Akiyoshi Yamada studied under Shoin Yoshida and later contributed to the arrangements of the modern laws as the Minister of Justice.  The 170th anniversary of his birth falls on this year.  For this special occasion, we’d like to look back on his life and hold his specially created exhibition on the basis of his life.
  Akiyoshi Yamada entered the Shokasonjuku academy hosted by Shoin Yoshida at the age of 14.  He associated with such persons as Shinsaku Takasugi and Genzui Kusaka, and began to make his way as a noble-minded patriot.  He learned the Western-style military science from Masujiro Omura and found his way out of the disturbances in the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji Restoration, leading some troops of the Choshu domain.  In the first year of the Meiji period, he made efforts to found the modern army of Japan and went on an inspection tour of countries in Europe and America as a member of the Iwakura Mission.  After that, he fully realized that it was an urgent necessity to arrange the modern laws and later came to buckle down to the enterprise to arrange the modern laws.  In addition, he was earnestly engaged in the spread of education and made efforts to found Nihon Law School (present, Nihon University) in 1889, and Kokugakuin (present, Kokugakuin University) in 1896.
  In this exhibition, through Akiyoshi Yamada who was actively engaged in many fields such as naval and military affairs, politics and education, we’d like to introduce the results achieved by persons in connection with Hagi in the formation of modern Japan in the Meiji period.