Marquis Oyama was in part educated in France, and after the Restoration had been accomplished and the existing Mei-ji era of Enlightenment had been inaugurated, he was sent to Paris as Military Attache, and was in Europe throughout the Franco-German War, his sympathies, no doubt from early association, having been keenly aroused in favour of France. Naturally he was greatly disappointed with the result of the campaign, and there can be no doubt that he laid to heart the lessons which the failure of the French arms in this gigantic struggle were well calculated to impress upon his receptive mind. Immediately on his return to Japan he received a command in the army, and he had opportunities at this comparatively early period of turning to account the knowledge that he had acquired of Occidental systems of warfare, though as yet he held no position of paramount responsibility that admitted of his putting his ideas into actual practice. The ball was not yet at his feet: his consummate ability was yet to be manifested. The year 1877 is especially memorable in the annals of Japan as being that in which clan dissensions, despite the genuine endeavours of able statesmen, culminated in a disastrous internecine strife. It is not necessary to enter into a consideration of all the events which led to that deplorable result, for they have been set forth at length in connection with the life story of Marshal Saigo Takamori, elsewhere recorded in these pages, and it is only necessary for the moment to refer to the part which Marshal Oyama took in the suppression of the rebellion. He was despatched to Kiushiu at the outbreak of hostilities and his division was conspicuous among the Imperial forces that landed at Hakata, the chief town of the province of Chiku-zen, in March, some five weeks after the Satsuma men had marched out of Kagoshima 12,000 strong. An ardent believer in the efficacy of military training, and a most enthusiastic supporter of the principles of universal military service, as the sole security of a nation against foreign aggression, Oyama now found himself, by the force of circumstances, compelled to take the field against one to whom he was closely related, and who had been the consistent upholder of an identical policy, if not, indeed, its originator,—as far as Japan was concerned,—and who had himself occupied the post of Minister of War in the first State Council of the Meiji era. General Oyama, as he was then, distinguished himself in connection with many engagements at Minami-no-seki (South Barrier), Takase (High Rapids), Kawajiri (River’s end), and Kumamoto (Bear’s origin), and on other fields of battle, being present at the final scene at Kagoshima, late in the year 1877, when the remnants of Saigo’s troops were annihilated and their leader met a soldier’s death, fighting to the last.