Baron was a Japanese military leader and diplomat. Biography Early life and education Ōtori Keisuke was born in Akamatsu Village, in the Akō domain of Harima Province (modern-day Hyōgo), the son of physician Kobayashi Naosuke. At a young age, he entered the Shizutani school in Bizen, engaging in Chinese studies, and continued his education at the renowned Rangaku school of Ogata Kōan, where he studied Dutch language and medicine. Further learning was obtained in Edo, where Ōtori travelled to attend the school of Tsuboi Tadamasu, known for instructing students engaged in the study and translation of Dutch. While in Edo he also received education from Egawa Tarōzaemon regarding military strategy, and studied English with Nakahama Manjirō, thus coming into possession of an uncommonly thorough, for his era, appreciation of Western culture. As a result, in 1859, the Tokugawa shogunate appointed him as an instructor to its Kaiseijo institute, and it was from there that Ōtori entered the shogunate army. Time in the Tokugawa Army After entering the Tokugawa army, Ōtori displayed promise as a student, quickly becoming a senior instructor of infantry tactics. After a period spent as a student of Jules Brunet in Yokohama, learning specifics of French infantry tactics, he was promoted to (), a rank equivalent to a four-star general in a modern Western army. Ōtori used his status as a respected scholar of Western studies to take the rather unexpected step of making suggestions on governmental reform to the Shōgun. In 1864, he issued a petition expressing his views on the benefits of a bicameral legislature to the government. In his position with the military, Ōtori was able to create of an elite brigade, the Denshūtai, modeled after advice provided by strategists attached to the 1867–68 French military mission to Japan. Consisting of 800 men, the Denshūtai's members were chosen on the basis of capability rather than background; a matter of particular determination for Ōtori, who remained mindful of his own relatively humble birth. Boshin War In the aftermath of military failure at the Battle of Toba–Fushimi in early 1868, Shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu returned to Edo and expressed serious consideration towards pledging allegiance to the new Meiji government. Otori and Oguri Tadamasa did not intend to lay down their arms without battle, and indicated their intention to continue the war but, following the surrender of Edo Castle, Ōtori gathered 500 men of the Shogunate Army at