Save the King" and emphasised the necessity of a similar national anthem for Japan. The band members requested artillery Captain Ōyama Iwao, who was well versed in Japanese and Chinese literature, to select appropriate words and Ōyama selected the poem which came to be used in Japan's national anthem "kimigayo."