Tōgō Heihachirō (東郷 平八郎, 27 January 1848 – 30 May 1934), served as a gensui or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and became one of Japan's greatest naval heroes.

Tōgō was born as Tōgō Nakagorō (仲五郎) on 27 January 1848 in the Kajiya-chō (加治屋町) district of the city of Kagoshima in Satsuma domain (modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture), the third of four sons of Togo Kichizaemon,[1] a samurai serving the Shimazu daimyō as controller of the revenue, master of the wardrobe, and district governor, and Hori Masuko (1812–1901), a noblewoman from the same clan as her husband.

[2] Kajiya-chō was one of Kagoshima's samurai housing-districts, in which many other influential figures of the Meiji period were born, such as Saigō Takamori and Ōkubo Toshimichi.

After the civil war ended in the autumn 1869, Tōgō, on the instructions of the Satsuma clan, first travelled to the treaty port of Yokohama to study English.

He resided in Yokohama with Daisuke Shibata, a government official reputedly proficient in English and received additional pronunciation coaching from Charles Wagman, Japan correspondent of The Illustrated London News.

Tōgō made rapid progress in his studies and in 1870 secured a place at the newly established Imperial Japanese Navy Training School at Tsukiji, Tokyo.

Between extensive practical sea training and an extended voyage to Australia, Tōgō lived and studied in Britain for a period of seven years.

Arriving at the port of Southampton in April 1871 after a journey of 80 days, Tōgō first traveled to London, at that time the most populous city in the world.

According to contemporary accounts of the cadet's first days in England, many things were strange to Japanese eyes at that time; the domed buildings made out of stone, the "number and massiveness of the buildings", "the furnishings of a commonplace European room", and "the displays in the butchers' shop windows: it took them several days to become accustomed to such an abundance of meat.

Tōgō was initially sent for some weeks to a boarding house in the major naval port of Plymouth, to gain some understanding of the British Royal Navy.

Subsequently, he studied history, mathematics and engineering at a naval preparatory school in Portsmouth under the direction of a tutor and local clergyman in order to prepare for admission to the training establishment Britannia at Dartmouth, Devon.

During 1875, Tōgō circumnavigated the world as an ordinary seaman on the British training ship Hampshire, leaving in February and staying seventy days at sea without a port call until reaching Melbourne.

In 1875 Tōgō suffered a bout of illness which severely threatened his eyesight: "the patient asked his medical advisers to 'try everything', and some of their experiments were extremely painful."

Upon recovery Tōgō travelled to Portsmouth to continue his training before being assigned the role of inspector for the construction of Fusō, one of three new warships ordered by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Residing in proximity to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, Tōgō made use of the opportunity to apply his training, observing the construction of the ship at the Samuda Brothers shipyard on the Isle of Dogs.

Although first promoted to the rank of captain in 1886, Tōgō suffered from a bout of acute rheumatism during the late 1880s that confined him to bed rest for nearly three years.

In 1894, at the beginning of the First Sino-Japanese War, Tōgō, as a captain of Naniwa, sank the transport ship, Kowshing, which was chartered by the Chinese Beiyang Fleet to convey troops, during the Battle of Pungdo.

The Battle of Tsushima was considered a daring naval victory pitting a small but rapidly militarising emerging Asian nation against a major European adversary.

While the Japanese fleet at Tsushima lost only three torpedo boats under Tōgō's command, of the 36 Russian warships that went into action, 22 were sunk (including seven battleships), six were captured, six were interned in neutral ports and only three escaped to the safety of Vladivostok.

Post-war investigations were held into Russian naval leaders during those battles in which Tōgō had prevailed, seeking the reasons behind their utter defeat.

The Russian commander of the destroyed Baltic fleet, Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky (who was badly wounded in the battle) attempted to take full responsibility for the disaster, and the authorities (and rulers of Russia) acquitted him at his trial.

Tōgō publicly expressed a dislike and lack of interest for involvement in politics; however, he did make strong statements against the London Naval Treaty.

[14] Incorporates information from the corresponding Japanese Wikipedia article [15] Ranks Titles The village of Togo, Saskatchewan, Canada was named in his honor.

[18] Until 1992, Pyynikin Brewery in Tampere, Finland produced the Amiraali beer brand, which is popular with the local population and is still available in Japan with a label with the image of Tōgō Heihachirō.

His elder son Ryōichi, who became a naval lieutenant, was killed in action during the Second World War aboard the heavy cruiser Maya.

[23][24] Tōgō was portrayed by Toshiro Mifune in the 1969 Japanese film The Battle of the Japan Sea (日本海大海戦), directed by Seiji Maruyama.