Arima Ryokitsu Admiral was a career naval officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy during Meiji and Taishō periods . Biography . Arima was a native of Wakayama , where his father was a senior " samurai " retainer of the Kishū Tokugawa clan , and an active supporter of the Tokugawa shogunate during the Boshin War of the Meiji Restoration . Although he came from such an unfavorable background , Arima was able to secure admission to the 12th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy , after graduating from the forerunners of Doshisha University and Keio University with degrees in English language . Arima was assigned as a sub - lieutenant to the three - masted corvette in 1885 and graduated 16th out of 19 cadets from the Navy Academy in 1886 after " Tsukuba " made a long distance navigational voyage from Japan to Newcastle , Sydney , Wellington , Fiji , Samoa , Honolulu , Apia and Pago Pago lasting most of 1886 . On graduation , Arima was assigned to , followed by the gunboat in 1889 . His subsequent military service included both sea and staff assignments . Arima was assigned to in 1890 , and accompanied it to the United Kingdom the following year . From 1892 to 1894 , he served in staff assignments for the Readiness Fleet . He was sent back to sea on the from 1894 - 1895 during the First Sino - Japanese War , and was Chief of Staff of the Yokosuka Naval District from 1895 - 1896 . From 1896 , he held the prestigious post of Aide - de - camp to Emperor Meiji and was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1897 and to commander in 1899 . From March 1900 , Arima was assigned as chief navigation officer to the flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy , the battleship , on which he again visited England in 1902 . After his return to Japan , he was promoted to the position of executive officer on the cruiser , but at the end of 1903 , he was reassigned to the staff of the IJN 1st Fleet . In 1903 , Commander Arima developed a military strategy which considered attrition as an element of overwhelming force in warfare ; and this analysis caught the attention of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō in the period shortly before the outbreak of hostilities in the Russo - Japanese War . During the Russo - Japanese War , he received his first command , that of the cruiser . Following his promotion to captain in July 1904 , he captained , during the Battle of the Yellow Sea . During the war , Arima was the senior member of Tōgō ' s Combined Fleet staff . Arima personally commanded the failed Second Port Arthus blockade attempt , during which Commander Takeo Hirose was killed . Soon afterwards , he was reassigned from his field command to become commandant of the Takeshiki Guard District on Tsushima , where he remained for the rest of the war . After the end of the war , he again received a field command , and from 1906 – 1907 , was captain of the cruiser . He subsequently became Chief of Staff for Fleet Admiral Baron Ijuin Gorō , commander of the IJN 2nd Fleet from 1907 – 1908 . From 1908 to 1910 he was Commandant of the Naval Gunnery School at Yokosuka , Kanagawa . Arima was promoted to rear admiral on December 1 , 1909 . He served as Chief of First Bureau ( Operations ) on the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff from 1910 to 1912 and at the end of 1913 was promoted to vice admiral . From 1914 to 1916 , he was Commandant of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy , continuing to influence its curriculum heavily towards the " kantai kessen " theory which he had helped create . He also sat on the Board of Inquiry for the Siemens scandal , a political scandal involving naval procurement in 1914 . After serving briefly as Director of the Naval Education Command , he became commander - in - chief of the IJN 3rd Fleet from 1917 to 1918 . He was promoted to full admiral on November 25 , 1919 . He then served as Director of Naval Education Command from 1919 to 1920 . Subsequent career . Arima entered the reserve list from April 1 , 1922 . From September 14 , 1931 was named chief priest of the Meiji Shrine . On December 26 , 1932 , Arima was selected as a member of Emperor Shōwa ' s Privy Council . In 1934 , he was chairman of the committee which organized the state funeral for Fleet Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō . His name was floated as a potential foreign minister in the 1938 administration of Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe , but he did not serve . However , he maintained close personal ties to Emperor Hirohito and Empress Kojun , serving as a from 1939 , and resigned from his post as chief priest of Meiji Shrine from 1943 . Arima died peacefully from pneumonia at age 84 in 1944 and was posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun . His grave is at the Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo .