Viscount was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

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Biography

Matsudaira Morio was the son of Matsudaira Katamori

Matsudaira Katamori

was a samurai who lived in the last days of the Edo period and the early to mid Meiji period. He was the 9th daimyo of the Aizu han and the Military Commissioner of Kyoto during the Bakumatsu period. During the Boshin War, Katamori and the Aizu han fought against the Meiji Government armies, but...

, the former daimyō

Daimyo

is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

of Aizu-Wakamatsu domain in what is now Fukushima prefecture

Fukushima Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region on the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Fukushima.-History:Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Fukushima prefecture was known as Mutsu Province....

. He was born at the Matsudaira's Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 residence in 1878.

Matsudaira graduated from the 28th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy

Imperial Japanese Naval Academy

The was a school established to train officers for the Imperial Japanese Navy. It originally located in Nagasaki, moved to Yokohama in 1866, and was relocated to Tsukiji, Tokyo in 1869. It moved to Etajima, Hiroshima in 1888...

 in 1900. He was ranked 86th in a class of 105 cadets. He was promoted to lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 in 1905 and assigned to the battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 Chin'en, followed by the cruiser

Cruiser

A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...

s in 1906 and (where he was chief gunnery officer) in 1907.

Matsudaira was promoted to lieutenant commander

Lieutenant Commander

Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...

 in 1910, which was also the same year that he succeeded to the head of the Aizu Matsudaira household. He inherited his brother's title of viscount

Viscount

A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...

 (shishaku) under the kazoku

Kazoku

The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan that existed between 1869 and 1947.-Origins:Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the ancient court nobility of Kyoto regained some of its lost status...

peerage system.

In 1914, he was appointed chief gunnery officer on the battleship , and served from 1915-1916 as executive officer

Executive officer

An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...

 on the cruiser .

Matsudaira was promoted to commander

Commander

Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...

 in 1916, and was assigned as aide-de-camp

Aide-de-camp

An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...

 to Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu

Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu

was a scion of the Japanese imperial family and was a career naval officer who served as chief of staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1932 to 1941.-Early life:...

 from December 1916-November 1918. On 10 November 1918, he was re-assigned as executive officer on the battleship . Promoted to captain

Captain (naval)

Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....

 in 1920, he received his first command on 10 November 1922: the battlecruiser

Battlecruiser

Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...

 . He was also captain of the in 1923.

From 1923 onwards, he served in a number of staff positions. On 1 December 1925, he was promoted to rear admiral

Rear Admiral

Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...

 and entered the reserves two weeks later.

Matsudaira Morio's son-in-law is a grandson of Tokugawa Yoshinobu

Tokugawa Yoshinobu

was the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful...

,named Tokugawa Hikaru.He was a naval officer and killed in World War Ⅱ. Morio's niece, Setsuko

Princess Chichibu

was the wife of Prince Chichibu of Japan.Princess Chichibu was born as Matsudaira Setsuko in Walton on Thames, England. She was the daughter of Matsudaira Tsuneo , Japanese ambassador to the United States and later to Great Britain , and still later, Imperial Household Minister and his wife, the...

, married Prince Chichibu

Prince Chichibu

, also known as Prince Yasuhito, was the second son of Emperor Taishō and a younger brother of the Emperor Shōwa. As a member of the Imperial House of Japan, he was the patron of several sporting, medical, and international exchange organizations...

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Books

• Miyazaki Tomihachi 宮崎十三八, "Matsudaira Katamori no shutsuji to sono ichizoku" 松平容保の出自とその一族, in Matsudaira Katamori no Subete 松平容保のすべて, ed. Tsunabuchi Kenjō 綱淵謙錠 (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha, 1984), p. 74.