The statue of Saneyuki Akiyama

The statue of Saneyuki Akiyama (1868 - 1918)
Saneyuki Akiyama was born as the fifth son of Hisataka Akiyama, a samurai who belonged to the domain of Matsuyama, at Kachi-machi, Matsuyama City. Yoshihuru Akiyama is his elder brother.
He went up to Tokyo at the age of fifteen and lodged with his close friend Shiki Masaoka. After that, in 1886 (Meiji 19), he entered the Naval Academy and graduated with the top honors. He went abroad to United States to study "Alfred Mahan Tactics" (modern American naval tactics) after the Sino-Japanese War.
He took an active part in the Russo-Japanese War as tactics staff officer under The Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo. Meeting the Baltic Fleet in the Battle of the Sea of Japan, he freely used the "letter T tactic" that had come down from the Iyo Navy and took the enemy by surprise. He turned the fleet in front of the enemy and defeat it, thus deciding the overall situation of the war. By the way, the composition of the famous message "The raise and ruin of this Empire depends on this battle. Everyone should make ever greater efforts!" and of the raising of the Z-flag at the time of the transmission of this message were the works by Saneyuki. In 1917 (Taisho 6), he rose to the rank of Vice Admiral, but he died of a disease in the following year.
This statue was moved to this place from the precinct of Ishite-ji Temple in September of 1968 (Showa 43).